Why Modeling Is, Technically Speaking, A ‘Bad Job’
by ASHLEY MEARS
The day I signed with a modeling agency in New York, a manager sat me down to explain the terms of our working relationship. I was excited to be there, even a bit giddy to be signing a modeling contract, but not so much as to miss the crucial terms: in exchange for exclusive representation and a standard 20% commission from my earnings, the agency would promote and manage my modeling career. As managers to the self-employed, agencies arrange opportunities for models to work in exchange for a cut of their success, but they are not liable for models’ failures. A manager explained as much as he handed me the contract, stating, “Here’s where we don’t promise you the moon and the stars, but we’ll do our best to get you there.”
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In addition to being a “bad job,” I realized that it’s also an expensive one. Modeling requires extensive start-up and maintenance costs, which agencies incur and deduct from models’ future earnings. These add up quickly. My agencies charged a lot and often for a range of things one would never imagine, from daily bike messenger services to transport books from one client to the next, to the costs of composite cards, and even a charge to include my card in the “Show Package” mailed to Fashion Week casting directors.These expenses were billed against my prospective earnings and automatically deducted from my account.
Foreign models can be deep in debt before they ever start castings in a major city, considering the costs of visas and plane tickets. This means models will not see their first paycheck until they book greater than the sum of their debts.
After signing my contract in January I began working in magazines, catalogues, and shows by the end of the month. I did not get my first check, for $181.06, until mid-April (prior to this I received voided checks clipped onto a page-long list of expenses, many of which didn’t make obvious sense).
A model who leaves an agency with a debt is legally bound by contract to repay it, though agencies don’t often bother to pursue these debts, since failed models are an unlikely source from whom to recoup losses. Instead, agencies write off negative accounts as a business loss.
However, models’ negative accounts will by contact transfer to their next agency should they attempt to model elsewhere, which is unlikely as agencies are hesitant to represent models with existing negative balances from unsuccessful stints at prior agencies.
In other words, once in debt, everywhere in debt. What in some ways resembles indentured servitude is a routine part of this independent contractor agreement.
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) but never did I know that there were so many costs! What happens when a model goes catwalking? What does she make and what does the agency hold back on it, by the way?
