The following is an email I wrote in response to a job offer from a company that, after receiving my resume and cover letter, asked me to complete a three-hour (timed) edit test. After they received my edit test, I was immediately (within the hour) offered a part-time freelance position: five consecutive hours a day with a starting pay of $10/hour and the opportunity to eventually go full-time.
I have yet to hit "send." But ohmygod, do I want to.
Hi [name redacted],
Thank you for your interest in hiring me to work as a writer/editor at [redacted]. When I received your offer, I would have cried, if I'd only been able to stop laughing.
I'll just assume you didn't bother to read my cover letter or open up my resume because if you had, I can only hope that you would not have wasted my valuable time with a THREE HOUR edit test, all the while knowing there is no way I would (or could) take a job that pays the same amount as the starting salary at In-N-Out Burger.
But honestly, my Masters Degree and my 10 years of copywriting experience don't even matter here. Offering to pay ANY writer, regardless of experience or education, TEN DOLLARS AN HOUR is disrespectful and insulting. It is quite clear that despite your claim that you are "leaders of a new journalism" movement, you don't value one of the most important aspects of journalism: great writing, otherwise there is no way you'd ever consider offering an hourly payment that is a mere EIGHT cents above minimum wage. No self-respecting or talented writer/editor would take a job with that pay, so I hope you're not surprised when you end up with flaky employees who do a horrible job. Frankly, if you want my take on it: your best bet is to outsource to India. You'll get hard workers AND you can probably pay them even less! [Edited to remove this statement as it was hastily written and does not accurately reflect how I truly feel about the situation.]
In the job description, you said you preferred someone with a "strong social media presence (e.g. over 1000 Twitter followers). Lucky for you, I happen to have almost 3000, as well as countless more who read my blog. I can't wait to take this story to them.
Oh, and far as I can tell: you owe me $30 for wasting my time with that three hour edit test. You can mail it to the address on my resume. You know, the one you never read.
Sincerely,
Daisy Barringer
p.s. At least at In-N-Out, they also get free food.
Here’s the thing: I want to be a writer. I want to write books and essays, and maybe screenplays or TV shows. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do and the only job that will make me truly happy. However, in order to make a living, I also write stuff that is not any of those things, stuff like ads and marketing copy and instruction manuals. This type of writing is absolutely fine, and I’m good at it, but ultimately, I don’t get any personal satisfaction from it. It’s work that pays (some jobs better than others) and that is all.
In addition to the (mostly unfulfilling) writing jobs that provide me with a paycheck, I am also lucky enough to occasionally get an offer to write content for a publication that I love and respect or that will look great in my portfolio. When I receive these offers, I feel I have to say yes, even if it means writing for very little money, or, more often than not, for free. I’m not in a position where I can turn down the exposure, and honestly, find myself hoping that eventually, one of these gigs will be the one that lands me a book deal. (Yes, I know that’s not how it works, but please don’t crush my dreams.)
But maybe the fact that I often write for little to no pay is why companies like the one above feel they can get away with offering to pay writer/editors ten dollars an hour. Maybe it’s actually the writers’ fault. We love doing what we do so much that when a publication like Bleacher Report or Huffington Post says they want us to write for them, we are willing to create quality content for “nothing.” (Those sites argue that exposure is “something,” but when you’re dealing with that many writers, are most of them actually getting the recognition they deserve? Highly unlikely.)
I want to believe that our society still values things like good writing, but maybe I’m being naive. Maybe it’s unreasonable to think I deserve to be paid for my blog posts, many of which I spend hours writing. Perhaps I should just accept that it’s almost impossible to make a living writing original material. It’s depressing, yes, but not as depressing as the thought of not being able to write, or just as awful, not ever being read.
Of course, my choice to write my personal blog or to write posts for other websites for free (or a small fee) is just that: my choice. It certainly does not make it okay for a website with over $8 million in venture funding to pay writer/editors $10 for tedious, time-consuming work. If we want to write our own stuff for free, that’s our choice. But to pay minimum wage for a job that won’t give us public credit or creative satisfaction? To pay an hourly rate that is less than the price of a movie theater ticket, but requires thought and creativity, and can oftentimes be so draining, there’s no energy left to focus on our own writing? That is unacceptable and, as I said in the email above, insulting.
I want to be a writer. I want to make a living writing. I want people to read my work. I also want to believe that these things are possible and worth a hell of a lot more than ten bucks an hour.
