Finding jobs that pay $20 an hour isn't as hard as you think—I should know, I've tried most of them.
Over the past few years, I've tested dozens of ways to make $20+ per hour, and I'm not talking about jobs that require a college degree or years of experience. I'm talking about real, accessible gigs that anyone can start this week.
Some background: I started exploring these options when I needed flexible work that could actually cover my bills. $20 an hour equals about $41,600 per year if you work full-time. That's enough to pay rent, cover expenses, and still save a little—especially if you find affordable housing under $900/month.
Advantages of Jobs That Pay $20 an Hour
Here's what I learned: You don't need a traditional 9-to-5 to hit $20/hour. Whether you're an introvert who hates office politics, a parent who needs flexible hours, or someone just trying to make ends meet, there are legitimate options out there.
I've personally made money with DoorDash, driven for Uber on weekends, and even launched a dropshipping store. Some of these I still use when I need quick cash. Others became steady side income.
The best part? Most require zero experience, minimal startup costs, and you can start earning within days—not months.
Below, I'm breaking down the exact jobs and gigs that consistently pay $20+ per hour, including which ones I'd recommend based on your situation. These aren't get-rich-quick schemes. They're real ways to make real money, and I've done them myself.
Let's get into it.
Local And Gig Economy Jobs
These are the jobs you can do to earn money in the gig economy and earn $20 an hour.
1. Deliver Food
Looking to make $20 an hour? You're going to have to get off the couch. But apps like DoorDash let you deliver food at your convenience.
DoorDash is an on-demand restaurant delivery app through which users can place an order for food from their favorite restaurants, and a delivery person (A.K.A “a dasher”) hand-delivers it to their doorstep.
Don’t have a car? No problem!
DoorDash doesn’t require you to own any type of car to make the deliveries. You are free to use bikes, scooters, motorcycles or even by foot. As long as you can commute independently and meet DoorDash driver qualifications, you can be a ‘Dasher’. You can make $20-$25 per hour on average, boom!
Related: DoorDash vs. Uber Eats: Which One is Best For Drivers?
2. Delivery Groceries
Jobs like Instacart allow you to be your own boss. But you don't have to work as hard because the intuitive app controls everything for you, easily and step by step. You also set your own hours, which means an Instacart Personal Shopper job is very flexible.
According to user-reported data on Glassdoor.com, full-service shoppers for Instacart are making between $7 and $20 per hour, with $11 per hour being the average. At present, there is no “hourly guarantee” like ridesharing and other delivery services offer.
So if you want to apply as a shopper to deliver groceries to fellow citizens in your city — for good pay — simply take orders sent from the app, pick up the items from the store and deliver them to their homes.
Related: How to Become an Instacart Shopper
3. Deliver Amazon Packages
If you want to set your own schedule and be your own boss and make between $18 and $25 per hour — Amazon Flex is looking for people like you.
If you don't want to get tied down to a desk job from 9 to 5 — then quickly apply to become an Amazon Flex delivery driver and take in the sights of Denver today!
Drivers for Amazon Flex, deliver for Amazon.com, AmazonFresh, Prime Now and Amazon Restaurants — delivering dinner, groceries or gifts.
Interested? You can go to the Get Started page, select the region where you'd like to deliver, and answer a few questions. Sometimes, your region may not be listed and you'll have to join the interest list.
If your region is listed, and you meet the requirements, you'll be able to download the Amazon Flex app and complete these tasks:
- Sign up for Amazon Flex using your existing Amazon account or by creating a new Amazon account.
- Provide answers to questions Amazon has about your background check.
- Select a service area where you will pick up and deliver Amazon packages.
- Review Amazon training videos to learn the best practices for delivering packages.
- Provide your tax and payment details.
Related: Best Jobs like Amazon Flex to Earn Money Making Deliveries
4. Bartender or Server
If you have people skills and if you're okay with the hospitality industry, you can take a stab at bartending or serving. You're able to make $20 an hour off tips if you can provide stellar service.
If you are a bartender you can befriend guests and have regulars who will be extra generous and overtip so you can earn up to $70 an hour at times.
In general, the more upscale the restaurant you choose to work at, the more money you stand to earn.
5. Drive for Uber or Uber Eats
Driving for Uber is a flexible way to earn around $20 an hour, especially if you work peak times like weekends, evenings, or during local events.
Uber lets you choose between driving passengers or delivering food with Uber Eats. Many drivers switch between both to stay busy and increase earnings.
Based on driver reports, pay typically ranges from $15 to $30 per hour depending on demand, tips, and surge pricing. Hitting $25 an hour is very realistic in most mid to large cities.
If you don’t want passengers, Uber Eats is a solid alternative and works similarly to food delivery apps like DoorDash.
If you already own a car, Uber is one of the fastest ways to start earning close to $20 an hour with no experience required.
Work-From-Home Jobs That Pay $20 An Hour
These work-from-home jobs can help you can make $20 an hour:
6. Dropshipping
If you are not an owner of the inventory, but still want to make money online through sales, you can take a look at Dropshipping with Shopify. In Dropshipping, you will be advertising the products that you have for sale. Then consumers will be able to go ahead and purchase those products.
When the sales come in, you will be asking the wholesale service providers to cater them on behalf of you. You will be ordering the inventory from the wholesale providers and you will be asking them to deliver divide and deliver to the different addresses of the consumers. Since you can get the items at wholesale price, there is a considerable profit margin as well.
Oberlo allows you to easily import products from AliExpress directly into your Shopify store and ship directly to your customers – in only a few clicks.
It's very simple to open a shop on Shopify and drop ship items in order to create a business without too much risk. You can literally start and set up a drop shipping business without any type of product in one afternoon with minimal risk as Shopify has a 3-day free trial and Oberlo is completely free.
This is the most convenient method available for the people to make money online, especially if you don’t have the ownership of inventory.
7. Take Online Surveys
You can also make money online by taking online surveys for research companies. Here are the main ones to consider:
- Obviously, I’m gonna mention Swagbucks. Swagbucks is the best and top rated money making app. There are so many ways you can earn with Swagbucks, it's unreal. Swagbucks is another great money app to earn some easy cash for just pushing a few buttons in your free time. I personally use it and usually make between $1 and $5 per survey while watching TV, and it does add up. They’ll even give you a $10 sign up bonus.
- Survey Junkie, as the name suggests is a survey site which pays you to give your opinion. This is a free survey app for your phone that pays you to take online surveys, participate in focus groups, and try new products. And its totally free to join and they don’t charge anything to be a member (they will actually pay you in cash via PayPal). Survey Junkie pays up to $3 per survey, and many of them take less than 5 minutes to complete. It is one of the highest paying survey sites that actually work.
- Branded has been seen on CBS and pays you up to $100 per offer to test new games and apps. You can also get a 100 welcome bonus which is worth $1 and cash out pretty quickly.
Now while you won't make $20 an hour taking surveys, closer to $4 an hour, it's still nice to earn money in your spare time.
8. Online Tutoring
There are a lot of different online tutoring companies like VIPKid and GoGoKid, but Education First (EF) are some of the best.
Earn up to $20/hour (USD) to start while teaching kids online with EF Education First. Teachers with EF enjoy the ability to choose their own work-from-home schedule, ability to bring their own teaching style to our custom-designed classroom and receive local, US and UK-based support and payment.
Here is what you need to get started:
- Bachelor's degree from US or UK University
- Currently reside in the US or UK
- Prior teaching experience or equivalent (ie: education assistant, tutoring, mentoring, or homeschooling)
- High-speed internet, computer & webcam/microphone
Sound good? Teachers with EF earn up to $20 per hour.
Learn More: VIPKid Requirements to Make Money Teaching
9. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing can also be considered as another excellent method to make on average over $20 per hour, especially if you don’t have the ownership of inventory.
With affiliate marketing, you will be marketing and selling products, which are owned by others.
For every sale that you make, you will be provided with a commission. Hence, the amount you will be able to make with affiliate marketing depends on the number of sales that you bring in.
If you are a person who has excellent marketing skills, this is a great opportunity available for you to consider. It is a proven method to make money online as well. Therefore, you can go ahead with it without keeping any doubts or second thoughts in your mind.
If you already have a blog or website (if you don't you can check our blog setup guide here) you probably have heard about affiliate marketing. You can make money by referring website your visitors and readers to buy products online and earn a small commission on each sale.
This can make you rich, as some bloggers make over $5,000 monthly just through affiliate marketing. If you wanted to take a stab at affiliate marketing for your website/blog I would recommend looking at this article which lists the best affiliate marketing programs. A perfect way to join a network that has a bunch of advertisers you can work with — no matter what niche you are in.
8. Amazon FBA
When you are shopping for products you want on Amazon, you might have come across the label “Fulfilment by Amazon”. This is another great and exciting method available for you to make money online in the comfort of your home. As you already know, Amazon is the biggest online retail store. Millions of people around the world prefer to purchase what they want from Amazon.
You don’t need to be the manager of inventory to go ahead and sell products on Amazon. All you have to do is to worry about the sales and Amazon will take care of inventory management. This can deliver a smooth and convenient experience to you with selling on Amazon.
When you are selling your inventory on Amazon, you have to simply ship them to an Amazon warehouse. Then Amazon will take care of delivering the ordered products to the doorsteps of the customers. Amazon will take care of packaging and labeling as well.
Therefore, you just need to worry about the sales that you make. You will need to make a payment to obtain this service. But it can be considered as an excellent investment because you are providing a fabulous experience to your customers. Even the customers trust the exceptional level of service offered by Amazon.
Therefore, you will be able to go ahead and use Fulfilment by Amazon as a proven method to keep on making money online.
10. Retail Arbitrage
Retail arbitrage is another prominent online money making technique, which is based upon a simple concept. The concept is almost similar to online arbitrage. That’s because you are purchasing an item at a lower price tag and selling it at a higher price.
When you are shopping for items, you will come across stores that offer amazing discounts. For example, if the price of a specific product is $100, you will be able to get them for $50 during a discounted promotion.
During the promotion period, you will be able to go ahead and purchase 100 units of the same item. Then you will be able to sell that at a higher price tag in another marketplace. You can set the price tag like $80 and sell. Then you will be receiving a profit of $30 for every item that you are selling. This will also help you to attract a lot of customers because you are still selling the price at a lower tag than the retail price.
11. Online Arbitrage
Online arbitrage is based on one of the simplest concepts behind businesses, which is about purchasing at a lower price tag and selling at a higher price tag. In here, you will be purchasing products at a cheaper price from the wholesale or local websites.
Then you will be selling them to the end consumers who are in need at a higher price tag. Along with the development of technology, you will be able to engage with buying and selling activities online. Therefore, you will be able to minimize the physical work that is involved with.
If you are into Online arbitrage, Fulfilment by Amazon can be considered as a good place available for you to get started with. Amazon will take care of order fulfillment to the end consumers. In other words, Amazon will take care of shipping, storage, and customer service.
All you have to do is to sell the product to the end consumers at a higher price tag while keeping a profit. If you wanted to become an Amazon Associate and start making money on Amazon, you can learn how to make money on Amazon.
FAQs
It is possible to live off of a job that pays $20 an hour, although this will depend on your location and personal circumstances. If you are able to find affordable housing and are able to live frugally, you may be able to make ends meet on this wage. However, it is worth considering the cost of living in your area and whether or not $20 an hour is sufficient to cover your expenses.
This is subjective and will depend on your personal circumstances and financial goals. However, $20 an hour is generally considered to be a good wage, as it is above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. At this wage, you will earn approximately $40,000 per year before taxes, which is above the poverty line for a single individual.
Summary
These aren't your only options for finding a higher-paying job but these job ideas are a good place to start. Only you are responsible for finding a job that can help you progress through your career.
So consider the options that we have provided that really do pay $20 per hour or more and consider taking a look at more lucrative ways at jobs that pay $30 an hour.
