This balance sheet appears to be for an entire year’s earnings. In it, there are 9 jobs the model was paid for.

It is the nature of freelancing that you cannot expect to make your hourly rate 8 hours a day, 52 weeks a year. That rate needs to be adjusted to pay you for all the days you are not billable as well.

I don’t know enough about the modeling industry here to know how much unpaid work is required to get those nine paid days a year. a.k.a. I don’t know whether it would be reasonable to hold a second job while doing it, or whether you have to support yourself off those nine jobs alone. I get the impression it is somewhere in the middle.

Assuming that a freelancer who is paid $125 for a day’s work makes the equivalent of a $32,500 salary is shortsighted and incorrect.

In this case, if all the jobs paid like vogue, the woman would be making $2250 a year. Not bad for a hobby, but not even approaching a career, or even a summer job.

In fact, this situation is comparable to other areas in which prestige comes with associated costs:
Attending a prestigious private liberal arts college – the cost is a high tuition
Experience at a highly regarded human rights NGO – the cost might be an unpaid internship
Pursuing a career in academia – the cost might be years of struggling to get by financially as a grad student

It is unfortunate and I certainly don’t condone this. But some people are willing (and able?) to incur the costs if that prestigious experience will translate, or has the potential to translate, into greater long-term rewards.

Let’s also put the model’s daily rates into perspective.
$125 per hour would translate to the equivalent of $32,500 per year (8 hour day; $15.62 per hour)
$250 per hour would translate to the equivalent of $65,000 per year (8 hour day; $31.25 per hour)

I think the two factors that make this example interesting are 1) just how dramatic the disparity is — J. Crew is paying more than **100 times** as much as French Vogue! (though I’m guessing there were more hours involved), and 2) it’s counter to many people’s assumptions: Despite knowing full well how things work on the editorial side, I still would’ve assumed Vogue et al paid more than they do, relative to other clients.

In a freelance situation where the client is a 120+ day payer… the client sort of has you by the short-and-curlies. You annoy your contact or sue… well, you don’t work for them again. I have several friends who are freelance photographers and graphic designers — and, their slowest payers are Conde Nast etc. Same folks listed above. The difference is that they don’t have this advocate (however half-hearted hey are at their job on this front).

The relationship between the agency and the model is closer to this freelance situation, EXCEPT the agency “needs” the model because they are their product… that they spend time and resources on developing.

Is the Next agency pushing it? Absolutely. Is it their fault that the model isn’t being paid? Partially. Is this how ALL businesses operate… leveraging clients and vendors? ABSOLUTELY.

I dunno… I personally just don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for models when they complain about being financially exploited. It’s also the MODEL’s responsibility to be savvy and act like a business person. That is part-and-parcel their job, not just looking pretty. My buddy who’s a photographer… it’s not his job just to be a good photographer. It is also his job to be a business man.

If you can’t hack it, get out.

She certainly is an example of a model who is able to cross over and do both types of work, but a lot can’t.

In this case, you get paid crap for an editorial piece for Vogue… but your “Book” is far more attractive to J. Crew and H&M and Macy’s.