“Fashioning a Response” to COVID-19
Models frequently confront issues in the workplace, from wage theft and sexual harassment to unhealthy working conditions and a lack of protections allowing them to seek recourse for unfair treatment. As the coronavirus crisis has grown in recent weeks, problems faced by models have been exacerbated.
A report published April 22 is based on a survey of 212 working models canvassed by the Model Alliance, a labor rights nonprofit, and includes analysis by the Worker Institute detailing how the coronavirus has affected the modeling community.
“The Model Alliance COVID-19 Survey provides a window into the devastating toll of this crisis on workers who are misclassified as independent contractors, and stripped of fundamental rights,” said Sanjay Pinto, a report co-author and fellow at the Worker Institute. “We need to use this moment to ensure universal access to key labor and social protections now and in the future.”
Results of the survey, Fashioning a Response: Results from the Model Alliance COVID-19 Survey and a Call to Action, show that about half of the models surveyed said they are owed money by their clients or agencies – with more than a third of models being owed money by both. As a result, one in five respondents said they do not have enough money, and over half said they could not cover essential needs if they are unable to work during the next three months.
Less than one-third of respondents said they had received guidance, assistance or resources from their agencies in response to the pandemic.
According to Phoebe Strom, a report co-author and a Cornell ILR Ph.D. candidate, “What the pandemic has exposed is the degree to which standard agency practices, particularly those related to payment and agency fees, leave models vulnerable to exploitation and economic precarity. We hope that our findings provide a blueprint for agencies seeking to do the right thing to create a more humane, equitable modeling industry.”
The pandemic has also worsened the industry’s racial disparities, according to the survey.
Among white models — the majority of survey participants — 86 percent said they could afford basic necessities, while respondents of color — black respondents, in particular—were more likely to say that they would not cover basic needs both at the time of the survey and following three additional months without income.
"The racial disparities highlighted in these survey results are a call to action," said KC Wagner, co-chair of the Equity at Work Initiative at the Worker Institute. "We need to center the unique challenges confronting communities of color as we respond to this crisis and try to come out stronger on the other side."
Recommendations include asking that modeling agencies suspend agency fees for the duration of the crisis, ensure models are paid what they are owed for outstanding invoices, provide timely and accurate information and resources on safety and health protections, and provide access benefits to models they represent.
To learn more about survey results and the Model Alliance’s recommendations to government officials, agencies and advocates, read the report and "The State of Fashion Models in a Pandemic," a story on the report in “The New York Times.”