Oakland jazz bassist Caroline Chung, a longtime advocate of fair wages for musicians, says that musicians' passion often works against them. She says a typical jazz club gig pays about $20-$40 per person in an ensemble, which factors out to less than minimum wage when accounting for rehearsal time, not to mention travel.

"There are definitely places I've played where they almost use their ability to book you or not book you as a power trip," says Chung. "We're basically kissing ass to try to get a gig. And I think that dynamic creates that power shift where they can feel they can take advantage."

Chung attempted to organize a jazz musicians' boycott for a fair wage in 2011 and found that even if more experienced performers hold out on gigs, there's always a new crop of up-and-coming artists eager to take low-paying gigs to get their names out there. She proposes that local legislation that rewards businesses for paying artists fairly may be a more effective way to make change.

"The city should give tax breaks to businesses that support the artists in some way, whether it's art shows or music," she says. "They have to have some sort of incentive."

Singer-songwriter Meklit Hadero says that spending time educating event producers and companies about what her performance fees entail has helped her negotiate better wages. "People think they're paying for the hour that you're on stage," she says, "But you're paying for the fact that in order to get to the stage, I have to spend hours composing, hours arranging, the logistical time it takes to be a band leader, the phone calls to arrange rehearsals, all the time it takes to deal with the PR."

With so much competition in live music (with profits from album sales in decline, indie acts and global superstars alike are constantly on tour), she suggests that a beneficial strategy for artists could entail moving out of the free market and into the world of grants from foundations that support the arts.

"That has to do with two things: one, being aware of the social context of my work, and, [two], understanding why it's important outside of just me and being able to articulate it," she says.

Overworked and Underpaid

Kim, Kay, Campbell and Shepherd's passion research gives insight into a new kind of exploitation in an era where Americans increasingly view work as their life's purpose—or at least are expected to. A Craigslist search for the word "passion," for instance, yields over 2,600 job listings in the Bay Area alone for gigs not typically considered life callings, including line cook, caretaker in a nursing home and hardware store associate.