Just so we are clear, the guys do NOT get paid. The company receives a stipend, it is usually very small. What they do with that (give to the employees or ??) is not of our interest. But we (the producers) do not block them from making side money, shirts, appearances, toys, blah blah blah. The budgets on these things are really tight, there is no real money to pay the guys appearing on tv or to rent on camera machinery. I bet the car smashed in loggers cost $500 at the junk yard, and was sold to a junker for $300 and the production company sweated the cost.