Early on in our coverage of Free: Labour this week, the webcomic site Penny Arcade posted a job listing on LinkedIn that underlined the fact that this is a conversation we need to be having:
So yes, we run lean. Most of us would say maybe a little TOO lean, but being pushed to your limit is part of the job ... We are quite literally looking for a person that can do four jobs ... You should have no problems working in a creative and potentially offensive environment.
Depressingly, Robert Khoo, President of Operations and Business Development at Penny Arcade, predicted that "given our audience and the job at hand, this could potentially be the most competitive position we ever hire for". (Yesterday, it was reported that 70 people had applied for the role.)
Penny Arcade was roundly criticised (though it's not their first experience of internet outrage), including by the creator of Instapaper, who asked of the "insultingly horrible" ad, "Please let this be a joke".
But the man vacating the position weighed in to defend his erstwhile employers, admitting that while he was paid below amrket value and the job listing was an accurate reflection of his role, he had not been exploited.
This neatly embodies a tension at the heart of issues of value and work, particularly in the media and creative industries: one person's inadequate offer is another's fair reward. You might prefer to do what you love for no money at all, but someone in the same field might refuse to work for free – and blame you for devaluing the craft. It's both intensely personal, and an industry-wide concern.
Tim Kreider experienced this first hand when he wrote about the impact the "information economy" has had on the creative industries in the New York Times last month:
People who would consider it a bizarre breach of conduct to expect anyone to give them a haircut or a can of soda at no cost will ask you, with a straight face and a clear conscience, whether you wouldn’t be willing to write an essay or draw an illustration for them for nothing.
The piece was shared enthusiastically by 'creatives', but elicited at least one biting response ("Writing is not like doing surgery").
Weighing into the debate earlier this week, Australian writer Elmo Keep said the problem was not with unpaid work, but with work that was dramatically undervalued. He advised freelancers to keep their rates at a minimum of $50 per hour. (Brooklyn consultant Joshua Gross recently experimented with setting his rate at $1 per hour.) But that's easier said than done, when there are any number of writers champing at the bit to be published for the exposure alone.
The best advice is to enter into any unpaid intership with your eyes open, and be ready to jump ship as soon as it feels you've stopped learning from the experience. The Guardian has published a useful guide here.