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Thanks to Dr. Freelancer Jake Poinier for alerting me to this informal study conducted by Newsweek. They measured – by way of posting a job ad – the real minimum wage in this country. They posted an hour-long gig and lowered the price consistently until they got to the lowest acceptable rate Americans would agree to work for.
Ready for it? It’s 25 cents an hour. Yes, that’s where American freelancers said “Sure.” Apparently, 20 cents was unacceptable. Read the short article and Jake’s take on it.
Since this type of insanity and lack of common sense is precisely why I started Writers Worth Week, now seems to be a great time for a worthy tip. Here it is:
Use your head.
I will never understand the thought process that makes it okay to work for 25 cents when federally-mandated minimum wage, the least amount employers are allowed to pay their workers without specialized skills hovers between $7 and $8 depending on where you live. What math formula are you using, and why haven’t you figured out yet that math isn’t your strong suit?
Use these common-sense measurements to see if you’re off base:
If you need a calculator, it’s not for you. Unfortunately, I’ve been in conversations with people who attempted to defend the content-farm model by applying some really screwy math. If you can’t explain the pay scale in one simple sentence, you’re being shafted. And if you defend your choice with algorithms and insults, you’re too far gone to help.
If you don’t know what you make an hour, it’s too little. If you have to describe your hourly rate using anything more than “I’m making XXX per hour”, congratulations. You’ve just drunk the Kool-Aid and you’re working for less than all fast-food employees in the country. And they get free drinks.
If you’re working for ad revenue, you’re working for free. While there have been instances when freelancers set up their own ad revenue systems, working for someone else in return for a portion (or even all) of ad revenue is pointless. Unless it’s one of the top ten sites on the Internet, your checks aren’t going to be worth the time you put into it. I’ve yet to hear any writer make respectable cash from someone else’s ad revenue deal. (If you know of someone, let me know.)
If you’re working for pennies on the dollar, you’re not a professional writer. Strong statement, but I believe a professional would never allow someone to A) dictate their rates to them, and B) pay them less than they’re worth.
How do writers justify bad choices? What do you think the problem is that keeps people working for insulting wages?
12 responses to “Worthy Tip: Use Your Head”
A lot of them are so desperate to see their name in print/build credits that they'd rather do it that way than hold out for better rates.
That's driven by the plethora of lit mags that pay nothing. Because so many fiction markets have gotten away with low or no pay for years, now the non-fiction markets are looking at that and trying the same thing.
In my opinion.
I don't agree with it, but I think it's a factor.
That had actually surprised me to learn when I'd first heard about it, Devon. It's why I never really pushed my short stories. I'd rather be paid than have to either get nothing but a byline or pay them (another strange business model – you pay for them to publish your story in their magazine).
I get the desperation part. I was desperate once, too. But my first sale netted me $50. In 1989. It was a short opinion piece, and honestly, I was thrilled when that check arrived.
The chart was unbelievable. What is wrong with American writers? I was looking over the Writer's Market and the lowest rate was about 25 cents a word, so these other writers weren't included in their survey. I concur with Lori that these writers aren't professionals. Unfortunately, they give true professionals a bad name. The idea to take away from all of this is don't settle for less. Do the work, dig around, and fine the good paying markets. It's not easy. I'm struggling with it right now, but I'm not going to work for peanuts regardless of how desperate I am.
Shocking, isn't it Wade? What shocks me most is that people accept this kind of mistreatment willingly. I know times are tough – they're not THAT tough!
Thanks for the hat tip, Lori!
I long ago stopped caring about seeing my name in print (other than in the "PAY TO THE ORDER OF" line on the check). Even my mom doesn't care anymore, ha.
In any event, I think it's a pernicious combination of name-in-print and not-resourceful-enough. I liken it to the girls who go to Hollywood to become actresses, but resign themselves to "I'll wait tables and get discovered." Newsflash: No one is a good enough writer to simply "get discovered," and plenty of hacks make a ton of dough. There's a happy medium in there somewhere, but you gotta hustle at least a little bit.
Maybe for next year's Writers' Worth Week it might be interesting to target various legitimate writers' e-zines and websites that share market and job listings. A lot of them have limits – maybe the listings have to pay at least 10-cents a word; maybe they have a "no content farm" policy; one won't list jobs that pay less than $10/hour (and even then stresses how low that is). But how often do you see listings at those places that are $1/word or more? Not very.
Granted, the number of markets paying over $1/word isn't huge, but sometimes I get the feeling that the writers posting those weekly listings hoard the better paying markets for themselves and only share low- and mid-level markets. (Yet another reason to ignore job listings.)
Oh – I got off track, as usual. I meant we could target the places that post job and market listings by encouraging them not to include listings that don't meet certain criteria – a minimum acceptable per-word or per-assignment rate, and a minimum acceptable hourly rate.
For 25 cents an hour I'd just go pick up cans on the side of the road. At least then I wouldn't have to pay tax on it.
I think I got extremely lucky in that one of my very first freelance contracts was also one of my highest paying. I knew right from the start that it was possible to make a good wage if I could connect with the right people.
And Krista, you might make more at the recycling center for all that aluminum. 🙂
Superb point – connect with the right people and you've built a great foundation for a career. It's not hard. It takes trying different things and really networking, but it's not hard.
You're welcome, Jake. 🙂 That's the kind of byline I get excited about, too. LOL
Paula, great ideas! I hope to have the time to put that together. Could work quite well!
That's really horrific. I can find a million things better to do for free for an hour, even if it's just staring at the wall. Even if you were desperate for money, what will that 25 cents buy you? A stick of gum? Yea, I'll keep my hour, thanks!
There are a lot of prominent lit mags that don't pay, and a lot of struggling but good mags that don't pay their writers or their staff.
I can understand a start-up with a great idea and trying to get grants (many lit mags are sponsored by universities who apply for funding — yet they teach their students that their writing isn't worth anything).
If the mag starts out not paying and then works its way into paying and then paying higher, I'm all for it. Places like GLIMMER TRAIN pay very well, in fact, at this point. But when a magazine has been around 5, 10, more years and STILL doesn't pay? Something's wrong with that scenario.
I appreciate a lit mag that makes an effort to pay SOMETHING rather than NOTHING, but I also feel that, after a certain number of years and advertisers and grants, they need to up the pay scale for everyone — staff and writers.
Ashley, if you write an article about staring at the wall for an hour in protest, I bet you could get more than 25 cents for it. 🙂
I remember getting Glimmer Train's first issue and invite to submit. I didn't back then, but I was duly impressed with what they were trying to put together. Proof that lit mags CAN do well with a bit of planning and effort.
Agreed on all counts, Devon.