Piece work is being paid per piece or article of work done versus receiving a flat hourly pay. The rate and the piece are determined by the company or person assigning the piece work. As a work at home mom, you may find most work is piece work as an Independent Contractor rather than an employee.  Let's take a look at different kinds of piece work you can do.

Mechanical Turk

Amazon's Mechanical Turk program will pay people a certain amount of money for each task they are able to complete. The program provides thousands of tasks and directions, along with a payment amount the person will earn when the task is completed. While most people cannot make a full time living off of the Mechanical Turk program, it is a good way for people to earn some extra cash.

ChaCha Agent

A ChaCha agent responds to questions sent in by text. People who want or need to know something send in a question through a text message, and you as the ChaCha agent earn money for each question you are able to answer. Agents must take a test and go through training in order to be able to work this position. While most people cannot make a full time living off of the ChaCha program, it is a good way for people to earn extra money for a rainy day.

KGB

Much like the ChaCha program, working for KGB involves answering questions sent in by text. Depending on the nature of the question and how the answer is found, agents, like you, earn a certain amount for each question answered. Agents must take a test and go through training in order to able to work this position. Most likely, you will not be able to earn a full time income from working a position like this without other piece work engagements along side it, however, this is a good way to earn some extra money.

Writing

There are several places online where writers can earn for their work. While some of them pay based on the piece, others will pay a flat rate per piece based on word count. This kind of piece work is the most predictable as there are style guides to follow and topics to choose from. Pay per piece ranges from $2 to $15 or more depending on the company.

Other

If you work in a manufacturing or textile environment, you may be paid by the piece. This keeps workers motivated to work at a steady pace, however may cause people to move too quickly and produce less than perfect qualify work. The key to piece work is to move quickly, but to do the work well, because sub par work in any field could cause you to lose the position.