5 ms·

The funny thing is porn stars DO get paid very well ($2000-3000 for an hour or so of work). Well, the female ones anyway. The male porn stars get something like

by jarin 16y ago

The funny thing is porn stars DO get paid very well ($2000-3000 for an hour or so of work). Well, the female ones anyway. The male porn stars get something like $600.

klbarry 16y ago
I am 80% sure that data is false, from my memory of porn industry Ask Tells on something awful and AMAs on Reddit. Males get paid very little.
- jarin 16y ago
  My data is based on my memory of working at a porn company. Maybe we overpaid.
  - klbarry 16y ago
    Ah, then you know more than me, ignore my interruption.
    - dkarl 16y ago
      I'm sure it varies very widely depending on whether the male is a name star, an experienced professional, or just some guy who is psyched about the opportunity.
    - jarin 16y ago
      I'm not sure how current the quoted figures on Wikipedia are, but if they're accurate it looks like the agencies we used add a little bit of a premium to the rates (most of our guys and girls came from adult talent agencies). I can definitely see how non-agency guys wouldn't be able to command as much though. I guess a lot of them have to start off "gay for pay" just to break into the industry.
  - swombat 16y ago
    Apparently those rates have plummeted due to the wide availability of free amateur porn online. Edit: Interestingly, whereas open-source code expands the market (and rates) for programmers, open porn destroys the market for porn stars...
    - forensic 16y ago
      >Interestingly, whereas open-source code expands the market (and rates) for programmers Has this been proven?
    - ippisl 16y ago
      The the role of open porn on the decline of the industry is highly overvalued. the huge availability of free commercial porn in many forms is probably a more important factor. even without open porn , i bet the situation would have been pretty similar.
rudiger 16y ago
Not true. Generally, a female porn actress will make less than $1,000 for a standard scene and a few $100 more if it includes anal. Male porn actors make around $200-300 for a scene. Also, it's not "an hour or so of work". A scene can take up to 6 hours to shoot, and a full day never includes more than two or three scenes. There's also time spent pre- and post-shoot. Of course, the famous actor will make more, but just as in every other industry, there are very few of them compared to the total.
- jedsmith 16y ago
  Hacker News: Correcting assertions about anal compensation rates since 2011.
- jarin 16y ago
  Sure, it can take 6 hours if you're doing more of a scripted type scene, but every shoot I've been to has been ~45 minutes of filming cut down to a 30 minute scene in post (it was all reality porn). There was definitely some waiting involved though. I'm not saying you're wrong about the rates (and it does seem like they've dropped a lot lately after looking into it), but I'm either grossly misremembering or we paid a premium for our talent. I believe it was the latter, because the company definitely liked to spend money.
- araneae 16y ago
  As someone who has actually done porn, I can confirm this. It optimistically works out to more like 200 an hour (for women), or at least that's how it was about 5 years ago. Obviously rates varied based on how rich the company was, but you couldn't be picky because work was spotty. I once only got paid $200 for an hour of caning which left my butt bruised for two weeks. The worst part is that it's a lot of work to find constant work unless you have a really good manager or you're famous. Sure, the hours are short, but I found that having stable hours and not having to live shoot pay check to shoot pay check is preferable, even if it's a considerably lower hourly wage. (Much like contract programming work!)
  - kno 16y ago
    Please dont take this the wrong way, I'm curious to know, what motivates someone to do porn? was it money or fantasy?
jw84 16y ago
$2,000 per scene are what studios pay to contract girls. Typical shoots are like $500.
sueders100 16y ago
I'm not sure how representative they are, but kink.com, a bdsm themed porn network, pays significantly less than that. Closer to ~$100-$300 per hour according to their site NSFW http://www.kink.com/k/model_call.jsp?c=1 http://www.kink.com/k/model_call.jsp?c=1 NSFW

by jarin 16y ago

The funny thing is porn stars DO get paid very well ($2000-3000 for an hour or so of work). Well, the female ones anyway. The male porn stars get something like $600.

klbarry 16y ago

I am 80% sure that data is false, from my memory of porn industry Ask Tells on something awful and AMAs on Reddit. Males get paid very little.

jarin 16y ago
My data is based on my memory of working at a porn company. Maybe we overpaid.
- klbarry 16y ago
  Ah, then you know more than me, ignore my interruption.
  - dkarl 16y ago
    I'm sure it varies very widely depending on whether the male is a name star, an experienced professional, or just some guy who is psyched about the opportunity.
  - jarin 16y ago
    I'm not sure how current the quoted figures on Wikipedia are, but if they're accurate it looks like the agencies we used add a little bit of a premium to the rates (most of our guys and girls came from adult talent agencies). I can definitely see how non-agency guys wouldn't be able to command as much though. I guess a lot of them have to start off "gay for pay" just to break into the industry.
- swombat 16y ago
  Apparently those rates have plummeted due to the wide availability of free amateur porn online. Edit: Interestingly, whereas open-source code expands the market (and rates) for programmers, open porn destroys the market for porn stars...
  - forensic 16y ago
    >Interestingly, whereas open-source code expands the market (and rates) for programmers Has this been proven?
  - ippisl 16y ago
    The the role of open porn on the decline of the industry is highly overvalued. the huge availability of free commercial porn in many forms is probably a more important factor. even without open porn , i bet the situation would have been pretty similar.

rudiger 16y ago

Not true. Generally, a female porn actress will make less than $1,000 for a standard scene and a few $100 more if it includes anal. Male porn actors make around $200-300 for a scene. Also, it's not "an hour or so of work". A scene can take up to 6 hours to shoot, and a full day never includes more than two or three scenes. There's also time spent pre- and post-shoot. Of course, the famous actor will make more, but just as in every other industry, there are very few of them compared to the total.

jedsmith 16y ago
Hacker News: Correcting assertions about anal compensation rates since 2011.
jarin 16y ago
Sure, it can take 6 hours if you're doing more of a scripted type scene, but every shoot I've been to has been ~45 minutes of filming cut down to a 30 minute scene in post (it was all reality porn). There was definitely some waiting involved though. I'm not saying you're wrong about the rates (and it does seem like they've dropped a lot lately after looking into it), but I'm either grossly misremembering or we paid a premium for our talent. I believe it was the latter, because the company definitely liked to spend money.
araneae 16y ago
As someone who has actually done porn, I can confirm this. It optimistically works out to more like 200 an hour (for women), or at least that's how it was about 5 years ago. Obviously rates varied based on how rich the company was, but you couldn't be picky because work was spotty. I once only got paid $200 for an hour of caning which left my butt bruised for two weeks. The worst part is that it's a lot of work to find constant work unless you have a really good manager or you're famous. Sure, the hours are short, but I found that having stable hours and not having to live shoot pay check to shoot pay check is preferable, even if it's a considerably lower hourly wage. (Much like contract programming work!)
- kno 16y ago
  Please dont take this the wrong way, I'm curious to know, what motivates someone to do porn? was it money or fantasy?

jw84 16y ago

$2,000 per scene are what studios pay to contract girls. Typical shoots are like $500.

sueders100 16y ago

I'm not sure how representative they are, but kink.com, a bdsm themed porn network, pays significantly less than that. Closer to ~$100-$300 per hour according to their site NSFW http://www.kink.com/k/model_call.jsp?c=1 http://www.kink.com/k/model_call.jsp?c=1 NSFW