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Income Security in the On-Demand Economy: Findings and Policy Lessons from a Survey of Crowdworkers

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Income Security in the On-Demand Economy: Findings and Policy Lessons from a Survey of Crowdworkers Income security in the on-demand economy: Findings and policy lessons from a survey of crowdworkers Janine Berg CONDITIONS OF WORK AND EMPLOYMENT SERIES No. 74 INWORK Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 74 Inclusive Labour Markets, Labour Relations and Working Conditions Branch Income security in the on-demand economy: Findings and policy lessons from a survey of crowdworkers Janine Berg INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE - GENEVA Copyright © International Labour Organization 2016 Publications of the International Labour Office enjoy copyright under Protocol 2 of the Universal Copyright Convention. Nevertheless, short excerpts from them may be reproduced without authorization, on condition that the source is indicated. For rights of reproduction or translation, application should be made to the Publications Bureau (Rights and Permissions), International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland. The International Labour Office welcomes such applications. Libraries, institutions and other users registered in the United Kingdom with the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP [Fax: (+44) (0)20 7631 5500; email: [email protected]], in the United States with the Copyright Clearance Centre, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 [Fax: (+1) (978) 750 4470; email: [email protected]] or in other countries with associated Reproduction Rights Organizations, may make photocopies in accordance with the licences issued to them for this purpose. ILO Cataloguing in Publication Data Berg, Janine Income security in the on-demand economy: findings and policy lessons from a survey of crowdworkers / Janine Berg ; International Labour Office, Inclusive Labour Markets, Labour Relations and Working Conditions Branch. - Geneva: ILO, 2016 (Conditions of work and employment series ; No. 74) International Labour Office Inclusive Labour Markets, Labour Relations and Working Conditions Branch. guaranteed income / social assistance / workers rights / precarious employment / casual worker / job insecurity / working conditions / work organization / survey 02.15.1 First published 2016 Cover: DTP/Design Unit, ILO The designations employed in ILO publications, which are in conformity with United Nations practice, and the presentation of material therein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the International Labour Office concerning the legal status of any country, area or territory or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. The responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles, studies and other contributions rests solely with their authors, and publication does not constitute an endorsement by the International Labour Office of the opinions expressed in them. Reference to names of firms and commercial products and processes does not imply their endorsement by the International Labour Office, and any failure to mention a particular firm, commercial product or process is not a sign of disapproval. ILO publications can be obtained through major booksellers or ILO local offices in many countries, or direct from ILO Publications, International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland. Catalogues or lists of new publications are available free of charge from the above address, or by email: [email protected] Visit our website: www.ilo.org/publns Printed by the International Labour Office, Geneva, Switzerland ii Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 74 Abstract This article assesses the validity of many of the assumptions made about work in the on-demand economy and analyses whether proposals advanced for improving workers’ income security are sufficient for remedying current shortcomings. It draws on findings from a survey of crowdworkers conducted in late 2015 on the Amazon Mechanical Turk and Crowdflower platforms on workers’ employment patterns, work histories, and financial security. Based on this information, it provides an analysis of crowdworkers’ economic dependence on the platform, including the share of workers who depend on crowdwork as their main source of income, as well as their working conditions, the problems they encounter while crowdworking and their overall income security. Drawing on these findings, the article recommends an alternative way of organizing work that can improve the income security of crowdworkers as well as the overall efficiency and productivity of crowdwork. Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 74 iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank Valerio De Stefano, Philippe Marcadent, Mariya Aleksynska, Uma Amara, Christina Behrendt, Iain Campbell, David Kucera and Kathleen Thelen, as well as participants at the seminar on Crowd-Sourcing, the Gig Economy, and the Law, held at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, on 7 November 2015, for helpful comments. iv Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 74 Contents Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................ iv Tables, Figures and Map .................................................................................................................... vi 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 2. Demand and supply in the crowdwork market ............................................................................ 2 3. Crowdworkers’ employment patterns, work histories and financial security: Survey findings .......................................................................................................................... 4 3.1 Who are the crowdworkers? And why do they crowdwork? ............................................. 5 3.2 Working conditions of crowdwork .................................................................................... 11 3.3 Financial security and social protection of crowdworkers ................................................ 16 4. Current discourse and policy proposals on the on-demand economy ....................................... 18 4.1 The convenient rhetoric of pin money ............................................................................ 18 4.2 Portable accounts to provide security ............................................................................. 19 5. Restructuring crowdwork to the benefit of workers and employers ......................................... 21 6. Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 25 References ......................................................................................................................................... 26 Conditions of Work and Employment Series ................................................................................... 30 Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 74 v Tables, Figures and Map Page Table 1: Survey sample by platform and country ................................................................................ 5 Table 2: Hourly pay by platform and country ....................................................................................... 12 Table 3: Financial security and social protection of crowdworkers, India and US .............................. 17 Figure 1: Educational level of crowdworkers ....................................................................................... 6 Figure 2: Tenure of survey respondents ................................................................................................ 7 Figure 3: Most important reason why you do crowdwork? .................................................................. 9 Figure 4: Main activity prior to beginning crowdwork ......................................................................... 10 Figure 5: Employment status of AMT workers who hold another job ................................................. 10 Figure 6: Distribution of pay among American AMT, Indian AMT and Crowdflower workers ......... 12 Figure 7: Why are you not currently doing more crowdwork or non-crowdwork? .............................. 14 Map: Distribution of survey respondents across the world ................................................................... 29 vi Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 74 “Amazon Mechanical Turk is the core of our business. We are in a people-hungry business. All of our work is done by people. It's not mass-production; but individual hand-crafted work. Our entire workforce is Mechanical Turk. There are vast amounts of service-oriented businesses on this planet, and all of these businesses could leverage the sort of hand work that is doable on Mechanical Turk.”(emphasis added) – Nathan McFarland, Co-founder, Casting Words “In the end, I am happy that I can actually work at least in some small way, but I am overall dissatisfied with the way workers are treated, and just how difficult it is to make this job 'work'.” – AMT worker 1. Introduction1 Crowdwork is a type of work performed remotely on on-line platforms. It emerged in the second half of the 2000s with the growth of the internet and the need to have human input into a range of tasks needed for the smooth functioning of web-based industries. Workers perform the tasks as ‘independent contractors’ and are paid for task that
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