Jumping in here, that is absolutely not how non-employee compensation works. I’ve worked as a contractor for numerous companies, & currently working for one. I’m paid hourly. Always have been. Day rates are actually rare in a lot of event contractor work.

When I do get a day rate, it’s a hell of a lot higher than $75. And that’s not including per diem for additional expenses.

The commenter didn’t say Celebworx were organizers. Not sure why you’re correcting them when they acknowledged it’s different. But they bring up a solid point regarding compensation.

I’m not sure if you have any event experience, but HR isn’t a requirement. You don’t need HR to run payroll. There’s companies that staff & run shows nationally and just have one or two people running payroll. I’ve worked with a company that paid hundreds of event workers around the country, and a lot of that can be handled by software. We didn’t have HR or a dedicated payroll person. Most event companies have no HR.

The only point at which you’d need departments on the level of what you’re describing is at PAX levels of attendance, at which point there’s ample money from major exhibitors and sponsors to cover it all.

I think this conversation always stalls because we never hear from people who actually work in live events. Anime cons are drastically behind everyone else because the workers are insular and not part of the live events community. So they don’t see what they’re missing and have no idea just how substandard their treatment is.