Public support for workers’ rights and equal pay may be on the rise, but at least one group feels left out: Gen Z professionals in the modern and relatively nebulous realm of creation and influence. of online content.

It is a state of affairs that Lindsey Lee Lugrin, a former financial graduate model, is considering changing with a collective organization. She launched an advocacy site, aptly titled Fuck you pay me on which influencers review and compare offers with brands, pay scales and what it’s like to work with them.

Lugrin, 31, said: “All creative freelancers have the same problem – it feels like you’re looking into a black box when taking on a new client or project. There are no rules, no transparency, talking about pay or pay is taboo, and there is an element of fear that if you don’t say yes, you might lose the opportunity.

By some estimates, the influence economy has grown from $ 1.7 billion (£ 1.24 billion) in 2016 to around $ 13.8 billion (£ 10 billion) this year. According to an analysis last year by an influencer market company clear, male creators earned an average of $ 476 for each post and women $ 348.

But there are growing pains, with stars overnight on Instagram or TikTok wondering why they’re being paid a fraction of what influences superstars. like the D’Amelio sisters – Dixie and Charli – receive, while sites such as Brands behave badly, We do not work for free and Compensation gap for influencers claim that many mid- and micro-level influencers are exploited.

“Influencer marketing has grown from an add-on to a central part of how brands reach consumers,” says social media marketing guru and high-profile former “influencer mom” Stacy DeBroff, CEO of Central of influence. At the same time, the gap is widening between the payment expectations of influencers and brands.

“Influencers perceive brands to be rich in money after cutting marketing spend during Covid, and feel overworked and undervalued, and should be paid more. But brands have not relaxed their spending and are only ready to pay more for very high-end influencers. “

Additionally, brands are asking influencers to do more, including scripted product presentations and covers, while competing against millions of newcomers who might be willing to work for free because they are trying to build their profile.

“It’s a jungle out there because you can become a TikTok, Instagram or Twitch star overnight with just one viral video,” DeBroff explains, noting that many influencers are sharing the most they’ve been paid. , which risks distorting the market. “They don’t want to admit that they did something cheap for a brand that really wasn’t worth it,” she says.

The situation is creating unrest, prompting influencers like Lugrin, winner of the 2015 #CastMeMarc Instagram contest to be the face of Marc by Marc Jacobs, for which she was paid $ 1,000, to turn to collective organizing.

“People trust us and you can’t trivialize trust,” says Lugrin, while acknowledging that “it’s hard to put a price on someone when you’re not from traditional media.”

This is a problem that many agents, lawyers, unions such as Sag-Aftra (the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and marketing companies are trying to solve. Even 15-second TikTok dance challenges can take months to negotiate, to crumble.

At the same time, influencers say their demands are justified, given that brands demand more from them in terms of more extensive licenses, property rights, or shifting the post to paid advertising.

“They have no problem spending huge sums on mega-influencers or celebrities, but when it comes to middle-level influencers or micro-influencers, they’re really reluctant,” DeBroff says.

For Lugrin, who wrote on his blog last year that FYPM was “born of rage ” and describes herself as “just a young girl in a male dominated corporate world trying to dress for work without being too cold, too cute, not cute enough or killing my feet”, the battle only comes to start.

Being a Marc Jacobs model was “really exciting and changed my life,” she says. But that was then and it is now. “Back then, people looked to brands for what was cool. But it’s not like that today. The roles have turned, people are turning to influencers and the price has to reflect that. “