Legal Question in Employment Law in Georgia
Many website content companies pay as little as $15 for a 400-500 word article. In addition to writing, the tasks also involve research and art direction tasks, such as selecting photos. I have been doing this a bit over a month, and see that it takes me at least 2-3 hours to complete an article that I feel confident and comfortable about submitting. I feel that these companies are barely paying minimum wages for the work. From what I can see, visiting forums, most of the writers are credentialed - they're not just "wanna be" writers. They, like myself, have journalism degrees and years of professional experience.
MY QUESTION: is it legal for these companies to pay such a low rate as $15 per article - given the tasks and time involved?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Is this a serious question? Of course it is "legal." I am not sure why you think otherwise, but if you do not like how much a company is willing to pay for your product, don't sell it to them.
Yes. You're not an employee so employment law has no application. You're just a businessman in a market. They can pay whatever they want, including zero, and I suspect some websites pay exactly zero (wikipedia comes to mind).