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Thread: Who's going to work for less than the minimum wage?
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Replies:
7
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1
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Last Post:
Oct 13, 2006 3:47 PM
by: Eric Cranston
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Posts:
232
Registered:
8/24/06
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Who's going to work for less than the minimum wage?
Posted:
Oct 4, 2006 3:04 PM PDT
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I've been loooking at the Hits available and I was wondering how could anyone make any money on this?
I understand that some people may want others people to do some work for them. But I don't understand why a worker would spend anytime on mtruk as it seems impossible to make $6 per hour.
I thing that if people can't make enough money, they will not consider mturk. They may play a couple of times to experiment but that's about it.
What do you think? How to do solve that problem?
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Posts:
33
Registered:
2/8/06
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Re: Who's going to work for less than the minimum wage?
Posted:
Oct 4, 2006 3:30 PM PDT
in response to: againnickname
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It all depends on what work needs doing. Back in the heyday of regular music & A9 HITs, a few friends had no trouble making $12+/hour with the help of some scripts - ones that *aided* the process, not did it for them. Even without them, they could still beat minimum wage.
Provided the work is simple and plentiful, you can make as much money as you choose. Besides, I dont think mturk was ever intended to totally replace anyones day job at this point, it just helps make some extra on the side. Comparing it to minimum wage doesn't really work.
-- Note these are the comments of a company Employee (Rob Beckett), and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Santa Cruz Tech. :)
Message was edited by: "santacruztech"
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Posts:
232
Registered:
8/24/06
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Re: Who's going to work for less than the minimum wage?
Posted:
Oct 4, 2006 11:56 PM PDT
in response to: "santacruztech"
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> Comparing it to minimum wage doesn't really work.
I think that you can compare it. If you need more income and you decide after your day job to work a bit more, you could do some HITs on mturk or you could find a part time job.
What does it mean? it means that mturk is always in competition with other ways to earn money and therefore how much money you can earn per hour is always relevant.
People will not process HITs because they like it. It is a job they'll do for money, not pleasure.
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Posts:
32
Registered:
9/25/06
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Re: Who's going to work for less than the minimum wage?
Posted:
Oct 5, 2006 5:01 PM PDT
in response to: againnickname
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The fact is, people *are* working on mturk. I was amazed when a test request I set up (with real data) was answered correctly within seconds. I also think at the moment it's a buyer's market. When there's more work and more people are using it, perhaps it will even out.
At the moment though, I have to work to be able to use it. Because I'm not in the US, and so cannot transfer funds in, the only way I can fund my testing is by building up a credit as a worker!
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Posts:
3
Registered:
7/14/06
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Re: Who's going to work for less than the minimum wage?
Posted:
Oct 11, 2006 8:38 AM PDT
in response to: againnickname
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I agree that it's a buyer's market, and as a result most turkers will not hit minimum wage. But minimum wage is an arbitrary target, and there are other factors to consider.
Mturk is a casual take-it or leave-it workplace. I can log-in for 15 minutes or an entire Saturday afternoon - how many jobs offer that?
Also, think about all the steps a person must take to find even the simplest part-time position. Plus the commute, plus the workplace friction, etc. For a college student looking for a couple hundred bucks/month, Mturk is compelling.
Not because it's big money, or even fair money, but because it is literally
easy
money.
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Posts:
14
Registered:
10/12/06
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Re: Who's going to work for less than the minimum wage?
Posted:
Oct 12, 2006 7:19 PM PDT
in response to: againnickname
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In my opinion there are two types of HITs, and price should be calculated based on the type.
The first is something like a survey or other simple mindless task that is kinda fun to do (you should see some of the things video games are having people do for free!) These should pay at least 1 cent...but there's no need to worry about the workers wage.
Then there are head-ache provoking tasks, like difficult or annoying research. These should pay 4-7 dollars an hour to a mid-level worker.
Of course. A business exists to make money. Thus it's employees should price HITs at the lowest amount that it will be completed at. But at the same time, experiements have clearly shown, that the quality of work returned for a .05 cent HIT is far less then what is returned for a .50 cent HIT. So it all depends on your need.
One misconcpetion that many writers run into, is thinking that what they see when visiting mTurk a single time is what it is. Any desirable task, is "Accepted" by a Turker, often in amazingly short amount of time.
Use common sense. As a Turker if you don't want to do a task, then don't. And as a Requester if noone is doing your task, simplify, raise your price, or go high another employee to do it.
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Posts:
3
Registered:
7/14/06
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Re: Who's going to work for less than the minimum wage?
Posted:
Oct 13, 2006 11:20 AM PDT
in response to: againnickname
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I've always been a believer in letting the free market figure out pricing, but it also pays to cultivate a market when it's new. In this case, Amazon may want to consider setting its minimum prices based on the complexity of the HIT.
For example, they could set a one-cent-per-action minimum - so a 5-question HIT would cost at least 5 cents. This sets compensation based on attention span, and keeps at bay those requesters who send out 100-checkbox forms for a dime.
You could also set a 5-10 cent minimum for any HIT involving a file upload/download (except for images, perhaps.) This assumes that handling a file will cost a worker some extra time. It also assumes that file manipulation probably has more value to a requester than a simple Q+A HIT.
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Posts:
14
Registered:
10/12/06
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Re: Who's going to work for less than the minimum wage?
Posted:
Oct 13, 2006 3:47 PM PDT
in response to: S. Stranieri
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But in doing that the mTurk team creates a lot of semi-pointless work for themselves. I'd much rather they concentrate on other things.
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