Six hundred people chose severance over commuting five days a week, and it showed up in the filings as $185 million.
Short answer: About 600 of Paramount Skydance's 18,000-plus employees took severance rather than comply with a five-day office mandate, contributing roughly $185 million in Q3 restructuring costs. Commentators describe RTO mandates being used as back-door layoffs.
Key takeaways
- Following the $8 billion Paramount and Skydance merger, CEO David Ellison told employees they would be required to work in person five days a week from 5 January 2026 or take a buyout, with.
- 1069 live listings in this category publish a rate, at a median top-of-range of $90 an hour and a ceiling of $400.
- The work is remote contract work, asynchronous, with no set hours and no guaranteed volume.
- Applications screen on a short skills assessment rather than a resume or interview.
What was reported
The finding
Following the $8 billion Paramount and Skydance merger, CEO David Ellison told employees they would be required to work in person five days a week from 5 January 2026 or take a buyout, with the mandate targeting Los Angeles and New York staff at vice-president level and below. About 600 of the company's more than 18,000 employees took the buyout, contributing roughly $185 million in Q3 restructuring costs according to filings. Paramount Skydance is seeking to remove $2 billion in costs. Commentators have described employers using RTO mandates as back-door layoffs, expecting workers to quit rather than comply.
The mandate came after the $8 billion Paramount and Skydance merger, applied to Los Angeles and New York staff at vice-president level and below, and took effect on 5 January 2026. Roughly 600 of more than 18,000 employees took the buyout, against a stated goal of removing $2 billion in costs. HR commentators are direct about the mechanism: RTO mandates function as back-door layoffs when the employer expects people to leave.
What the listings pay
What that number really measures is how much remote flexibility is worth to people who have had it. Six hundred employees priced it above a severance-cushioned job search in a difficult market.
| # | Role | Advertised rate | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BigLaw lawyers | $140 to $400 an hour | micro1 |
| 2 | CUDA Engineering Expert | $300 to $300 an hour | Mercor |
| 3 | Street Performing Musician | $100 to $300 an hour | micro1 |
| 4 | Data Scientist | $245 to $280 an hour | micro1 |
| 5 | US-Based Business Owners Using Google Chat | $250 to $250 an hour | Mercor |
| 6 | Cybersecurity Research Expert, Offensive Security & Vulnerability Research | $200 to $250 an hour | Mercor |
| 7 | Senior Design Expert - Paid AI Design Research Study | $150 to $250 an hour | Mercor |
| 8 | Physician Talent Network | $110 to $250 an hour | Mercor |
| 9 | Machine Learning Engineer Talent Network | $70 to $250 an hour | Mercor |
| 10 | Disease-Area Clinician, Trial Endpoints & Prescribing | $150 to $230 an hour | Mercor |
Source: 1069 live listings on this board that publish a rate, read directly from each posting on 2026-09-06. Listings without a published rate are excluded rather than estimated.
How this compares across the board
A rate only means something next to the alternatives. This is every category we track with at least five listings publishing a rate, ranked by median top-of-range, so you can see where this work sits rather than taking a single number on trust.
| Category | Listings | Median low | Median top | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legal | 95 | $100 | $140 | $400 |
| Medical | 68 | $77 | $120 | $400 |
| Consulting | 45 | $80 | $120 | $280 |
| Finance | 94 | $80 | $110 | $280 |
| Engineering | 114 | $70 | $100 | $300 |
| Research/PhD | 132 | $70 | $90 | $280 |
| Writing | 36 | $40 | $80 | $280 |
| Bilingual | 78 | $44 | $52 | $120 |
| Annotation | 25 | $12 | $24 | $120 |
Same source and date as above. Categories are matched on listing title, so a role can appear in more than one.
What it means for you
The work that has stayed genuinely remote is contract expert work, and it is remote by design rather than by concession. Across 1069 live listings on our board that publish a rate, the median top-of-range is $90 an hour, reaching $400. All of it is remote and asynchronous with no set hours.
Why this work stayed remote when other work did not
Remote-first employers reverted because the office was a management preference that the pandemic temporarily overrode. AI training work has no office to revert to. The buyer is a lab that needs expertise it cannot hire locally, in volume, on a project timeline.
That structural difference is why the remote arrangement here is stable rather than provisional. There is no facility, no team the work has to be co-located with, and no manager whose preference could change it.
It also means the work is genuinely asynchronous rather than remote-but-9-to-5. There are no set hours and no core-hours expectation, which is a different thing from working from home on a fixed schedule.
The trade-off, stated plainly
Contract work has no benefits, no notice period and no guaranteed volume. You carry your own tax, and our take-home calculator exists because the advertised rate is not what lands in your account.
For someone who has just taken a buyout, that is a meaningful risk shift rather than a free upgrade. The severance runway is what makes it viable to build up several platform relationships before you depend on any of them.
The honest positioning is bridge or supplementary income that happens to pay well, not a replacement for an employment relationship you just left.
Who should apply
Two checks before you spend time on an application. Confirm the role accepts applicants from your country with the eligibility checker, since a meaningful share of listings carry location requirements. Then run the advertised rate through the take-home calculator, because this is contract work and the headline figure is before self-employment tax.
Applications complete on the hiring platform and usually take a few minutes, with a short skills assessment in place of an interview. Fill in every credential, language and professional background field on your profile. Those are what route you to the better paid listings, and most applicants leave them blank.
Frequently asked questions
What happened at Paramount?
After the Paramount and Skydance merger, CEO David Ellison required five-day in-person work from 5 January 2026 for Los Angeles and New York staff at VP level and below, or a buyout.
How many people left?
About 600 of more than 18,000 employees took the buyout, contributing roughly $185 million in Q3 restructuring costs according to filings.
Are RTO mandates being used as layoffs?
HR commentators describe employers using them that way, expecting and hoping workers will quit rather than comply. Paramount Skydance is separately seeking $2 billion in cost reductions.
Is AI contract work genuinely remote?
Yes, and structurally so. There is no office to return to, and the work is asynchronous with no set or core hours.
What does it pay?
Across 1069 live listings publishing a rate, the median top-of-range is $90 an hour, reaching $400.
Can it replace a job I just left?
Treat it as bridge or supplementary income. There are no benefits, no notice period and no guaranteed volume, so build several platform relationships before depending on any.
Are the hours flexible?
Fully. The work is asynchronous with no set hours, which is why people do it around other commitments.
Sources
See every live role
The full board updates several times a week, with the advertised rate on each listing and closed roles removed.