June 4, 2021

A new Tidelift survey found that 46% of open source project maintainers are not paid for their services, and only 26% of them are paid more than $1,000 a year for their work.

49% of respondents said that “not getting financially compensated enough or at all for my work,” was the main reason for not being a maintainer.

45% of respondents disliked being a maintainer because it “adds to my personal stress,” and 40% disliked it because they “feel underappreciated or like the work is thankless”

Commenting on the latest survey, Tidelift CEO and co-founder Donald Fischer said: “The entire world relies on open-source components to power applications, yet our data shows that the open-source maintainers who create and keep open-source running well are not properly compensated for the incredible value they provide. The path to a safer, healthier open source software supply chain starts with ensuring more volunteer maintainers get paid adequately for the crucial work they do.”

For more information, read the original story in ZDNet.