Best Business Practices for Photographers [48]
Paying Those Who Make Your Life Easier
This is one of the more difficult issues to review and resolve. On one hand, you may instinctively want to pay the lowest amount you can; on the other hand, you don't want to be cheap, nor do you want to overpay. I've tried to research the landscape amongst photographers and assistants to come to some conclusions that might be helpful as you determine what to pay.
At a minimum, you must pay anyone who works for you minimum wage. Unless you're hiring waiters and waitresses or others who have a tip-based income source, you'll want to make sure you don't run afoul of this rule.
For full-time interns who travel from outside of our region to work with us, we pay $8.00 an hour. This is based upon what I found other companies who are my clients are paying their interns. Although an intern won't get rich from this hourly pay rate, the intent is to cover their expenses while here and give them a bit of savings at the end of the summer.
We work very hard to stay in line with Department of Labor internship standards for students coming from a bona fide educational institution. Although interns are handled as contractors when paid, it should be understood that issues such as legal minimum wage, withholding, and so on relate to traditional employees, not to contractors. Because interns are subjected to more oversight than other contractors, we want to make certain we do not cause them to be considered employees and thus eligible for benefits and such.
From this point, the sky is the limit—or, more definitively, what you pay yourself is the limit! There are a number of ways you can opt to pay—a base hourly plus a percentage of all assignments (say, 5 to 10 percent or so), just a base hourly, or a flat rate.
When contacting a subcontractor, such as a lighting technician, hair/makeup/stylist, production manager, producer, and so on, asking what they would charge to work on your project can be your first inquiry; however, remember that all prices are negotiable.
Assistants who work for photographers on an as-needed basis for assignments typically are paid a flat rate ranging from as low as $150 per day to upwards of $300. These figures are paid whether the assignment is for two hours or ten, but after ten, typically the assistant will charge an overtime charge that should have been agreed to beforehand if going beyond ten hours was a possibility. Further, although you may technically be getting an assistant for ten hours at that flat rate, if your shoot goes for only three and you then tell the assistant you want him or her to come back to the studio and sweep the floors, organize receipts, or perform other office tasks, you'll not likely get the assistant back again. This practice is considered poor form among assistants, unless you've outlined these terms before the assistant agrees to take the work. Some who assist won't mind, but others will. Ask first.
So, with a floor of minimum wage and a ceiling of $300, you want to find a happy medium for what you're paying. If we use the 10-hour-day rule as a guideline, that works out to between $12.50 and $25 an hour.
There is, however, a great source for the hourly wages paid to contractors who you hire, and it is union scale. The International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) has a negotiated contract with the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and other unions as it pertains to rules under which they will work, work conditions, and so on. For example, if there is smoke, snow, or a wet work area, contractors get paid more. For example, the 2007 rates in the IATSE Commercial Production Agreement define that the key makeup artist in the LA area makes approximately $340 for eight hours of work, at approximately $42 an hour. Outside of LA, the rate is approximately $315 for eight hours, at about $39 an hour. The key grip, who is the most senior lighting and equipment rigging technician, is listed in 2007 rates at approximately $298 within LA for eight hours and at $276 for eight hours outside of LA. In