Better pay for models

[Gazira]

[quote=alisonglithero;17846]

Originally Posted by alisonglithero

Local Council I work for just doing a complete re grade and have hooked life models in with admin staff. Want us to sign new contracts accepting 45% pay cut and then fill out appeal forms. Their are several life models in the pool and they only want to pay us £6.56

The boards still out on this....the appeals process as not even begun yet.....may it never begin... Original rate of £11.50 ish protected for time being...

Thank you for all encouraging support will keep you posted......

£6.56 is a mockery.

I suspect an awful lot of councils will be making short sighted cost cutting decisions like this (ie, cutting wages of frontline staff, not concillors' perks) but we're in danger of getting political here...

You need to go to the council and get on the attack - ask them what sort of people do they think will turn up for that price? Lay it on thick that paying a professional rate for a professional model is as much about protecting the artists and that only dirty old men will do the job for that rate.

Disclaimer, no disrespect to any dirty old men here. That's just the strategy I'd use.

[CliffordAlls]

I work for a number of student groups who organise their own life modelling sessions outside the curriculum. These will generally be students whose colleges do not think that life drawing is a neceesary part of their training as artists. I have never understood this view but it is not uncommon, at least in London.

They organise these under the aegis of the National Union of Students, who pay on presentation of an invoice. It seems to work well.

With colleges cutting back more and more it may be that others will start shedding life drawing from courses altogether. It's hard to see how colleges can recruit and retain decent models for their students if the rate proposed here is going to become the norm. Perhaps the way forward will be for more students to organise their own sessions. It is hard to see how they can gather a credible portfolio without some life drawing content.

[andymuse]

Hmmm. Strike I say :) There are far too many life models willing to work for free for experience or prints for portfolios etc. Now, with a bit of solidarity life models could ensure a descent rate, RAM say £12.50 per hour is the average and the rate we should all be aiming for. I worked at a college a few weeks back for £15 per hour - I set the rate and they paid it.

All sessional work needs to be paid at double the full time rate as it is the nature of sessional work to be sporadic - life models are not a charity...

[Gazira]

Originally Posted by andymuse

Hmmm. Strike I say :)

I can see the tabloid headlines already;

Nude Models Down Tools!

[Esoteric]

Originally Posted by andymuse

Now, with a bit of solidarity life models could ensure a descent rate

Wait! Shouldn't we be striking for better pay? ;)

[pposeur]

Originally Posted by andymuse

ensure a descent rate, ...

A descent rate? Doesn't that describe how quickly you go down?

[bernard w]

Originally Posted by pposeur

A descent rate? Doesn't that describe how quickly you go down?

well spoted

[swallowtail]

My local authority has cut our pay to £7:20 an hour.A cut of £1:20! Not great pay to start with I must admit.
It is a real insult.
They have also cut the hours so a lot of the tutors have walked with their feet and doing private classes. These certainly pay more per hour.
One tutor has asked if models decided to walk would I organise a protest. I most certainly would.

T x

[Gazira]

I think private classes are definitely the way to go, which is a shame as I believe our adult ed in this country is something to be proud of. Unfortunately, it's bogged down with too much red tape and self important quangoes. And if they're going to start paying less than Sainsbury's for models, they just aren't going to get people coming back.

I'm sure there are a lot of people who will do it once at that wage, "for the experience", but it takes a while to learn the ropes just like any other skilled job, and people won't stick at it long enough to get good at it for minimum wages. Good on the tutors for walking out.

[pposeur]

One of the colleges for which I work tried the same trick last year. Because I was deemed to have "grandfather rights" to my original pay rate, I did not suffer the decrease. However, with normal staff turnover and lack of new applicants at the lower rate, I now find myself as just about the last model remaining.

[Gazira]

I think Cumbria is pretty much all private now, so the rates aren't too bad. The university in Carlisle only pays £9.20, but I'm quite interested in working there anyway as they have an animation course and a dedicated life drawing room now, so they seem very commited to increasing the status and role of life drawing there. There are a few ad ed jobs going, but mostly people are striking out on their own now. It makes finding out what's going on difficult as there's no central information exchange, however.

[Bea]

Its up to us professional models to NOT model for colleges doing this.I know with you (newbies) the desire to model is immense and so some will model for free or a loss,this just makes the situation worse for those of us who have been modelling a lifetime and are subject to cuts.I had a situation some years ago at a widnes college i had been modelling for and an"agency"took over staff employment.In other words they quite simply wanted part of our wages!Similar to employment agencies in industry,I when a manager in industry had laboratory technicians earning less than the agency was getting weekly....incidentally the agency was owned and run by the wife of the financial director of the company.Errrr Yeah!!! I refused to model for the college after that.We as a body really have to make a stand.Those of us who are RAM registered can and do inform them and name and shame.

[Gazira]

Worth bearing in mind that adult ed tutors get £22 an hour, or at least, that's what I get paid for teaching. On top of that, I can claim for materials and stuff and the students are usually paying about £150 for a term's lessons. There's not a lot of that going to the models!

[Big Frog]

I believe the pay for life models in the USA is even less than in the UK. Can any of our American members comment on their situation?