Amazon Mechanical Turk offers low-paying jobs that can be done online. Workers earn percentage points for completed tasks, and some jobs require qualifications or tests. Pay is usually low, making it more attractive to workers in developing countries. Payment is through Amazon gift cards or direct deposit, and workers are classified as independent contractors. It may not be a good option for full-time work, but can be a way to earn extra cash from home.
Amazon Mechanical Turk is a website that offers varied and usually very low-paying jobs. The work offered can be done via the Internet, directly on the Amazon Mechanical Turk site, without ever having to leave home. Available jobs are presented on a job dashboard and workers can choose only those they are interested in. The salary varies according to the difficulty of the job and the qualification of the worker. Typically, the jobs are very simple and can be done very quickly.
Workers are awarded percentage points for successfully completed jobs. In this way, a prospective employer can set maximum score requirements for certain jobs. These jobs are typically more difficult and the employer may want to ensure they are only offered to those with proven track record. Most of the time, there is quite a bit of work for inexperienced people to do to raise their percentage points.
The jobs available on Amazon Mechanical Turk are presented as Human Intelligence Tasks (HITS). Workers can click on individual HITS to find out more details about the job and the pay on offer. Some jobs are available to entry-level workers, and other jobs may require a minimum overall score to perform the jobs. In some cases, some jobs may require the worker to pass a test to determine qualification for the job.
HITS are generally very simple jobs, but jobs that computers can’t do without human assistance. There are many different types of HITS being offered at any given time, but much of the work seems to be identifying objects in photos or testing the search engine improvement. Pay is usually pennies per job, and because of this, Amazon Mechanical Turk is typically more attractive to workers in developing countries. For people living in, say, the US or Europe, the pay would be well below the minimum wage.
Amazon Mechanical Turk generally pays in one of two ways. Workers can choose to put their pay in Amazon gift cards or they can choose direct deposit to their bank accounts. Workers are classified as independent contractors and are only paid if the employer is satisfied with their work. They can refuse to pay the worker if they feel the work is substandard or incomplete.
The type of work and pay offered by Amazon Mechanical Turk probably isn’t a good option for those looking for a full-time job that pays minimum wage or more. For others, it might be a good way to make some extra cash, as it offers the convenience of doing all the work from home. Some stay-at-home parents may find pay more attractive when weighed against the cost of hiring daycare and the expense of getting to and from work.
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