This Is How Much Pornstars Typically Earn

You've probably been in a position where you've exhausted all avenues in a job search, causing you to look at the seedy underbelly of career prospects.

"Is it really that bad to be a stripper?" is a common question, but even that requires a lot of effort and talent, so you can pretty much scratch that idea.

The last place to turn, obviously, is porn. Be famous(ish), have sex all day, get paid and have a laugh. Simple? How hard can it be.

It's a lot harder than you'd think, as Keiran Lee has revealed in the past. The Derby-born adult star claims that having sex with multiple women day-in day-out makes him a 'flop' to his wife.

"At home with my wife I have to apologise, I am pathetic in bed. I'm like a two-minute wonder," he told The Sun.

But, does the amount of money pornstars make outweigh the cons of working in the industry?

Derek Hay, founder of LA Direct Models and the winner of 2004's Best New Stud XRCO Award, revealed to the Independent the typical wage packets adult actors and actresses get.

As you'd assume, the pay differs for different people, based on the film, the company, who they are and what they're willing to do.

"For the right girl, for whatever reason which could vary, to do acts like their first anal scene, first interracial scene, first scene with three, four or five guys, those scenes could pay premium rates," Derek told the Independent. "A company's studios would offer a particular girl a much higher rate to induce her to accept the offer to shoot that kind of scene. That's always been the case, but in the past few years a number of different studios have put a lot of prominence on those kind of scenes and the rates offered to models to do that have increased markedly."

He reckons that a 'premium rate' can be anywhere between $2,000 to $6,000 (£1,600-£4,800), where as scenes involving one male and one female typically offers $1,000 (£800) as a standard rate, whereas a one gender scene would make you around $700-800 (£550), according to the Independent.

"I don't think that adult stars make as much money as the general public perceives them to make," Hay continued. "I don't think there's anybody, even the biggest stars, who are making more than half a million a year, but if some of the top stars are making $300,000-400,000 per year, by most people's perception that would still be a lot of money I think."

Last year a list of the world's top ten earning pornstars was revealed by Alltime10s, showing that dedication to their work can really get you rolling in it. Lexington Steele came in at number ten, followed by Katie Morgan, Bree Olson, Ron Jeremy, Maria Takagi and Traci Lords, all having a net worth of between $4million and $7million.

The top earners consisted of Jesse Jane, Peter North and Tera Patrick, who are worth $8million, $10million and $15million respectively. The highest earner though, was veteran Jenna Jameson, who's worth an insane $30million, according to Alltime10.

So yeah, you can make wedge off porn, so if you fancy it, give it a go.

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.