Pay Me You, Owe Me

“According to my calculations, I didn’t even get paid minimum wage for the last two weeks.” I say to my Area Manager.

“You aren’t paid by minimum wage, you’re paid on Salary.  And besides, driving time and setting up and tearing down don’t count anyway.  Only the time the Studio is open counts as work.”

“So when I work a nine hour day, I only get paid for working the six hours The Studio is open?”

“That’s right.  Glad I could be of help.”

Assembly Line Portrait Studios work their employees whatever hours they can get away with.  Most of the work shifts are six or seven hours-and the seven hour shift has an hour break built into it.  Most Assembly Line Portrait companies pay  a very small Daily Base Pay or they just put you On Salary or they pay Straight Commission.

Most people working for Assembly Line Portrait companies are asked to show up thirty minutes early and stay as late as needed by customers.  The drive time can be anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours-mostly unpaid.  The time spent driving around looking for a place to stay and something to eat is also money given to The Company.  Anytime spend using the internet, dropping off packages, and doing general office work for The Company is unpaid.

The plan is always for The Company to pay as little as they possibly can, work the employees as much as they possibly can, and keep all the profit for themselves.  All while keeping the Workers officially Part Time or even Contract help.

In other words, they operate just like every other Corporation in America.

I’ve been paid by The Sitting, by The Hour, by The Sales Average, by The Sales Total, and been paid On Salary plus Commission.  I’ve been Part Time, Seasonal, and Contract Labor.  I only worked at one Assembly Line Portrait Company that paid Straight Commission-I quit after three months when my savings ran out and my ‘paychecks’ were in the single digits.

There is money to be made though and The Photographer has a lot of control over how much money is made.  Shoot only a few shots and that limits the size of the packages that can be sold.  Shoot too many shots and the people will never make up their minds and leave in frustration.    Shot the same old same old and even if they are good portraits, no one wants to buy the exact same photo they bought last time.

Assembly Line Portrait companies are slowly come to realize that The Photographer is an important part of their businesses.  For years, photographers have been the low men on the totem poles.  It takes talent to sell and skill to book, but anyone can push a button.  Or so the thinking has always been.  But now we have come to a time when there are too many assembly line portrait studios-all doing pretty much the same thing.

So Pay Me You, Owe Me-Pay Me My Money Now.  But first, The Photographer has to shoot portraits the customers want to buy.  Real Photographers can make a lot of money-not just from taking portraits and charging amazing amounts for them, but from writing books, doing DVD workshops, speaking at Conventions, hosting real live Workshops.  So while the run of the mill Assembly Line Portrait photographer is worried about getting that pay up to Minimum Wage, the Big Name Pros are hosting workshops in Hawaii and photographic beauties in bikinis.

It’s not all bad though, for every Hotshot snapping photos of the President and The Queen, there are a few thousand Assembly Line Portrait photographers taking pictures of the rank and file of the everyday family.  We may not be household names and we may not make half a million dollars a year, but we are making the portraits that hang on your wall.

So buy something when you go in for that Freebie, even if it’s just an 8×10 you’ll put away in a drawer somewhere.  If you don’t buy, we don’t get paid.  As Bartles and James used to say-Thanks for your support.