The Coogan Law in California: How a 1939 Statute Protects Child Earnings

Few laws carry a person’s name as much as the Coogan Law. It takes its title from Jackie Coogan, the child actor whose earnings from films such as The Kid were spent by the adults who managed them. The case exposed how little legal protection a child’s earnings had, and California’s Legislature responded with a statute that now protects every minor who earns money through entertainment work. The law has grown a great deal since 1939, and in 2025 it reached a new group of young workers, the children who appear in online content.

Why the Law Exists

Coogan’s case exposed a gap that the law had never closed. Under California law at the time, a minor’s earnings belonged to the parent, and nothing required a parent to save them. A child who worked in film could earn a fortune and still find nothing left by adulthood. The 1939 statute addressed that gap by requiring a portion of a child performer’s earnings to be set aside for the child’s future. SAG-AFTRA’s account of the law traces the change and notes that a later reform in 2000 confirmed that a minor’s entertainment earnings belong to the child.

The statute has been amended several times. A Senate Judiciary Committee analysis of the bill that became SB 1162 describes a 1999 overhaul that required the 15 percent set-aside and a trust account invested in low-risk vehicles. A 2003 amendment added a default trust account for employers to use when a family has not set one up, and it tied the approval of a minor’s work permit to the trust. The Senate analysis of the 2003 reforms describes those changes in detail.

The Current Framework

The Coogan Law now sits in sections 6750 to 6753 of the Family Code. Its central rule is simple. An employer must set aside 15 percent of a minor’s gross earnings in a blocked trust account. The trust, often called a Coogan account, holds the money until the child reaches 18, and the child can access it only with a court order before that date.

FLJ Insider Pro is open: live fashion law jobs and internships, five career guides and two roadmaps. Early bird USD 12/month. See what's inside

The mechanics matter as much as the percentage. The Senate analysis states that an employer must deposit or disburse the 15 percent within 15 business days of receiving the specified documentation. The trust must be established in a designated type of institution, and the trustee must manage the funds under the Probate Code’s rules for trustees. A practitioner’s guide to Coogan accounts explains that the trustee must make an annual accounting of the funds, which gives the child and the court a record of what happened to the money.

The law also covers the permit process. Parents must show a valid trust before the state issues an entertainment work permit, which turns the account into a condition of lawful employment rather than an optional safeguard. The state’s entertainment permit rules therefore operate alongside the trust rules, and the two work together to keep a child’s earnings out of the family budget.

What Counts as Covered Work

Coogan protection applies to minors employed in entertainment, including actors, singers and dancers. It has reached commercial and modelling work too. A practitioner’s summary of the Backstage guide notes that the protection covers children who model and do voice work, and that the 15 percent rule applies to principal performers while certain background work is waived. The waiver matters for a casting director or brand deciding whether a child needs a full Coogan account, because the rules distinguish between a principal role and background work.

Fashion brands should therefore treat the classification of a child’s role as a legal question. A child booked as a principal in a campaign triggers the set-aside, while a child used as a background extra in a crowd scene may not. Brands that misclassify the role risk an unpaid set-aside claim, and production partners may face a permit problem.

The 2025 Extension to Online Content

In September 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom signed two laws that extended the Coogan framework to online content. Assembly Bill 1880 expanded the Coogan Law to cover minors who work as content creators on online platforms, including vloggers, podcasters, influencers and streamers who engage in a direct contractual relationship with third parties. The governor’s office announced the signing on 26 September 2024.

Senate Bill 764, the Child Content Creator Rights Act, addresses a different problem. It covers family channels in which parents monetise content that features their own children. Under the new rules, a parent who is a vlogger must set aside part of the earnings in trust when at least 30 percent of the compensated content includes the child. Nixon Peabody’s analysis describes the set-aside as a proportionate share of earnings, and it explains that a vlogger must earn at least $1,250 in a month before the duty applies. Both laws took effect on 1 January 2025.

Brands that work with family creators should note that the two statutes place duties on different parties. AB 1880 makes the employer responsible for the set-aside when it hires a minor directly. SB 764 places the duty on the parent or guardian who receives the payment.

What Brands and Families Should Do

Brands should confirm early whether a child is a principal or background performer, and whether a child creator falls under AB 1880 or SB 764. They should also request the trust account details before the first payment and build the deposit schedule into the production timetable. Families should open the account before any work begins, record every deposit and withdrawal, and arrange the annual accounting that the trustee must complete.

The Coogan Law started as a response to a single child performer’s loss. It now protects a wide range of young workers, and its reach will likely widen as online work grows. FLJ’s analysis of the rights of fashion models sets out the wider protections that apply to models under 18, and it pairs well with the statute’s history.