Re:Who Makes Below Minimum Wage on Mechanical Turk?
by iopq on Saturday October 10, 2015 @09:11PM
(#10367634)
I've read some articles about it and most people who make $5 an hour or more tend to choose tasks efficiently that they can complete quickly without spending too much attention on.
If you rush through easier tasks you can complete them in a few minutes doing a good enough job to get paid.
Re:Who Makes Below Minimum Wage on Mechanical Turk?
by mc808 on Sunday October 11, 2015 @12:45PM
(#10369957)
I used to do data entry and transcription for $12/hour (not adjusted for 15+ years of inflation) and was able to reach about $4-5/hour on Mechanical Turk when I tried it. As I was out of practice, I think $7/hour would be feasible with time. But one thing people forget is that the federal minimum wage is actually closer to $8/hour when you include the doubling of FICA taxes on self-employment income.
Still, the ability to login and earn even $5/hour at arbitrary times of the day may be desirable for a segment of the population that's perhaps a bit asocial and chooses an RV lifestyle.
Re:Who Makes Below Minimum Wage on Mechanical Turk?
by icelancer on Sunday October 11, 2015 @01:36AM
(#10368205)
>If any individual on Mechanical Turk is averaging even 1/3rd federal minimum wage, I'd be shocked.
Look at the transcriptions / translations for Farsi and languages from the Middle East. People are making plenty of money.
The only ones that seemed appealing on the surface were these audio transcriptions. I type over 100wpm and 9 minutes of audio took me over an hour to transcribe. I got like $2, and never even bothered withdrawing it.
If any individual on Mechanical Turk is averaging even 1/3rd federal minimum wage, I'd be shocked.
Since most of the tasks pay even far worse than transcription, and there's a significant unpaid time investment acquiring the tasks and getting them approved, and most people probably try a few tasks before leaving and never even ask for a check, I'd guess the average payout for people working on Mechanical Turk is much less than a dollar per hour.
I've always wondered how it's legal.