At a glance
- The Fashion Workers Act (Act), signed on December 21, 2024, introduces labor protections for models and creatives in New York, effective June 2025.
- Management companies must register with the state, provide detailed contracts, ensure financial transparency, and implement anti-harassment measures.
- The use of a model’s likeness in AI-generated content is prohibited without the model's consent.
- Workers can report violations through formal channels, and businesses must establish internal grievance procedures.
- The Act will reshape business practices, emphasizing transparency and compliance, and may prompt similar legislation in other states.
New York State has a new Act, which aims to provide greater protections for fashion workers. Signed by Governor Kathy Hochul on December 21, 2024, the Act introduces regulations aimed at implementing labor protections for models and creatives.
The Act imposes new obligations on management companies and fashion businesses operating in New York. Effective June 2025, this legislation could require significant adjustments to current practices.
While these changes will largely be targeted at the management and agency levels, it is important for brands hiring models to understand how these regulations might impact their model engagements.
Key provisions of the Act
The Act introduces a series of mandates that directly affect the relationship between companies, their management firms, and contracted fashion workers. Companies are encouraged to address the following critical components:
- Registration and oversight: Management companies representing fashion workers are required to register with the state and adhere to oversight protocols. For companies engaging such firms, it is advisable to ensure that management companies are registered.
- Contracts and deal memos: All workers, including models and creatives, are expected to receive contracts or deal memos that outline their roles, compensation, and obligations. Model management companies are obliged to provide models with written physical or digital copies of the final agreements that the company has negotiated with clients and any deal memos memorializing such agreements at least 24 hours prior to the commencement of a model's services. Businesses are encouraged to collaborate with management firms to ensure contracts align with these requirements and comply with state standards.
- Financial transparency: The Act mandates that management firms provide detailed accounts of expenses and earnings to workers. Fashion brands are encouraged to review their financial relationships with these firms, ensuring that practices such as payment schedules and expense reporting uphold transparency.
- Anti-harassment measures: The Act requires management firms to implement safeguards against workplace harassment. Fashion companies will be required to adopt complementary policies and training programs to prevent violations during photoshoots, events, and other business operations involving contracted workers.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) protections: The use of a fashion model’s likeness in AI-generated content is prohibited without consent. Companies leveraging digital content are encouraged to evaluate existing practices and align AI usage policies with these new rules.
- Reporting mechanisms: Under the new law, workers should be able to report violations of the Act through formal channels. Businesses are encouraged to establish internal procedures for addressing grievances.
Fashion industry implications and compliance steps
The Act introduces regulatory complexities that will likely reshape how businesses collaborate with models, photographers, stylists, and other creatives. Brands can therefore consider reevaluating their contractual relationships and operational workflows.
There is now a significant emphasis on transparency, requiring management firms and their partners to adopt stricter reporting practices. Companies are encouraged to prepare for heightened scrutiny of financial dealings and treatment of workers.
Brands working with models may consider taking the following proactive steps to audit existing practices and align with the new regulations before June 2025.
Contracts
The new law may prompt companies to examine existing agreements with models and creatives to ensure they meet the new legal standards. Brands finalize agreements and deal memos with clients prior to commencement of services due to the new requirement that model management companies must provide models with copies of the final agreements at least 24 hours prior to commence of services.
According to the Act, brands will need to compensate models at an hourly rate at least 50% higher than the contracted hourly rate for any employment, engagement, entertainment, exhibition, or performance that exceeds eight hours in any 24-hour period, and provide at least one 30-minute meal break for any engagement that exceeds eight hours in any 24-hour period.
Brands are encouraged to audit agreements with management firms to verify they meet the new registration and operational requirements. For example, businesses can consider ensuring that their agreements with modeling agencies specify terms and that the agencies pass these terms on to the models. Vague or informal agreements, such as verbal arrangements or email confirmations will likely be subject to greater scrutiny.
Finally, we expect parties to consider contractual language following the Act’s passage, including for example, provisions requiring: compliance with the Act, indemnification to protect against violations of the Act, or disclosure of information or documents demonstrating compliance with the Act.
Policies and training programs
Companies are encouraged to consider establishing comprehensive policies and training programs focused on anti-harassment, financial transparency, and workers’ rights. Both fashion companies hiring models and model management companies are encouraged to design internal grievance mechanisms that address potential violations quickly and effectively.
Brands are obliged to ensure that on-set protocols, workplace environments, and third-party vendors adhere to these standards. Because model agencies must register with the state under the Act, brands can seek to verify that the modeling agencies they work with are registered with the state and comply with the new standards.
Financial policies
As required by the Act, model management companies are encouraged to implement systems for transparent financial transactions, including reporting of payments and deductions. Brands may need to audit their payment practices to ensure that timely and accurate compensation reaches the agency or models. Brands that reimburse agencies for expenses (eg, travel or accommodations) may consider requiring information regarding how those funds are accounted for and passed along to models.
AI
If utilizing AI or digital modeling tools, companies are encouraged to conduct a review of practices to align with new restrictions and avoid unauthorized use of likenesses.
Going forward
The Act is a pivotal piece of legislation that will likely reshape New York’s fashion industry, signaling a growing trend toward regulatory oversight. Similar legislation may follow in other states. Fashion businesses are encouraged to assess their compliance and consider any necessary changes ahead of the June 2025 enforcement date.
For more information, please contact the authors.
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