Receipts Please! Myths Don't Stand A Chance!

Myth #4: Sex Workers Can Just “Get a Real Job”

Reality: Many already have other jobs. Barriers like discrimination, criminal records, housing instability, and low wages make sex work one of the few viable options for survival or financial independence.

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Where Does This Myth Come From?

This myth comes from a mix of moral judgment and economic denial. For generations, society has drawn a sharp line between “respectable work” and “immoral work,” framing sex work as a failure of character rather than a rational response to economic need.

Media stereotypes and anti-trafficking campaigns reinforce the idea that sex workers are simply choosing the “easy way out” instead of pursuing “honest jobs.” At the same time, this myth lets governments and employers off the hook - it hides the fact that many so-called “real jobs” pay poverty wages, exclude people with criminal records, or discriminate against trans and marginalized workers. In short, this myth thrives because it shifts blame from broken systems onto the individuals who survive them.

Why This Myth Persists

On its surface, this myth sounds like common sense. The idea is simple: if sex work is risky, stigmatized, or criminalized, people could just “choose” something else. Flip burgers. Go back to school. Apply for a 9-to-5. “Do something respectable.” This myth has staying power because it plays into deeply moralistic beliefs about “real work” versus “dirty work.” It suggests that sex workers are simply unwilling to hustle in the same way as everyone else - that they’re lazy, entitled, or addicted to quick cash.

But here’s the catch: this myth only makes sense if you pretend structural barriers don’t exist. It ignores systemic discrimination, economic inequality, and the way criminalization itself creates barriers to traditional employment. And it conveniently sidesteps the fact that many sex workers already have other jobs - sometimes two or three - yet sex work is what allows them to cover the gaps in rent, childcare, or basic survival that “real jobs” simply don’t.

What the Facts Actually Say

1. Many sex workers already juggle multiple jobs. Research consistently shows that sex work often supplements other income streams. In studies from the U.S. and globally, a significant number of sex workers report combining sex work with restaurant, retail, care, gig, or creative labor.

2. Discrimination locks people out of the labor market. Trans people, people of color, undocumented workers, and people with criminal records face enormous barriers to being hired in conventional jobs. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that trans women of color in particular experience unemployment rates nearly four times higher than the general population. For them, sex work isn’t a luxury—it’s survival.

3. “Respectable” jobs often don’t pay enough to live. Minimum wage jobs in the U.S. rarely cover the cost of rent, let alone childcare, healthcare, or debt. For parents, students, and low-wage workers, sex work can be the difference between sleeping in a car and paying the bills.

4. Criminal records and stigma block access to employment. Even a misdemeanor prostitution charge can follow someone for years, appearing on background checks and making it nearly impossible to secure steady employment. Ironically, the very act of criminalizing sex work traps people in the industry by closing off alternatives.

Why Feminism Should Care

This myth hits at the intersection of labor, class, and gender justice. Feminism has long argued that women’s work—especially care work, domestic work, and other forms of invisible labor—is undervalued and underpaid. Sex work is no different. When people sneer, “get a real job,” they’re reinforcing the patriarchal idea that some forms of women’s labor (or trans and queer people’s labor) don’t count.

And here’s the kicker: sex workers have been part of feminist movements for decades, insisting that their work is labor, even when others refuse to acknowledge it.

Dismissing sex work as “not real work” perpetuates the same hierarchies that feminism should be dismantling: who gets recognized as a worker, who is denied rights, and whose survival is considered disposable.

Who Gets Hurt When This Myth Drives Policy

When policymakers buy into this myth, the results are devastating:

• Funding priorities shift toward forced “exit programs” instead of labor protections, healthcare, or housing support.Raids and stings increase, justified by the belief that sex workers just need to be pushed out of the industry.Survivors of trafficking are funneled into low-wage jobs without long-term stability, ignoring the economic realities that made them vulnerable in the first place.Sex workers themselves lose credibility. When society assumes they could “just get another job,” their demands for labor rights, decriminalization, and safety are brushed aside.

How This Myth Fails Everyone

This myth doesn’t just fail sex workers—it fails our collective fight for economic justice. If we accept the idea that survival sex is a “choice” that can be easily replaced, we also have to accept the myth that low-wage jobs are enough to live on. We know they’re not. We know people are juggling two or three “respectable” jobs and still living paycheck to paycheck.

Sex workers are not separate from other workers—they are other workers. They’re teachers, nurses, baristas, care workers, students, single parents. By denying the legitimacy of sex work, this myth erases the economic crisis that makes it necessary and shifts the blame onto individuals instead of systems. It excuses poverty wages, ongoing discrimination, and broken safety nets, while shaming those who dare to find alternatives.

Here are the Receipts!

• Trans workers face unemployment at 4x the national average, forcing many into sex work for survival (National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 2011).

• In New Zealand, where sex work is decriminalized, many workers still combine sex work with other jobs, showing it is often supplemental—not exclusive—income (Prostitution Law Review Committee, 2008).

• In the U.S., 42% of people earning minimum wage are parents, meaning one low-wage job often isn’t enough to support a family (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020).

• Criminal records create barriers: nearly 9 in 10 employers run background checks, making even misdemeanor prostitution charges a long-term barrier to employment (Society for Human Resource Management, 2017).

The Bottom Line

Telling sex workers to “get a real job” is both dishonest and cruel. Many already have multiple jobs. Others are shut out of the labor market by discrimination, stigma, or criminal records. And for countless workers, the “real jobs” available simply don’t pay enough to survive.

Sex work is labor - labor shaped by economic conditions, systemic injustice, and survival needs.

If we want to talk about solutions, the answer isn’t shaming sex workers into leaving the industry. It’s dismantling the barriers that make sex work the only option for so many. That means fighting for decriminalization, living wages, universal healthcare, housing security, and the right for all workers - including sex workers - to labor with dignity.