i had a 'volunteer' job at an app before, took me about 1-3 hours a week and got me $100 a month. Although I agree the people applying know what they apply for, I think it's crazy to spend that much time for nothing though..  

Tbf I did like 9/10days worth of hours on Ol' as staff within my like nearly year and a half I worked there.. So tbf they don't really care how long you can put in as long as you are doing the job when logged on and not abusing powers, after all it's voluntary and people have other stuff to do, most staff Iknow of are like late teens upwards all of them only becoming staff simply because they don't actually 'play' much but look to develop or help out in general. 20k and few horse shoes or whatever(depending on server) is more of an incentive to work more and thank you for voluntarily helping out personally don't think it's really needed for police/player relations.. Gfx and coders deserve rewarding more than rest.  

Most staffs are old players who didn't have time or didn't want to play the game as a player anymore I guess.
At least that's the case for me, I don't have time to play as I used to on iClassic & iEra.

I've seen that a lot of people don't get why we work on a server with nothing in return, well it's because we enjoy it, making content for players and seeing them enjoying what we make is a pretty cool feeling.

I don't work for glory, I just work because I enjoy developing stuff, iEra actually helped me tons irl, I see it now, as a career launcher, as it helps you develop your skills.