NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5631E
SPONSOR: Reyes TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the labor law, in relation to enacting the New York
state fashion workers act
PURPOSE:
To amend the labor law, in relation to enacting the New York state fash-
ion workers act
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 entitles the bill the New York State Fashion Workers Act and
defines client, model, modeling management company, and modeling
services. Requires registration for model management companies and lays
out the provisions of the registration process. Lays out the duties of
model management companies including fiduciary and registration duties
and details the prohibitions of model management companies with regard
to fee collection, accommodation charges, payment deductions, contract
renewal, commission feeds, retaliatory action, discrimination and
harassment, digital replicas and visa actions. Provides for the duties
of clients and hiring parties regarding fees, compensation, and breaks.
Details prohibitions on clients and hiring parties. Provides for the
violations, penalties. and procedures for any violations of the act.
Section 2 is the effective date, 180 days after the act shall have
become law.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION
E-print amendments narrow the included private right of action to only
violations for SS 1034-1035 of the act and alter other enforcement
provisions; replace an instance of the term "compensation" with "remun-
eration;" modify registration requirements with the Department of Labor;
remove prohibition that the model management company cannot charge more
than daily fair market rate for accommodations for the model; and make
technical changes to effectuate the intent of the bill.
JUSTIFICATION:
New York is the center of the American fashion industry, boasting world-
class creative talent and best-in-class production companies and fashion
and design schools. New York's fashion industry employs 180,000 people,
accounting for 6% of the city's workforce and generating $10.9 billion
in total wages. New York Fashion Week, a semi-annual series of events
when fashion collections are shown to buyers, the press and the general
public, has long been one of the city's economic drivers, generating
close to $600 million in income each year.
And yet, the creative workforce behind the industry's success - namely,
models, influencers, and performing artists - are not afforded basic
labor protections in New York.
This is due to the multi-level structure of hiring of these profes-
sionals as independent contractors through management companies. Unlike
talent agencies, modeling agencies consider themselves to be management
companies under New York State General Business Law § 171(8), known as
the "incidental booking exception," thereby allowing them to escape
licensing and regulation. This leaves models unprotected outside the
terms of their individual contracts, which tend to be exploitative and
one-sided in favor of the management company, and creates a lack of
financial transparency and accountability when it comes to issues of
both payment and sexual abuse. For example, models and creatives often
wait months, even years to get paid for jobs through management compa-
nies, which deduct various unexplained fees from their earnings. Model
management companies house young models in overpriced model apartments,
and hold them to exclusive, multi-year contracts without any obligation
to book them work or pay them in a timely manner, which ensnares them in
cycles of debt and makes them highly vulnerable to other forms of abuse,
including trafficking.
The Fashion Workers Act would address these issues by closing the legal
loophole by which management companies escape accountability and create
basic protections for fashion's creative workforce. As New York's fash-
ion industry begins to recover from pandemic-related downfall, New York
State must ensure the industry's workers - many of whom are young, immi-
grant women and girls - are fairly compensated for their work and
protected from abuse.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2022: A9762-A - 2022: Referred to Labor
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it
shall have become law.
