'Love Is Blind' Contestants Get Paid to Be on the Show, but It's a Point of Contention

Just as the world of dating has involved and includes same-y apps and misleading profiles, so too have reality dating shows. Enter Love Is Blind, the Netflix reality dating series that's just about perfect for the COVID-19 and post-COVID era. Having originally started streaming in February 2020, the show follows a group of 15 men and 15 women as they date each other and communicate within their own little pods. They can only hear each other on their pod dates and don't see each other right away.

If they decide to take the relationship to the next level, they then get to meet each other in person and spend some time with each other to see if their romance has what it takes to go all the way.

The show is essentially speed-dating taken to the absolute max with the actual dates taking place under abnormal conditions. That said, do the 30 contestants on the show even get paid to be on it? The question of salary has been a sticking point for the show throughout its run. Let's break it down.

In every season of Love Is Blind so far, contestants squeeze an entire romance from dating to marriage into the span of a month or so. Even for reality show dating, that's a lot of pressure put on couples who originally met each other in isolated pods. All of the contestants on the show do get paid. However, the salary on Love Is Blind has been a major sticking point for the series in the past.

In July 2022, Season 2 contestant Jeremy Hartwell filed a lawsuit against the show and accused production of "inhumane working conditions." As details of the lawsuit emerged via outlets like Variety, it was revealed that contestants on Love Is Blind are paid a flat rate of $1,000 per week that they film for the show. That adds up to $8,000 total if they remain on the show for the entire duration of filming for a season.

At the time, this salary amounted to $7.14 per hour, which was almost half of the minimum wage in Los Angeles County.

Hartwell's lawsuit also alleged that the producers of Love Is Blind "intentionally underpaid" the cast and deprived them of basic living necessities and contact with the outside world to influence the romantic storylines on the show.

This is far from the only lawsuit that the show has faced. Former Love Is Blind contestants previously filed lawsuits against Netflix after experiencing abuse and sexual assault during filming.

As of this writing, however, the series is still ongoing and has even broken streaming records on Netflix. The show is currently on its sixth season with new episodes streaming between Feb. 14 and March 13, 2024.