Well, they paid them two or three dollars an hour. This is better than zero and worse than minimum wage. So I'm not sure how that would work, legally. In any case, it made people angry. (As an aside, one of the water bills in question from the PETA discussion was quoted at $145. For one month. It is entirely feasible for a family of two (and maybe a kid) to eat vegan on that amount. The contract they offered wasn't for everyone, but it was workable under specific circumstances.)Your SXSW example is basically offering someone a job. I don't think many would have a problem with it. If they had offered to have 16 year old middle class kids to walk around with wifi and gather donations, would it be wrong?
They paid them like they were servers/waiters and allowed them to keep their tips. would you like some free wifi? I work for tips. -easy peasy If people were enraged by the business model they should be enraged about waiters and waitresses across the country too.