Finally, an employer-friendly law passed in California! Unfortunately, it only affects a small number of employees— but for those employers that are implicated, the law is a welcome reprieve.

On September 5, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 671, the “Photoshoot Pay Easement Act,” which went into effect immediately.  This law specifies that any short-term print shoot employee (from models to crew members) can be paid on the employer’s next regular pay day (including by mail), rather than on the last day they work.

California law generally requires that employees receive all owed wages on their last date of employment.  One notable exception to this rule is for employees who are hired to work on motion picture or television productions. Employers can wait until their last regularly-scheduled pay day to pay these employees.  Senate Bill 671 extends this exception to all photo shoot employees.

A photo shoot is defined as a “still image shoot, including film or digital photography, for use in print, digital, or internet media.”  The passage of this bill is a win for producers, photographers and other employers who faced substantial penalties for failing to pay their assistants, crew members, models, and others on the last day of a shoot.