Migrant farm workers are usually paid by the basket rather than the hour. When they become faster and more skillful at picking, and start making “too much” money, agribusiness cuts the fee per basket, so their salary never gets higher. Medium has a similar system for writers, paying them by the eyeball instead of by the basket, and I think they have pulled a similar trick on their writers. I don’t think Marley has any fewer readers. I think she is being paid less because they have re-calibrated their system to pay her less per eyeball.

I used to give claps only to a small number of writers I especially liked. I didn’t realize that writer’s incomes were affected by claps. Now that I know this, I will give the maximum number of claps every time I read one of Marley’s articles. It’s possible that medium was forced to cut their fees this way in order to stay in business. I won’t believe that, however, until they open their books and show us. If they are maximizing their profits only to make even more money from an already profitable business, they don’t deserve our support.