Booking Firm Is Late to Pay, Makeup Artists Complain

A booking agency for makeup artists is embroiled in a dispute with some workers who allege that the firm has misrepresented its services and is months behind in paying them.

Marcie Alexander of Huntington Beach said she signed up with the agency, Martin & Kane, in November, paying almost $700 to the agency for training.

Alexander, 35, said the agency then booked her at cosmetic counters in several department stores in Orange County. She said, however, that she has not received pay totaling about $1,000 for work she did from January through March.

Half a dozen other women told similar stories.

“We want our money. We want our [training] fees back,” said Alexandra Nicole, a Santa Monica woman who has filed a complaint with the regional Better Business Bureau. Nicole said Kane & Martin owes her $360. She also complained about the quality of the training, which cost her $495.

Chris Kane, director of Martin & Kane, defended her agency, saying it has lived up to its contract with workers, who are independent contractors. In an interview in her Huntington Beach office Wednesday, Kane acknowledged that the agency has not yet been able to pay some of the workers for assignments as early as January.

But Kane said she told workers that it would normally take two to eight weeks, perhaps even longer, for them to get paid because of late payments from Martin & Kane’s vendors. But Alexander, Nicole and others said that Martin & Kane told them that they would be paid within a month of their assignments.

The agency’s attorney on Wednesday delivered letters warning about six workers not to make disparaging remarks about the company.

The complaints “have no basis at all,” Kane said. Her agency has been in business since October 1994 and makes bookings for more than 300 makeup artists, she said, adding that many are satisfied.

Sharon Mabee, who has run a makeup artist booking agency in Lake Elsinore for 10 years, said she pays workers within three weeks, regardless of when vendors pay her. Mabee said she provides some training for makeup artists but does not charge them.

Companies have no legal deadline to pay independent contractors, said Costa Mesa labor lawyer Michael Hood. Regular hourly employees, however, must be paid at least every other month, he said.

Some workers who signed up with Martin & Kane said they are still waiting for work.