Love Is Blind forced to classify contestants as employees entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay
In a historic decision, the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Netflixâs hit show Love Is Blind has misclassified its contestants as participants instead of employees. This first-of-its-kind action will entitle future contestants to basic labour protections such as minimum wage, overtime pay, a weekly hour limit, and protection from unfair dismissal. Further, it could potentially serve as a new precedent for the entire reality TV show industry, ensuring fairer work conditions for those looking for love on TV.
The decision follows a labour complaint, in which the NLRB accused the showâs producers, Delirium TV and Kinetic Content, of unfair labour practices. Now, thatâs what I call unscripted drama!
The issue of worker classification is a persistent one in the digital economy. Besides, Netflix and its production partners, companies like Uber and Lyft also found themselves at the receiving end of backlash for hiring their drivers as independent contractors. This classification denies workers the right to unionise and enables the firms not to follow workplace safety protections, highlighting the ongoing struggle for fair labour protections in various industries.
This ruling comes after several former contestants, such as Nick Thompson, have detailed their poor treatment on set. Some of their allegations even described sexual harassment and claims that the physical safety of contestants was at risk during filming.
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Of course, these claims by participants of the so-called âsocial experimentâ to uncover whether âlove truly is blindâ are not unique. Instead, they echo longstanding complaints reality TV participants have made in the historically exploitative underbelly.
In September 2023, former Love Is Blind contestants Deepti Vempati and Natalie Lee revealed during an interview with Fortune Magazine that participants are given around 38 days to build connections with each other, meaning that they have to take quite a long break from their careers. Luckily, both girls managed to hold onto their jobs while filming and threw in the towel a couple of months later to become content creators.
âI did not tell my boss that I was going to go film a reality TV show, because honestly, I just donât think that it would have gone over well. I accumulated my PTO [paid time off] days and was just like âHey, Iâm going to be taking a long vacation.â And for most of the filming, the second half of it, I literally just worked around it,â Deepti shared.
However, besides managing to get a sufficient amount of time off for work, going on Love Is Blind is also a huge financial undertaking.
Before the ruling, contestants were entitled to a stipend of $1,000 per week and up to $8,000 for the length of filming the show.
Considering that their daily routines were described as âgruellingâ with up to 20 hours of filming a day, including weekends, itâs difficult to argue that the show didnât get off easy with that. Especially because the show doesnât even offer a cash prize, such as Too Hot Too Handle or Love Island. The only reward is a shot at finding loveâand internet stardom, of course, but that doesnât always lead to money.
So this move by the NLRB will at the very least guarantee that contestantsâ vital contributions to the series are recognised and compensated as real, strenuous and time-consuming labour.
Congratulations, being a reality TV show participant is officially a job. So, whatâs next? A Love Is Blind labour union? Bloopers from conversations around the water cooler in the break room?
