[hn_throwaway_99]

I don't think that's misleading at all. Why would I assume that non-Google employee compensation would go into the calculation for what the average Google employee makes?

As someone else pointed out, this pays substantially more than AWS Mechanical Turk. To be honest, it's difficult for me to imagine an easier job than this one. I mean, most people who would do this job could easily now make more at McDonald's or Walmart or whatever. But I think jobs at McDonald's or Walmart are considerably harder, so I don't see why this job should pay the same.

[Retric]

Google has publicly described these people as it’s “extended workforce.”

Employee is generally used as the legal definition, but if you’re only job is to work for company X under their explicit micromanaged directions you fit the colloquial definition of employee even if your paycheck is signed by a different company.