--- title: Gender Pay Gap: Modeling Agent Says Industry's Pay Gap Unfair description: A top modeling agent wants to end the industry's gender pay gap — which, unlike most workforces, disadvantages men instead of women. canonical: https://time.com/4507541/modeling-industry-gender-pay-gap/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-26T16:24:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:27.178Z og:title: This Agent Is Upset That Female Models Make More Than Men og:description: 'It's unfair for men' og:url: https://time.com/4507541/modeling-industry-gender-pay-gap/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c1fc90cef185173/6988a77bbc6cfca2ea3deb2a/gisele-bundchen-model-pay-gap.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: National Geographic's "Years Of Living Dangerously" New Season World Premiere og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Agent Is Upset That Female Models Make More Than Men twitter:description: 'It's unfair for men' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c1fc90cef185173/6988a77bbc6cfca2ea3deb2a/gisele-bundchen-model-pay-gap.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Agent Is Upset That Female Models Make More Than Men > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Sep 26, 2016 4:24 PM UTC  Model Gisele Bundchen attends National Geographic's 'Years Of Living Dangerously' new season world premiere at American Museum of Natural History on September 21, 2016 in New York City. Model Gisele Bundchen attends National Geographic's 'Years Of Living Dangerously' new season world premiere at American Museum of Natural History on September 21, 2016 in New York City. Michael Stewart—FilmMagic  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Sep 26, 2016 4:24 PM UTC A top modeling agent wants to end the industry’s [gender pay gap—](http://motto.time.com/4201637/pay-gap-calculator/?iid=sr-link1)which, unlike [most](http://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/womens-databook/archive/women-in-the-labor-force-a-databook-2014.pdf) industries, advantages women over men. Elizabeth Rose, the director of London’s Premier Model Management, [told BBC](http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/37456449/top-modelling-agent-says-male-models-suffer-big-pay-gap-compared-to-women) that she wants her female and male clients to get paid the same rate for the same work. The industry’s pay gap has been documented before, with Fortune reporting that the top [female models bring home millions more dollars than men](http://fortune.com/2015/07/15/male-models-pay/). For instance, Gisele Bündchen, the highest earning female model, brought home [$42 million in 2013](http://www.forbes.com/sites/vannale/2013/08/19/the-worlds-highest-paid-models-of-2013/#6aa8bc1d453a), per Forbes, while the top earning male model, Sean O’Pry, only [took home $1.5 million that year.](http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eimi45mlh/no-1-sean-opry-1-5m/#6fe98cf54541) “It’s unfair for men \[and\] I wouldn’t say it’s female empowerment at all,” Rose told BBC. [_Follow Motto on Facebook_](https://www.facebook.com/mottoworkplaylive/)_._ One reason for the pay gap? The women’s fashion industry brings in $621 billion worldwide a year, while the men’s industry only makes $4oo billion, [according to ABC](http://abcnews.go.com/Business/female-models-make-male-models/story?id=20534067). And while female models can become household names, sign multi-million contracts for brands, and walk the runways at much-publicized fashion weeks twice a year, male models just don’t get the same attention. But of course, modeling is only one of [a few industries where women](http://) make more than men. In 2015, women, on average, [made only about 80% of what men made](http://motto.time.com/4504571/only-136-more-years-until-the-pay-gap-closes/). Still, Rose says she’s determined to make sure male models aren’t [discriminated](http://motto.time.com/4474803/female-lawyers-equal-pay/?iid=sr-link2) against because of their gender, asking companies she works with to pay male models as much as female models. “The more models are made aware of it, the more you can try and help change it, because the more agents that say, ‘No, we’re not accepting this,’ that’s the only way it’ll ever change,” Rose told BBC. “And models standing up and saying, ‘I’m not going to do this unless I’m paid the same as the woman.'” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4507541/modeling-industry-gender-pay-gap/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4507541/modeling-industry-gender-pay-gap/"},"headline":"This Agent Is Upset That Female Models Make More Than Men","datePublished":"2016-09-26T16:24:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:27.178Z","description":"'It's unfair for men'","url":"https://time.com/4507541/modeling-industry-gender-pay-gap/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c1fc90cef185173/6988a77bbc6cfca2ea3deb2a/gisele-bundchen-model-pay-gap.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c1fc90cef185173/6988a77bbc6cfca2ea3deb2a/gisele-bundchen-model-pay-gap.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"National Geographic's \"Years Of Living Dangerously\" New Season World Premiere","caption":"National Geographic's \"Years Of Living Dangerously\" New Season World Premiere","creditText":"Michael Stewart—FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4507541/modeling-industry-gender-pay-gap/","name":"This Agent Is Upset That Female Models Make More Than Men"}}]}] ```