IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ilo/ilowps/994906483402676.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

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

Author

Listed:
  • Berg, Janine.

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Berg, Janine., 2016. "Income security in the on-demand economy : findings and policy lessons from a survey of crowdworkers," ILO Working Papers 994906483402676, International Labour Organization.
    • Handle: RePEc:ilo:ilowps:994906483402676
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2016/490648.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:ilo:ilowps:375000 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Simon Deakin, 2005. "The comparative evolution of the employment relationship," Working Papers wp317, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    3. repec:ilo:ilowps:994908893402676 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. De Stefano, Valerio., 2016. "The rise of the "just-in-time workforce" : on-demand work, crowdwork and labour protection in the "gig-economy"," ILO Working Papers 994899823402676, International Labour Organization.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michele Cantarella & Chiara Strozzi, 2021. "Workers in the crowd: the labor market impact of the online platform economy [An evaluation of instrumental variable strategies for estimating the effects of catholic schooling]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(6), pages 1429-1458.
    2. Angela Garcia Calvo & Martin Kenney & John Zysman, 2023. "Understanding work in the online platform economy: the narrow, the broad, and the systemic perspectives," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 32(4), pages 795-814.
    3. Valeria Andreoni, 2020. "The Trap of Success: A Paradox of Scale for Sharing Economy and Degrowth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-17, April.
    4. Valerio De Stefano & Antonio Aloisi, 2018. "European legal framework for "digital labour platforms"," JRC Research Reports JRC112243, Joint Research Centre.
    5. Parker, Owen N. & Mui, Rachel & Bhawe, Nachiket & Semadeni, Matthew, 2022. "Insight or ignorance: How collaborative history in a workgroup fits with project type to shape performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 154-167.
    6. Grohmann, Rafael & Pereira, Gabriel & Guerra, Abel & Abilio, Ludmila Costhek & Moreschi, Bruno & Jurno, Amanda, 2022. "Platform scams: Brazilian workers’ experiences of dishonest and uncertain algorithmic management," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115622, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Bereitschaft, Bradley, 2020. "Gentrification and the evolution of commuting behavior within America's urban cores, 2000–2015," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    8. Ramón Cobo-Reyes & Gabriel Katz & Thomas Markussen & Simone Meraglia, 2022. "Voting on sanctioning institutions in open and closed communities: experimental evidence," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 58(3), pages 619-677, April.
    9. Evgeny Popov & Anna Veretennikova & Alisa Safronova, 2020. "Mathematical Support for Financing Social Innovations," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-25, December.
    10. Waqas Shair, 2020. "Is Optimizing Or Non-Optimizing Objective Of A Firm In The Gig Economy? A Chronological Approach," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 9(2), pages 101-105, June.
    11. Ian Clark & Trevor Colling, 2018. "Work in Britain's Informal Economy: Learning from Road†Side Hand Car Washes," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(2), pages 320-341, June.
    12. Aleksynska, Mariya & Bastrakova, Anastasia & Kharchenko, Natalia Nikolaevna, 2019. "Working Conditions on Digital Labour Platforms: Evidence from a Leading Labour Supply Economy," IZA Discussion Papers 12245, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Alexander Oluka, 2024. "The impact of digital platforms on traditional market structures," Technology audit and production reserves, PC TECHNOLOGY CENTER, vol. 2(4(76)), pages 21-29, April.
    14. Francesco Bogliacino & Valeria Cirillo & Cristiano Codagnone & Marta Fana & Francisco Lupanez-Villanueva & Giuseppe A Veltri, 2019. "Shaping individual preferences for social protection: the case of platform workers," LEM Papers Series 2019/21, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    15. Skrzek-Lubasińska, Małgorzata & Szaban, Jolanta M., 2019. "Nomenclature and harmonised criteria for the self-employment categorisation. An approach pursuant to a systematic review of the literature," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 376-386.
    16. Kazakova, E. & Sandomirskaia, M. & Suvorov, A. & Khazhgerieva, A. & Shavshin, R., 2023. "Platforms, online labor markets, and crowdsourcing. Part 1. Traditional online labor market," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 120-148.
    17. Carlo Vercellone & Francesco Brancaccio & Alfonso Giuliani & Federico Puletti & Giulia Rocchi & Pierluigi Vattimo, 2018. "Data-driven disruptive commons-based models," Working Papers halshs-01952141, HAL.
    18. Carlo Vercellone & Francesco Brancaccio & Alfonso Giuliani & Federico Puletti & Giulia Rocchi & Pierluigi Vattimo, 2018. "Data-driven disruptive commons-based models," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01952141, HAL.
    19. Bin Chen & Tao Liu & Yingqi Wang, 2020. "Volatile Fragility: New Employment Forms and Disrupted Employment Protection in the New Economy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-14, February.
    20. Hardt, Lukas & Barrett, John & Taylor, Peter G. & Foxon, Timothy J., 2021. "What structural change is needed for a post-growth economy: A framework of analysis and empirical evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ilo:ilowps:994906483402676. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Vesa Sivunen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ilounch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.