Income security in the on-demand economy: findings and policy lessons from a survey of crowdworkers

Janine Berg

ILO Working Papers from International Labour Organization

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.

Keywords: guaranteed income; social assistance; workers rights; precarious employment; casual workers.; job insecurity; working conditions; work organization; survey.; revenu garanti; assistance sociale; droits des travailleurs; emploi précaire; travailleur occasionnel; insécurité de l'emploi; conditions de travail; organisation du travail; enquête; ingreso garantizado; asistencia social; derechos de los trabajadores; empleo precario; trabajador ocasional; inseguridad laboral; condiciones de trabajo; organización del trabajo; encuesta (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (66)

Published in Conditions of work and employment series

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2016/490648.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ilo:ilowps:994906483402676

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ILO Working Papers from International Labour Organization Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Vesa Sivunen ().