Models' fees

Chris Green you mentioned junior doctors, but didn't say what they earned.

Starting salary, first year £16 per hour.

Oh, and models won't be working in Europe, or moving there, because of Brexit...

Commercial modelling rates on the whole in my experience have improved slightly, but in the model-photography world it’s very much supply and demand. Of course you can put your rate at whatever you choose, but whether people will pay it or not is another question

Edited by Pippa.

I'm shocked that two sandwiches and two drinks were £22.

Is that real? And people pay that?

Chris Green said

... The best measure of general price inflation, CPIH, has increased by 20% over the last 3 years.  That means that a model charging £40 an hour 3 years ago needs to charge £50 an hour now just to buy the same basket of goods.  And in most jobs more experience would be rewarded with a promotional increase as well, so that same model should probably be charging £55 or £60 an hour now.

However, I keep seeing casting calls from photographers offering models around £25 an hour.  I've even seen one offering £15 an hour.  I've also seen comments from other photographers saying things like they won't pay more than £30 an hour (for fashion).  Many of us (photographers) have enjoyed massive pay rises over the last couple of years (for example, junior doctors are hoping to get 35%), State pensions are index-linked, savings rates are higher now than for many years, and the FTSE 100 is close to an all-time high.  With that background, I'm struggling with the concept of £15 to £30 an hour for a professional service.

Junior doctors (who may BTW be treating your heart attack, or fixing your hernia from carrying all that kit around, are more in the position of the models, having had pay progressively reduced for the last 14 years. It does tend to go in spasms, there was need for one the previous time a strong of governments changed. 

And as noted, they are hoping for an increase to prior parity over a period.  I think they put up with it for far too long, but they are a keen lot and think what they do should continue to happen.

With that note, I concur.

The sandwich of the OP is worth about the same as it ever was (The Economist maintains a Big Mac index over most of the world for comparisons of this sort) but the pounds are worth, by this example, about half as much.

Duration used as a proxy for experience and ability, therefore increments, is only accurate to a point. Many of us have not had 30 years experience, we have had 10 years, each repeated 3 times, or 3 BY 10 or whatever, and there are people and activities which grasp and are grasped in a short time, and then remain of constant value - the increments have more to do with the falling value of currency and expansion of capital. 

Russ Freeman yep true story

“Many of us (photographers) have enjoyed massive pay rises over the last couple of years (for example, junior doctors are hoping to get 35%), State pensions are index-linked”

Try working in adult social care. Massive pay rises? You jest, of course. And right now, the State pension is helping me keep the heating and lights on. 
As a hobbyist photographer, with the Cost of Living right now I can either negotiate with models or just not shoot at all. It isn’t just models who may be struggling. 

As a photographer that messes around with the hobby of photography, the point for me is whether the results (images)  I get are worth the fee I am quoted.

This may be high or not, but I will go away happy and think that money well spent if I go home with a few satisfactory images and the memory of a day well spent

You make some good points MidgePhoto .

Just responding to your last point, I was assuming that the average model is probably a female in her mid-20s who's been modelling for say 3 years.  So an extra year increases her experience by 33%.  As you point out, promotional increases in other industries are usually high when you're in your 20s and then the rate reduces until we all naturally reach a ceiling to our value and ability from middle age onwards. 

Jon Taylor That's a good point and I hope you will forgive my clumsy wording.  You're quite right to pick me up on it and point out that averages mask the extremes at both ends of the scale.

Russ Freeman in Birmingham sometimes I pay nearly £7 a pint!

Russ Freeman said

I'm shocked that two sandwiches and two drinks were £22.

Is that real? And people pay that?

Costa's London prices are steep and IIRC can vary quite widely -- if you buy from a coffee shop on a station concourse or railway arches or the side of a tube station you're going to pay a bit more. Away from London they are also expensive in hospitals, airports, railway stations and service stations.

A medium cappuccino in an ordinary London branch of Costa is going to cost you north of £4. (And it won't even be coffee ;-)

So £11 for a coffee and a spendy sandwich? I can see it.

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

The well know saying springs to mind:

"Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king"

Your analysis only looks at top line income. Some people will have experienced energy bills increasing by £2,000 a year, and mortgage interest payments increasing by £4,000 per annum, plus food price inflation of more than 20%. Then include the increase in the price of clothing, foreign holidays, going out, etc.

A 7% payrise on £50,000 income is £3,500 and remember that people are taxed more now than at any time in the past 70 years.

The Costa closest to me closed last year. I guess they must have been charging more than [most] customers were prepared to pay:

Costa Coffee closes in Ludlow town centre | Ludlow Advertiser

JPea said

As a photographer that messes around with the hobby of photography, the point for me is whether the results (images)  I get are worth the fee I am quoted.

This may be high or not, but I will go away happy and think that money well spent if I go home with a few satisfactory images and the memory of a day well spent

Aha - I was waiting for someone to point out that price and worth are not the same thing.  :-)