An Australian woman has revealed the shockingly low pay she received for starring in one of Seven’s top-rating reality TV shows.

The Seven Network pays Farmer Wants A Wife (FWAW) contestants $80 per day during filming, according to a former cast member.

ACM sports journalist Ellen Dunger, 29, was paired with Farmer Todd, 33, on the 2024 season of the Seven’s reality dating show.

FWAW sees Australian farmers meet and select a group of women from cities to spend time with them on their farms nationwide, experiencing their lives and routines before ultimately choosing one to be their spouse.

After the 2025 season premiered last week, Dunger took to TikTok to reveal the contestant’s $80 per day rate is restricted to filming days, which sometimes roll into the early hours of the morning.

“So you get $80 a day during filming, but you don’t get it on your days off,” she said in a video.

However, even more galling was the fact that almost half the money was “withheld” by the network.

“Forty per cent of that is withheld until after it airs,” said Dunger.

“So you get sweet FA in terms of money from going on the show.”

Dunger said the wage is further offset by the contestants having to pay for their own wardrobe on set.

“It’s obviously all out of your own pocket; the dresses are all your own, and all the outfits are your own,” she said.

Dunger, who was eventually eliminated from the show, said Seven’s wage also does not cover the participant’s hair and makeup.

“And by the end, you’re so emotionally drained that you just want to cry because you’re just so tired,” she said.

In comparison, the Nine Network pays the brides and grooms on Married At First Sight $150 per day and a $125 food allowance without hair, makeup, or wardrobe, reported The Daily Telegraph in 2024.

An anonymous contestant told the publication they were “broke after having appeared on the show”.

“I couldn’t even make my rent payments with what we were being paid,” they said.

“We would film late, so I would be ordering takeaway most nights. I spent a bomb on outfits, hair and make-up, and to top it off, they didn’t even let us wear what we wanted.

“If someone was wearing the same colour as someone else, they would make you change. And anyone who runs a business on Instagram is struggling because they can’t post anything.”

MAFS 2023 groom Jesse Burford took to Instagram in May 2023 and claimed participants on the show were paid “$1,175 each week”.

According to fellow contestant Olivia Frazer in 2023, his figure is slightly higher than the “$1,100 per week” she claimed the cast received.

Meanwhile, a Love Island Australia insider told So Dramatic! the 2021 cast were allowed $150 per day for expenses, and money from sponsored content while in the villa, which could be “about $1,000 per post.”