The Fashion Workers Act is New York's law for model management companies and the clients who book models, found in Article 36 of the state Labor Law and in force since June 19, 2025. It makes agencies doing business in New York register with the Department of Labor, caps commission at 20%, bans fees for signing and contracts that run past three years or renew without your written consent, requires a deal memo with your pay before each job, and requires separate written consent before anyone creates or uses a digital replica of you.
Who the Act covers
Section 1031 of the Labor Law, published on the Senate's Open Legislation site, defines the three parties. A model is anyone who performs modeling services as part of their trade, occupation or profession, whether paid as an employee or as an independent contractor. Modeling services cover photo sessions and runway, live, filmed or taped work, social media included, and expressly take in castings, fittings, showroom work, parts and fit modeling, and the use of a digital replica.
A model management company is a person or business that manages models' participation in entertainments, exhibitions or performances, procures or tries to procure work for models for a fee, or sells models vocational guidance or counseling. Two exclusions matter. Businesses licensed as employment agencies under Article 11 of the General Business Law are outside the definition, and a brand directly engaging a model who has no agency is not model managing. Two or more companies with the same majority owner form a model management group. A client is anyone who contracts for and manages modeling services, directly or through an intermediary.
The Department of Labor's Fashion Workers Act FAQs stretch these definitions toward creator work. An influencer marketing agency that connects a brand with a model or influencer for social media promotion counts as a model management company in the Department's example, and an influencer whose posts involve posing or representing a product for advertising should consider whether they fall within the definition of a model.
Rights checklist: each protection, where it sits, what to ask
The duties in section 1034, the prohibitions in section 1035 and the power of attorney rules in section 1036 are where most of your rights against an agency sit. The question column is worded so you can send it to your booker as written.
| Protection | Section | What to ask your agency |
|---|---|---|
| A fiduciary duty to act in good faith and in your best interests, covering negotiations, contracts and money | 1034(1) | Who negotiates my bookings, and how will you show me what you agreed? |
| A written policy on abuse and harassment, plus due diligence so jobs carry no unreasonable risk of danger | 1034(2) | Can you send me your harassment policy and tell me how you vet new clients? |
| A plain-language deal memo with your pay before the job, and the final client agreement within seven calendar days after it, in the language you request | 1034(5), 1031(7) | Will every booking come with a deal memo showing scope, rate, payment term and usage before I start? |
| Prior written approval, with an itemized calculation, for any cost the agency pays up front and later deducts, and quarterly copies of the records behind each charge | 1034(6) | Which costs might you advance for me, and when will I get the supporting documents? |
| Disclosure of any financial relationship between the agency and a client | 1034(7) | Do you or your owners have any business tie to this client beyond this booking? |
| Written notice of royalties collected for you after representation ends | 1034(8) | How will you notify me about royalties if I leave? |
| No fee or deposit for signing or as a condition of any agreement | 1035(1) | Is anything payable by me before I earn from a booking? |
| Written disclosure of the rate for any accommodation you will pay for, before your stay | 1035(2) | What is the nightly or monthly rate, and is it in writing? |
| No deductions beyond the agreed commission and approved advances, and no travel or visa costs advanced without informed written consent | 1035(3), 1035(4) | Can you list every deduction that could appear on my statement? |
| A contract term of three years at most, with no renewal unless you give affirmative written consent | 1035(5), 1035(6) | When does this agreement end, and what exactly would I sign to renew it? |
| Commission of no more than 20% of your payment | 1035(7) | What percentage do you take on each kind of booking, and from which amount? |
| Clear, separate written consent before a digital replica of you is created, altered or used, covering scope, purpose, rate of pay and duration | 1034(11), 1035(10) | Will you send replica requests to me separately, and never sign them on my behalf? |
| Any power of attorney is optional, ends whenever you choose, covers modeling services only and never your digital replica | 1036 | Is the power of attorney a separate optional document, and how do I revoke it? |
Clients carry their own duties under section 1037: an hourly rate at least 50% higher than contracted for any work beyond eight hours in a 24-hour period, a 30-minute meal break on those long days, no work posing an unreasonable risk of danger, a written harassment policy, liability insurance, the right to bring your agent, manager, chaperone or other representative, and their own written consent for any digital replica. Jobs involving nudity must also follow the consent rules in Civil Rights Law section 52-c, which both agencies and clients are bound to respect. For reading the clauses themselves, our modeling agency contract checklist works line by line, and if a brand wants to license an AI version of you, the digital twin license checklist covers the commercial terms.
Payment timing: what the Act says and what it leaves to the deal memo
The Act does not set one statutory payday for every booking. Instead it makes the payment term part of the deal memo you agree to before work starts, and the Department's FAQs treat a missed term as a violation: if the term says 30 days and you are still unpaid well after that, you can file a complaint or go to court. That makes the deal memo the document to read most carefully. Check that it names a specific term, who pays you and from which account, and which expenses will come off before the money reaches you.
Bookings you take directly, without an agency, fall under New York's freelance payment laws instead; the city's Freelance Isn't Free Act, for one, sets a 30-day default when a contract names no date. Our NYC modeling guide summarizes them alongside the registry check. The same guide lists the open calls and casting habits that come before any of this paperwork.
Registration: what agencies must do
The Department's Fashion Workers Act overview splits the law into duties that applied from June 19, 2025 and registration from December 21, 2025, although the Senate's copy of section 1032 carries a note putting registration's effective date at June 19, 2026; either way the requirement is now live. Registered companies must post the certificate in their office and on their website and print the registration number in model-recruiting ads, social media profiles included, and in contracts. The public registry is on the Department's registration page.
- The FAQs set the registration fee at $500 for companies with five or fewer employees working in or representing models in New York, and $700 above that, when the larger companies must also post a $50,000 surety bond.
- Registration lasts two years and must be renewed at least 90 days before it expires, according to the same FAQs.
- Operating unregistered can bring a civil penalty of $3,000 for a first violation and $5,000 after that, the FAQs add.
- An agency based outside New York with no office or client solicitation in the state can ask for an exemption under section 1032 if it is licensed or registered in a state with rules at least as strict.
Penalties and enforcement
You can sue an agency or group that breaks its duties or prohibitions. The Department's answers on civil penalties say a court can award your actual damages plus attorney's fees and costs, add liquidated damages of up to 100% of the actual damages unless the company proves it did not know it was breaking the law, and raise that to up to 300% for willful violations. The Attorney General can also go to court against a company or client that repeatedly engages in illegal or fraudulent practices, without any model having complained. When you complain to the Department instead, the company or client has 20 days to respond, and if it stays silent the Department may decide the violation happened and assess civil penalties.
Complaint-prep checklist
- Collect the paperwork: your representation agreement, any power of attorney, every deal memo, the final client agreements and each statement showing deductions.
- Screenshot the agency's registry entry, or its absence, with the date, plus any recruiting post that lacks a registration number.
- Write a dated timeline: when you signed, each booking, when payment was due under the deal memo and when it arrived or did not.
- Mark each problem against the rights table above, using the section number, so the complaint reads as specific breaches rather than a general grievance.
- Export messages with your booker and the client before you leave the agency or lose access to a shared app.
- Choose the route: email FashionWorkers@labor.ny.gov or use the Department's online complaint form, speak to a lawyer about a court claim, or, for harassment or discrimination, file with the state Division of Human Rights; the FAQs also list a statewide sexual harassment hotline offering free legal counsel on 1-800-HARASS-3.
- Keep working copies, not originals, in anything you send, and note the date you filed so you can follow up once the response period has run.
What the Act does not change
- It does not lower any right you have under a collective bargaining agreement; section 1039 preserves union terms.
- It does not automatically rewrite older contracts. The FAQs say terms in pre-2025 agreements may violate the Act and point you to legal counsel, while powers of attorney that break section 1036 are void.
- It is a New York law, although the FAQs say some requirements may be enforced wherever the engagement takes place. For fee rules in other places, see our comparison of which agency fees are legal.
- It treats fittings as work. If that is your lane, our guide on how to become a fit model explains how fit sessions are booked and logged.
Limitations of this guide
This is general information, not legal advice. It summarizes the Labor Law sections and Department of Labor pages as read on October 1, 2026, and the two official sources disagree on when registration took effect. Section 1038 on violations and procedures could not be retrieved during our checks, so the enforcement summary relies on the Department's FAQs. Whether a particular agency, influencer platform or client is covered depends on what it does, and the questions in the table are prompts, not a substitute for advice. For a dispute, contact the Department of Labor or an employment lawyer admitted in New York.