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What are the typical pay rates for Crowds on Demand protesters?
Executive Summary
Crowds on Demand pay rates reported in public sources vary by task: routine gig work is commonly cited at $25–$30 per hour, while in‑person protest assignments are reported in the low hundreds per person or per hour, commonly quoted between $100 and $500 depending on event length and role [1] [2] [3]. Independent summaries and compilations expand that into a broader campaign and package pricing range from $60 for small appearances up to several thousand dollars for turnkey demonstrations, reflecting large variation by service scope [4] [5].
1. Bold claims distilled from the record — what people have said about pay
Multiple articles and database summaries make consistent claims about base hourly pay for Crowds on Demand gig workers: $25–$30/hour for routine tasks such as phone‑banking or email campaigns, and substantially higher rates for in‑person demonstrations and staged appearances [1] [2]. Other public summaries and encyclopedic entries describe per‑person turnout fees or role‑based flat rates — for example, small civic appearances cited at roughly $60, scripted speaking roles near $200, and typical on‑street turnout reported in the $100–$300 range per person [4] [3]. These are the primary, repeatable claims that underlie most public discussion of the company’s compensation practices [1] [4].
2. Ground‑level reporting: what journalists recorded about hourly and event pay
Investigative and local reporting documented concrete gigs and advertised rates. A San Diego Union‑Tribune package summarizes that telephone‑banking or email tasks pay $25–$30 per hour, while short live demonstrations paid about $100 per hour for two‑to‑three‑hour events and $150–$500 for full‑day in‑person engagements depending on client needs and logistics (published April 29, 2024) [1]. Independent gig‑economy writeups echo those hourly bands and emphasize reimbursements for travel costs; these reports present higher pay for visible public roles and lower baseline pay for remote or administrative gigs [2] [5].
3. Macro compilations and encyclopedia entries: larger ranges and package pricing
Compilation sources and encyclopedic summaries consolidate many reports into broader ranges: as of August 17, 2025, a widely consulted summary lists typical on‑street turnout at $100–$300 per person, smaller civic appearances around $60, scripted speaking roles about $200, and turnkey demonstrations priced from roughly $1,000 up to $5,000–$10,000 or more for larger city‑visibility events [4]. These aggregated figures reflect both per‑person compensation and client billing, so the upper tiers more accurately describe what clients pay for assembled crowd packages rather than the take‑home pay per individual performer [4] [3].
4. Company recruiting and historical ads: advertised hourly pay and reimbursements
Recruitment materials and classified ads associated with Crowds on Demand historically advertised $25+ per hour for actors and photographers and explicitly included reimbursements for gas, parking and transit, suggesting consistent baseline hourly compensation combined with travel cost coverage [5]. Employment‑site salary estimates for internal roles at the firm show much higher average annual compensation for salaried positions, but these figures represent corporate staff and executives rather than gig performers used for events, and they derive from algorithmic estimates rather than payroll records [6].
5. Where the record diverges — gaps, aggregation issues, and misleading inferences
Public reporting mixes per‑hour, per‑person, per‑role and client‑package figures, producing apparent contradictions unless the unit of payment is clarified. Journalistic accounts of individual earnings and compilations of client invoices are not always distinguishable; the $100–$300 band often refers to per‑person event payouts while multi‑thousand‑dollar figures describe client invoices for orchestrated demonstrations [1] [4]. There is no definitive public payroll ledger showing how much each participant received in every deployment, and some widely circulated claims conflate company‑level billing with individual take‑home pay [7] [3].
6. What the facts support and what remains unknown — a concise conclusion
The verifiable public record supports that routine remote gig work with Crowds on Demand typically paid around $25–$30/hour, while visible in‑person protest roles commonly paid in the low hundreds per person or per event, and full crowd‑service packages billed clients from hundreds to many thousands of dollars depending on scale [1] [4] [3]. The critical limitation is that public sources do not provide a comprehensive, itemized payroll for every deployment, so precise per‑person take‑home amounts can vary by assignment, location, travel reimbursements and role; client billing should not be equated automatically with individual pay [5] [7].