The method

How we check — the rules this site is built on

1 · Only a published fee schedule computes

A hustle enters the Real Pay Checker as fully computable only when its platform publishes the complete schedule — every slice, not the headline rate. Twelve of the eighteen launch hustles qualify. Each fee table names its source document and carries the check date.

2 · Partial means partial, printed

Gig apps publish pay models, not outcomes. Those six engines run on your logged numbers; national bands (Gridwise 2025, 100k+ drivers, gross per active hour) appear only as labeled sanity rails. The word PARTIAL is on the page, in the hub listing, and in the result — because a beginner who is told "this number is partly yours to supply" is being told the truth.

3 · No earnings promises, anywhere

Outputs are your inputs, computed. Ranges are labeled with their source. Medians appear only when a named source publishes them. You will not find a typical-earnings figure, a success story with a dollar sign, or a sentence that puts a dollar figure in your future on this site or in the pack — that is a compliance rule here, not a style choice.

4 · Tax mechanics are the IRS's, named

Self-employment tax: 15.3% on 92.35% of net profit, $400 threshold, Social Security wage base $184,500 for 2026 (IRS Topic 554). Mileage: the dated IRS rows — 72.5¢ (Jan–Jun 2026, Notice 2026-10) and 76¢ (Jul–Dec 2026, IR-2026-29) — and the engine uses the row matching your period. Quarterly dates: Apr 15, Jun 15, Sep 15, 2026 and Jan 15, 2027.

5 · The stale-page rule

When a platform changes a schedule, the affected page is frozen — taken out of the tools' recommendations — until it is re-verified against the new schedule. A wrong fee is worse than a missing one.

6 · Fit logic is shown, not hidden

Eliminators run on hard facts (car, calendar shape, cash gates, body, place, the teacher door, subject skills). Cash-gated hustles are parked as "opens later" with their published prices — Etsy $15–$29, Rover $49, Teachers Pay Teachers Exclusive $59.95/yr — never silently dropped and never silently kept.

7 · The employer layer points; it never rules

Cards describe policy types and what to check in a handbook. Federal employees are pointed to 5 CFR 2635.802/.803 and their agency ethics officer; anyone on a work-limited visa is pointed to their DSO, and the Finder returns no employment fits for that flag. A person's contract and status are theirs to establish with the authority that issued them.

Method page current as of October 23, 2026. The census behind launch: diligence memo, October 2026 research cycle.