What you need to know
- Some Microsoft contractors reportedly make between $12-$14 per hour to transcribe up to 200 Cortana entries in an hour.
- Microsoft contractors were recently in the news due to their ability to listen to Skype calls and Cortana queries.
- The majority of the contractor work in the report is about transcribing Cortana queries.
Yet another report has come out about Microsoft contractors. This time, it's surrounding their pay. According to Vice, some Microsoft contractors make between $12 and $14 an hour to transcribe and categorize up to 200 tasks in an hour.
Leaked documents obtained by Motherboard, an investigative division of Vice, show that contractors are asked to transcribe and categorize large volumes of audio clips. Contractors reportedly need to listen to clips, transcribe them, and categorize them into sections such as "calendar" or "alarm."
The controversy is not surrounding the nature of the work, as many employees are asked to transcribe audio, but the pay rate. Some contractors are reportedly tasked to complete over 200 tasks per hour for a rate between $12 and $14. Some employees can reportedly receive a bonus of $1 per hour as well, bringing their rate to $15 per hour.
Microsoft's use of contractors to listen to audio clips of Skype calls and Cortana queries recently drew criticism. Microsoft contractors listened to clips including phone sex and other intimate details as part of their transcription work. At the time of the first report, it wasn't explicitly stated that Microsoft used humans to listen to these audio recordings. Microsoft later confirmed the use of humans.
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