What is a living wage? 

A living wage is the minimum amount of compensation needed to cover the basic costs of living and sustain a person’s ability to meet their everyday needs.

A living wage floor is therefore a baseline for fair, sustainable compensation. It is not a standard rate, a suggested maximum, or a limit on what a person can charge. It is bare sustainability and a starting point.

When figuring rates and pricing, we suggest that artists and models remain attentive to the scope and specific considerations of each engagement.

The living wage calculations we are using are based on the cost of meeting day-to-day living expenses. They do not include savings for emergencies, retirement, or other future needs.

Whenever possible, we ask artists to consider paying beyond the living wage floor to reflect a model’s artistry, investment in their craft, vulnerability, and any dynamics, considerations, or demands that can genuinely change the scope of the work or session.

Below are our promoted floors for the model’s time and labor during in-person life-modeling sessions in NYC. 

We use three tiers to recognize that clients have different resources and that the scope, value and demands of modeling engagements can vary.

1. Community / Low-Budget — $50/hr · 3-hour minimum
Grassroots, community, educational, and genuinely low-budget sessions.

2. Institutional / Professional — $60/hr · 3-hour minimum
Established art schools, professional programs, well-funded nonprofits, and other organizations with greater operating budgets.

3. High-Budget / Commercial & Media — $100+/hr · 3-hour minimum
High-budget clients, corporate and for-profit businesses, media brands, agencies, and other high-value commercial engagements. 

Minimum pay is based on the time the model is required to be present for the engagement, not only the time spent posing on the stand. Sessions shorter than 3 hours are still paid at the 3-hour minimum.

These rates do not include reference photos, photography, video, image usage rights, licensing, or buyouts. These should be negotiated and compensated separately. 

Whenever possible, we ask artists to consider paying beyond the living wage floor to reflect a model’s artistry, investment in their craft, vulnerability, and any dynamics, considerations, or demands that can genuinely change the scope of the work or session.

To support new sessions who are building, or established sessions that are recalibrating, we support a session starter exception:

The Bridge Rate: $50/hr with only a 2 hour min 

Whenever it is within a session’s means, we encourage paying the model for the full 3-hour minimum, even when the session itself is shorter. 

The intention of this exception is to give sessions room to build or recalibrate while creating a path toward the full promoted floor, rather than establishing a permanent lower rate. This is why we call it a Bridge Rate: it is intended to help sessions move toward sustainable rates, not remain below them.

Our rate recommendations are grounded in pre-existing resources. We champion reciprocity. Therefore, the minimum rates we ask artists to pay models are informed by the minimum rates artists would need to sustain themselves.  If artists value their own labor sustainably, we believe it is healthy for that same consideration to extend to the model.

1.  The MIT Living Wage Calculator:  The MIT Living Wage Calculator calculates what one full-time employee worker must earn on an hourly basis to cover the cost of minimum basic needs without additional public or private assistance.²  Because this calculator is based on a full-time employee’s rate, we need to adjust to account for freelance work. A 1.5–2× multiplier¹  is commonly used to account for the difference. When referring to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, we it's best to keep this in mind.

2. W.A.G.E.:  Wage for Work is an advocacy organization that provides resources to help artists advocate for fair, sustainable rates for their own work.   Our promoted rates are inspired by the W.A.G.E  Fee Calculator. 

¹ Employee vs. Contractor, “FAQ.” Source

For work with private clients, we encourage artists and models to privately negotiate both rates and financial structures based on the specific details, requirements, and commercial aspects of a particular project.

Although we encourage the use of our floors as a reference or starting point, higher compensation may be appropriate for private work.  In some cases, our recommended floor may not accurately reflect the full value of the model’s contribution. Some collaborations may require more focus, bandwidth, energy, creative input, resources, or commercial considerations.

We encourage artists and models to create written agreements that not only recognize the collaborative nature of their work but also consider how the model’s contribution creates value beyond the time spent posing. Depending on the project, this may include royalties, percentages of sales or revenue, compensation for duplicate prints or reproductions, or other financial structures that acknowledge the ongoing value of the model’s contribution.

We recommend that local models and artists establish living wage floors that not only reflect the cost of living but also align with the realities of gig-based work.

Recommended Resources & Benchmarks

• Wage for Work’s Fee Calculator: This tool provides a useful benchmark. We like to recommend it because it's what artists are advocating for themselves to sustain their own practices. Figure models were recently included on their site under the "performer" rate in 2026.

• MIT Living Wage Calculator: The other resource we recommend referring to is the MIT Living Wage Calculator. When using this resource, it should be noted that the Living Wage Calculator bases its hourly wage recommendations on a full-time salaried employee. See how to convert these rates to  independant contrator/gig rates below. 

Converting the MIT Living Wage Calculator to a Gig-Based Rate

To convert to a gig-based rate:

• A 1.5–2× multiplier is commonly used to account for the difference between an employee rate and a gig-based or independent contractor rate.¹

• Formula: Your local living wage calculator recommendation × 1.5-2 = Our Recommended local living wage calculator recommendation.  

Minimums, Fair Compensation & Moving Toward Sustainability

• Three-Hour Minimum: In addition to setting an hourly floor rate, we recommend setting a three-hour minimum for each modeling engagement, regardless of whether the session itself is shorter.

• A Floor, Not a Ceiling: The living wage calculations we are using are based on the costs of sustaining day-to-day life. They do not account for savings for emergencies, retirement, or other future needs. Whenever possible, we ask artists to consider paying beyond the living wage floor to reflect a model’s artistry, investment in their craft, vulnerability, and any dynamics, considerations, or demands that can genuinely change the scope of the work or session.

• Bridge Rates: When markets or sessions are significantly behind a sustainable rate, we recommend using a bridge rate as a temporary step between the current rate and the living wage floor.  This is helps sessions gradually recalibrate toward sustainability.

¹ Employee vs. Contractor, “FAQ.” Source

The Model Tea Project promotes the long-standing industry standard:

20-minute posing sets followed by 5–10 minutes of recovery

Poses within each 20-minute posing set may be short or long. The 20-minute interval refers to the maximum continuous period of posing before a recovery break. Changing poses is not the same as taking a break. Recovery breaks are necessary to allow the body to fully reset.

These timeframes are not arbitrary. They are health and safety measures intended to protect the model’s physical well-being during sustained posing. This structure is longstanding and widely used across established life-drawing programs, art schools, animation studios, and is widely promoted by art model guilds and collectives around the world. Recommended recovery time may vary by geographical location, but should never be less than 5 minutes.

For sessions lasting three hours or more, a longer 15-minute mid-session break is appropriate. These breaks are part of the working conditions that allow a model to sustain the work safely.

We discourage posing sets outside the promoted industry 20/5 standard. Changing poses is not the same as taking a break. Going outside these posing sets can create unnecessary occupational health risks to models. 

Classic industry-standard posing structures are not arbitrary conventions; they are part of a long-standing practice of managing the physical demands of modeling. 

Respecting proper posing structures is consistent with occupational ergonomics principles recognized by OSHA and NIOSH, which identify static posture, duration, repetition, physical effort, and insufficient recovery as factors relevant to musculoskeletal risk.

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders can involve muscles, tendons, nerves, ligaments, joints, and other structures. They can develop through cumulative exposure rather than one dramatic event. OSHA and NIOSH both recognize cumulative physical exposures as relevant to musculoskeletal risk. 

Modeling work is repetitive. A model doesn’t perform just one posing set. They may perform several sets in a session, several sessions in a week, hundreds of sessions over a year, and potentially thousands over a career. The exposure is cumulative.

Thank you for respecting models' bodies by creating and supporting sessions that do so in practice!

We promote the use of healthy cancellation policies that protect a model’s time.

When you book a model, you are not only paying for their posing work; you are paying for their time. When a model commits to your session, they may be turning down other work to honor that commitment.

When you cancel on a model at the last minute, it is considered respectful to pay them in full.

We consider cancellations that are made in less than a week's notice a last minute cancellation. 

We believe it is professional for a model to arrive a little early when reasonably possible, and that arriving early can help a session run smoothly. However, there is a difference between a model choosing to arrive early and a session being designed around unpaid time.

A model is paid for the time they are required to be present, not only for the time they spend posing on the stand. If a model is expected to arrive early in order to change, prepare, or be ready for the session at a specified time, that time should be accounted for when setting the rate and schedule.

If a model is asked or required to stay beyond the agreed-upon session time, that additional time should also be compensated.

The no-phone policy in life drawing is well known. 

We recommend that sessions move beyond policy alone and consider systems that support the policy in practice.  Simply asking people to follow the policy does not necessarily make the space secure.  

Collecting phones, training staff to intervene, or providing magnetic locking bags are all system considerations that can help make a phone-free policy meaningful.

We respectfully request that art schools and session leaders take a zero-tolerance stance toward Meta glasses and other camera-enabled glasses being present in spaces where models are working.

We encourage sessions to update their policies and participant-facing materials to explicitly state that these devices are not permitted.

Apps such as Nearby Glasses or ZuckOff can be used by models and facilitators to help identify nearby smart glasses. 

We encourage the use of clear and balanced contracts that establish expectations, responsibilities, agreements, and incidentals. 

 A booking retainer shows regard for a model’s time and demonstrates a committed intention to honor it. 

We recommend a 50% non-refundable retainer to hold a model’s time.

Whenever possible, we promote the practice of paying a model in full before the session begins. Models can be in a vulnerable position during a session, particularly when a concern about safety, boundaries, or respect arises.

The gesture of paying before the pose demonstrates confidence in your commitment to providing a safe and respectful place to work. It also means that if a model feels their safety or boundaries are not being respected, they can speak up, pause, or leave without having to weigh that decision against whether they will still be paid.