A free inside look at Netflix hourly pay trends based on 413 hourly pay wages for 151 jobs at Netflix. Hourly Pay posted anonymously by Netflix employees. That’s right; you could get paid to watch Netflix’s streaming content (often before it’s available to the general public) on your own schedule and in your own home. Want to work from your bed in your pajamas?
There are those who binge watch to avoid work, and then there are the lucky few who binge watch for work.
Netflix recently posted a UK/Ireland-based job listing seeking someone who would be paid to watch TV shows and movies and tag them with genres. While we thought the idea of getting paid to stream shows without having to change out of stretch pants seemed like the best career ever, others worried that spending hours tagging videos ranging from “Gory Canadian Revenge Movies” to “Sentimental Movies About Horses for Ages 11 to 12” was the fastest way to “occupation-induced madness.”
So we decided to talk to Greg Harty, one of 40 part-time taggers, about what it’s really like to watch Netflix for a living — from the good to the bad to the My Little Ponies.
Netflix hired Harty, 34, in its first batch of taggers eight years ago. “At the time they described it as an experiment,” he says. “It’s one of the luckier gigs I’ve gotten.”
A movie buff who’s worked odd jobs in film, televisions, video games, writing, and software testing, the Los Angeles-based Harty describes his Netflix interview as one of the easiest he’s ever had: “We talked about everything from Casablanca to Predator in the same conversation, which doesn’t happen that often.”
Taggers are asked to watch and rank shows and movies based on a variety of guidelines. “We have a couple hundred different categories (i.e. perilous situations, race against time, darkness of humor, etc.) in which our taggers can dissect content,” spokesperson Betsy Sund says. “Some of the tags are scalar (for level of comedy/action/chase scenes etc) and others are categories of terms we’ve vetted ourselves (including cerebral, light-hearted, rebellious, etc.), while others are specific to characters and/or directors.”
But 1 to 5 ratings abide by an “A for Effort” ideology.
“For comedy it’s about comedic intent rather than if you thought it was funny or not,” Harty said. “If you know a movie is trying to get a laugh for every scene, that rates higher than whether it got the laugh or not.”
Detachment, therefore, is a key ingredient for being a successful Netflix tagger. Harty says a common misconception of his job is he is a “Roman emperor for movies,” giving them a thumbs up or down.
“You need to be objective,” Harty said. “This is never about whether I like a movie, and if I like it, I can’t change the tagging to try to get you to watch it.”
The whole point of the job is to provide users with suggestions that align with their watching preferences, whatever those preferences may be. “You might like what I consider to be horrible movies,” Harty said. “And my job right now is to get you all those horrible movies you want.”
Supervisors will, however, give taggers a heads up if there’s a particularly disturbing movie to watch and ask for volunteers rather than assigning it arbitrarily. And in specific circumstances, like the film Irreversible — which features a graphic rape scene — a supervisor will personally tag it.
Taggers are given assignments on a weekly basis, and while there are some specialists in certain genres and taggers can request to tag a specific movie, Harty receives assignments at random. The weekly time commitment ranges from a couple of hours to eight movies a week, which — barring the world’s Titanics — runs between 16 and 20 hours. Luckily the hours of required watching has not limited Harty’s ability to binge watch. He saw all of Orange is the New Black season two in two days.
A non-disclosure agreement prohibits Netflix taggers from disclosing their salary, although Sund did volunteer that the part-time work’s pay “makes up a percentage of his overall salary.” A 2012 story in the L.A. Timesestimated that taggers make “several hundred dollars per week.”
But when watching gets bad, and we’re talking really bad, Harty says that it doesn’t hurt to remember his undisclosed paycheck.
“I come from a blue collar family and watched both of my parents bust their humps every day,” he said. “I’m not going to complain because I have to watch My Little Pony.“
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For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.UPDATE: WE'VE FOUND A WINNER
Many thanks to every single one of you who showed interest in this competition. We can definitively state we've never received so many applications! The level of worldwide interest has been unbelievable.
There has to be one winner though, and our Bonus Finder Professional Binge Watcher can now be revealed...
🎉 Congratulations to Jonny Green from California 🎉
We're getting Jonny set up with everything he needs to conduct his important research and we'll be providing regular updates on his progress.
For those of you who didn't win this time, we'll be opening up similar jobs very soon, keep an eye on our blog for when they land 👀
Note: This competition is now closed, to view the original job advert as it appeared when it was open, please read through everything below.
Get Paid $500 to Watch Netflix and Eat Pizza 🍕
Following a rocky start to 2021, the team at BonusFinder want to spread some cheer by opening a new role where you'll be paid to watch Netflix and eat takeout pizza.
What better way to celebrate National Pizza Day on February the 9th, than getting paid to sit back, relax and enjoy some quality pizza and online entertainment.
Having already sourced professional burger testers, ice cream testers, candy testers and pumpkin pie testers (links in the emojis: 🍔, 🍦, 🍭, 🥧) we're now on the hunt for the perfect candidate to inform us of the best bingeable Netflix shows and the best takeout pizza to help us all through these turbulent times.
📢 In Summary: We will be paying $500 for you to stay at home, watch Netflix and eat takeout Pizza
📢 The successful candidate will need to judge the shows and pizza on the following criteria:
📽 Story and plot lines
📽 'Netflix and Chill' 😘 suitability
📽 Acting quality and cheesiness
📽 Satisfaction of episodes and series endings
🍕 Pizza appearance and color
🍕 Base texture and taste
🍕 Topping ingredient quality, flavor and cheese gooeyness
🍕 Value for money
You'll be watching and reviewing three series out of the following:
- The Queens Gambit
- Bridgerton
- Lupin
- Bling Empire
- Night Stalker: The Hunt For a Serial Killer
- Cobra Kai
- Surviving Death
- Ozark
- Virgin River
- The Umbrella Academy
- Ratched
- Below Deck
- Other (Unlisted series you'd like to watch)
How to apply:
Enter your details in the form below and describe why you'd be perfect for the role. The more creative your entries are, the better. We read every single one!
Competition Terms and Conditions
The promoter is Finder Media, 532 Old Marlton Pike W #569, Marlton, NJ 08053, USA
The title of the promotion is “BonusFinder Binge Watcher”
The entry dates are from 9am PT Monday the 11th of January 2021 to 9pm PT on Friday the 12th of February 2021.
The winner will be contacted by Monday the 15th of February 2021
Complete the form entry on the 'contact us' page as stated in the How to Apply section.
The winner will be picked at random by Finder Media Employees.
By entering this promotion, the customer is opting-in to this promotion and agreeing to be bound by these terms and conditions.
By entering the promotion, the winner accepts his/her details and images to be used for promotional activity by Finder Media and to follow the guidelines agreed in subsequent communication.
The competition is open to residents from the United States of America and Canada aged twenty-one (21) years or over.
*UPDATE* Due to global interest, we will also have an 1 additional winner aged twenty-one (21) years or over from outside the US & Canada!
In entering the promotion, you confirm that you are eligible to do so and eligible to claim a prize.
The Promoter may require you to provide proof that you are eligible to enter the promotion.
There is a limit of one entry to the promotion per person.
The promotion is open to new and existing customers of https://www.bonusfinder.com/ and their official social media pages.
The winner will be contacted personally via BonusFinder by email or direct message on Social Media.
The winner will be announced on Wednesday the 17th February, 2021 via the BonusFinder website.
The Prize must be claimed by the winner and no third party may claim the prize.
If the winner cannot be contacted or has not claimed their prize within 48 hours of the announcement, BonusFinder reserve the right to offer the prize to the next eligible entrant selected from the correct entries that were received before the Closing Time.
The Promoter does not accept any responsibility if the winner was unable to take up the prize.
✔️ Complimentary Netflix Account
✔️ Pizza delivery and movie snacks budget
✔️ $500 payment for review content
✔️ Dedicated content on the BonusFinder website for the winner to report back on their findings.
What general terms apply to this promotion?
Get Paid To Watch Netflix 2021
When entering the competition, the entrant agrees that any personal information provided may be stored and used by the promotor when administering the prize draw.
BonusFinder reserves the right to disqualify winners if:
1.They have breached the terms and conditions of the promotion
2.The promoter cannot verify the accounts details
Get Paid To.watch Netflix
The promoter may release the name and photo of the winner on their social media pages and website, and to the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Codes if required to do so.
If BonusFinder have any reason to believe that any customers/entrants have breached the terms and conditions, they reserve the right to exclude the customer/entrant from participating in the competition.
Get Paid To Watch Netflix Job Openings
The Promoter reserves the right to hold void, suspend, cancel or amend the prize draw where it becomes necessary to do so.