Because crowdworkers are considered independent contractors rather than employees, they are not guaranteed minimum wage. In practice, workers using the Amazon Mechanical Turk generally earn less than the minimum wage. In 2009, it was reported that United States Turk users earned an average of $2.30 per hour for tasks, while users in India earned an average of $1.58 per hour, which is below minimum wage in the United States (but not in India). Some researchers who have considered using Mechanical Turk to get participants for research studies, have argued that the wage conditions might be unethical. However, according to other research, workers on Amazon Mechanical Turk do not feel they are exploited, and are ready to participate in crowdsourcing activities in the future. When Facebook began its localization program in 2008, it received criticism for using free labor in crowdsourcing the translation of site guidelines.