Fashion Influencer Calls Out Unfair Pay By Brands Acting On DEI Efforts

Herrana Addisu is a multi-disciplinary artist and human rights specialist whose work is informed by her own experience of immigration and assimilation into Black-American culture. The Ethiopian migrant has developed a creative direction and modeling career that works to uplift marginalized communities through advocacy initiatives, research, and programming, launching Chucha Studios LLC, a creative production agency that connects visual storytelling with systemic change.

Addisu highlights the need for regulations to protect the rights of content creators and prevent the exploitation of influencers by brands. She is also a representative sample of how influencers utilize their fashion style and platforms to express themselves and speak to the issues embedded in today’s culture. For companies to ensure equity in their influencer marketing strategies, fashion labels, and big-name products would have to recognize their responsibility with POC influencers.

“Scrolling through my social media and speaking with friends who are full-time content creators, I was constantly hearing about income inequality and its impact on POC influencers,” Addisu mentions. “This falls in line with any industry where Blacks and marginalized communities are significantly paid less and provided with limited opportunities.”

Artfully displaying inequities that open up conversations for solutions, Addisu holds oppressive parties accountable by fostering the dialogue for fairer engagements with social media influencers. Addisu references this in her recent essay, delving into inequities of influencer culture and the economy that it has birthed for thousands of aspiring social media influencers.

Her essay, The Democratization of Platform Economy and Labor Rights, describes how the growth of digitalization and the platform economy has created opportunities for people to generate income and lucrative fame. Conversely, it raises concerns about the lack of labor rights, exploitation of child influencers, and racial-economic inequality, Addisu notes.

She identifies the current trend stating, “the rise of the platform economy is incentivizing content creators to become full-time entrepreneurs which follow the growing trend of ditching traditional constraints of corporate workplace culture. It has also allowed ‘regular people’ to reach fame and become household names. The accessibility of fame has become relatively effortless in the past decade, allowing many to secure TV placements and large endorsement deals as a result of social media.”

Addisu also raises questions about how parents monitor their children who are aspiring influencers. She expresses how exploitation is prevented and identified, how companies are held accountable, and how the government is regulating racial discrimination within the digital economy.

“Marketing leaders are utilizing cultural branding across social media platforms to reach isolated consumers and have pivoted from solely utilizing traditional creative agencies,” says Addisu. “Since the COVID-19 pandemic, social media has increasingly impacted consumer culture and has become vital for brands. Forbes recently reported 43% of consumers were using social media to discover new brands and businesses.”

The impact of digitalization on the labor market, particularly the rise of the creator platform economy, has created online networks for people to interact and marketers to engage with their target audiences. Marketing leaders utilize cultural branding across social media platforms to reach isolated demographics. Social media has become increasingly important for brands since the COVID-19 pandemic, in which racial inequalities became a topical discussion. There was a strong demand for content creators and unique individuals for brands to invest in, allowing exponential growth, especially for younger influencers.

Addisu notes, “since the pandemic, work culture has changed tremendously where employees are working remotely and there has been a growing appeal of being your own employer. During my time as a consultant at a UN agency, digitalization was and has been part of almost every forum ranging from education, green jobs, and COVID recovery to gender equality, which grew my interest in the relationship between the platform economy and labor rights.”

The platform economy has potential concerns about child labor, exploitation, and lack of protection between parents and children, creating loopholes. The federal child labor laws in the United States restrict persons under 14 from occupations, but the law does not cover the entertainment industry and leaves that part to the states. Some advocates are pushing for state-level legislation to protect “kidfluencers,” a novel label.

According to a report from the MSL U.S. Group, Black, indigenous, and other POC groups are paid 29% less than their white counterparts in the influencer industry. That number goes up to 35% for Black influencers against white influencers. The demand for racial accountability has created space for marketers to engage and invest in POC and queer influencers, but the lack of wage regulations allocates room for income inequality.

The MSL reports, “77% of Black influencers fall into the nano and micro-influencer tiers (under 50K followers) where compensation from brands averaged $27,000, annually (versus 59% of white influencers). Conversely, only 23% of Black influencers (versus 41% of white influencers) made it into the macro influencer tier (50K+ followers), where earnings averaged upward of $100,000.” The average cost per post by mega influencers [over 250k followers] reached $7000, while nano influencers [under 10k followers] averaged over $700 per post.

A newer influencing model may be more prone to risking relationships with paying brands, but the TikTok trend of “deinfluencing” is currently building momentum, with users sharing candid product reviews that are unfiltered and honest. They often highlight overhyped products promoted by paid influencers.

Brands are now reaching out to these “deinfluencers” as the trend signals that traditional influencer marketing, worth $16.4bn in 2021, is reaching a climax with younger consumers seeing through influencer-brand partnerships. The call out for creators prioritizing money over authenticity is likely more of the risk in trying to supplement income as an underpaid influencer.

“Unfortunately, the statistics on the wage gap do not exclude the racial disparities between white content creators and POC influencers, especially members of the LGBTQIA+ community,” Addisu states in her essay.

She concludes, “since the murder of George Floyd, increased demand for change has been required from companies and brands to expand DEI initiatives and include marginalized voices within their supply chain. The demand for racial accountability has created space for marketers to engage and invest in POC and queer influencers, however, the lack of wage regulations allocates room for income inequality.”

Addisu emphasizes the need for labor rights to protect young, diverse, and marginalized communities and avoid the growing threat of child exploitation and income disparity. Raising questions regarding these preventive measures are being implemented by Addisu, making positive influencing a rising tide on social media like “deinfluencing” has.