Whoever wrote this meme doesn’t understand freelance work.
With the caveat that I’ve never actually seen Pretty Woman, I’ll break down why this was a great deal.
1. $100 an hour was for actual “work” with clients.
2. To earn $3000 that means 30 hours of hard work with 30 different Johns.
3. Each different client introduces an increased risk of violence, STDs, and arrest
4. She’s not paid for the marketing and sales pitches necessary to get the hour of paid work.
5. She has costs of doing business which are not cheap. Presumably she pays for her hotel rooms.
6. Most clients are not handsome and clean like Richard Gere.
7. For the $3000 in pay she got to do a lot of fun things and she had no expenses during that time.
This was one heck of a deal. She was smart to take it.
You say, “For the $3000 in pay she got to do a lot of fun things….”
I just can’t imagine anyone having random sex with total strangers for money as something we could categorize as a fun thing … but to each his or her own.
That’s precisely the point: She didn’t spend all that time having sex with total strangers. She went to parties and got new clothes and did a lot of other things. To earn the same amount of money at her “hourly wage” she would have had to have had 30 hours of sex.
Richard Gere was a better deal.
You say, “For the $3000 in pay she got to do a lot of fun things….”
I just can’t imagine having sex with random strangers for money a “fun thing” … but to each his or her own.
This post is unsettling.
I enjoyed your post…haha! I’m sure you’ll catch some flak for it from other people:)
Whether others approve or not, this was her work at this time, and your points 2 through 6 outlined exactly why this ‘change in contract’ was a good deal for her. Plus, and more important to her, was that it allowed her to reach her goal of having enough money to go to school to become, if I remember correctly, a hair dresser. Yes, definitely a good deal all around!
You should definitely watch the movie, because you missed a big piece of the calculation. She went on a major shopping spree at some very exclusive and expensive clothing stores (to keep up appearances as a non-hooker) and got to keep ALL the merchandise. Adding in that value probably doubles the effective hourly rate.
The first store she walks into, wearing her original hooker clothing, she was basically kicked out of, so these were establishments she would not normally have access to.
Also, a very expensive necklace was borrowed on her behalf. Not sure if the fair market rental of that item would have to be counted as income. Maybe we could say she was ‘required’ to wear it, so part of a uniform, and therefore not income? I’m not a tax professional, but occasionally play one in blog comments. 🙂
The movie is fictional, so enjoy it for what it is. It’s not meant to represent real life.
Cheers!