Clients paying below minimum wage?

[#1]

Hello,

Can anyone tell me if I am reading this job posting correctly?  They want someone in the United States to work for $4 - 6.50 per hour.  Am I reading this correctly?  If I am reading this correctly, how can they pay below federal minimum wage?

[#2]

They aren't hiring an employee, they are hiring a freelancer and both can come to whatever terms they want.

[#3 · Accepted solution]

Like David said, independent contractors and/or freelancers are not employees, and are not covered by minimum wage laws in the U.S.

The job is open worldwide, so the client might be looking for a personal/executive assistant outside of the U.S. since many U.S.-based freelancers will ignore the job due to the hourly rate.

[#4]

Thank you.  I did not realize it was targeted worldwide.  I thought I was looking at the U.S. Only area.

[#5]

Hey William, I realize this post was back in March but I am just now seeing it. You were looking at "US Only" but the thing is "freelancers" and I use that term very loosely, from all over the world are looking at the U.S. Only clients (Mainly from India) and they are willig to work for peanuts. This is why we have clients offering a few dollars an hour for full time hours. I have always believed that Upwork should only allow users based in AMERICA to bid on US Only jobs. If they did that then you would see those rates come up subsatantially as there wouldnt be anyone willing to be taken advantage of. The last time I used Upwork (2016-2018) we didnt see this garbage, clients were paying way higher back then. garbage rates from garbage clients who want masters level work but only want to pay third world rates.