Medium Needs To Pay Its Writers More
We make this platform what it is, but do not reap the benefits of our hard work
August 2023 Update
1 1/2 years later…
I’ve now been writing on Medium for more than two years. As of today (August 8, 2023) I’ve published exactly 500 stories. I write nearly every day and get very positive feedback about my work. I share my work on social media.
I now have nearly 27K followers and my writing gets over 33K views daily. I’m still only earning about $11/day. This is not sustainable. I cannot put this many hours and this much effort into my writing for the cost of a fancy, over-priced coffee.
Gratitude
I am grateful for this community and to Medium for providing a venue for all of us to share our writing.
I have learned a lot over the past eight or so months I’ve been reading and writing here, and I plan to continue doing so, but I have concerns.
I work my tail off for my writing because I love it, but also because I want to earn a reasonable amount for my work, as do many of us here. The key word being reasonable.
Over the past 8 months I have published 186 stories (now 187). I have earned Top Writer designations in Parenting, Mental Health, and most recently, Psychology. I have gained 1.8K followers and over 58K views.
After all that, I earned an average of a little over $3 per day in 2021. Although my earnings have continued to grow, I still only averaged about $7 daily in the month of December.
I have written previously about being willing to work hard and play the long game to become a successful writer, and about my appreciation for the Medium reading and writing community. I still feel this way.
There is responsibility on my part to write well, and to cover topics about which people are interested. I am willing to be patient (sort of — patience is not my strong suit) and continue working hard, but I firmly believe that Medium — any other platforms that profit off the work of their contributors — must offer fair and reasonable compensation.
We market for Medium by promoting our stories, asking for subscribers, referring new members, contributing our writing, and by reading and engaging with the stories published here. We do the vast majority of the legwork, yet see little return on our time and effort invested here.
I am only singling out Medium because writing here is how I’ve spent a significant portion of the past eight months, but this applies to all companies with exploitative business models — which is most of them.
Capitalism & industrialization
As Navi Radjou, an innovation and leadership advisor, said in an interview last year:
“Capitalism has created widespread social inequality and contributed to considerable environmental degradation through the effects of human-induced climate change, as well as through the economic and social system’s emphasis on short-term gains and individualistic competition.” — Navi Radjou
In North America, and many other places around the world, the productivity-pay gap continues to widen. This means, while workers have become more and more productive and earn ever-increasing profits for business owners, their pay has not increased at anywhere near the same rate.
Between 1979 and 2020, worker productivity is estimated to have increased 62%, whereas wages have only increased $17.5%. Although our overall wages have increased, the number of people surviving on low income has also increased over the past 30 years.
Although these problems are certainly not unique to Medium or writing platforms, that doesn’t excuse the low compensation for our hard work, and for the profits we all bring in for the company owners.
We used to receive writing bonuses, which was an excellent way of rewarding writers who brought in a lot of readers, but then those stopped. Presumably they cost Medium too much money in the long-run, but that’s only speculation.
If Medium would not be able to succeed long-term after paying its writers more, then the company needs to rethink its business model.
As someone who has been a small-business owner for 12 years, I understand that I must pay my employees a living wage. If I can’t keep my business profitable without undervaluing my employees, then it’s not a successful business at all — and that would be my problem, not theirs.
People only tolerate being under-paid and undervalued for so long before they start looking elsewhere. As it is, people are frequently writing about and comparing the pros-and-cons of writing on other platforms.
Dear Medium corporation,
I enjoy this community, and I enjoy writing here. That said, people can only survive on a few dollars per day for so long before we are forced to return to work that pays the bills.
Sincerely,
Me.
© Jillian Enright, Neurodiversity MB
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