Sophia Bush has revealed the size of her One Tree Hill pay gap.

The actress received significantly less than her co-stars while appearing on the teen drama.

Sophia, 43, explained that because the show was her first full-time acting job, she had no salary leverage.

"There used to be a thing in my industry where you'd earn a quote," she shared at the Tech Futures summit in New York.

"So, like, through the years, every time you did a job, they'd have to match your last quote. So your quote would slowly go up through your career. Now we live in a world where they're like, 'We're Netflix or Disney or whoever. Go f**k yourself. Take what we owe you, or we'll hire someone else'."

When she scored the role of Brooke Davis on One Tree Hill, Sophia said, she was the only cast member with no professional experience.

"Everybody was coming from something," she recalled. "I had been the philanthropy chair of my sorority at USC... so the difference in pay scale was wild."

The actress and activist went into further detail to reveal the exact amount they took home each week.

"Once I paid 10 per cent to my managers, 10 per cent to my agents, 5 per cent to my lawyers, a publicist fee, my taxes, and the $3,000-a-month that my two-bedroom apartment in Wilmington cost me," Sophia said, "I was taking home about $3,000 per episode."

Because streaming services didn't exist when One Tree Hill first aired in 2003, Sophia's contract also failed to include provisions for streaming residuals - meaning she receives nothing from online TV services.

"Our show is syndicated on streaming," she explained, "which means the studio that owns the show makes all the residuals and we don't."