Highlights from an ILO survey of crowdworkers Janine Berg, ILO COST meeting - Brussels 18 February, 2016
ILO surveyof crowdworkers Beyond basic demographic information, we know little about crowdworkers Who are they? How many crowdwork for a living? What other jobs do they do and what did they do before? How is the financial security of their household? Survey sample by platform and country (no. of respondents) Platform All Crowdflower AMT U.S. India Survey 1 1,167 353 686 128 Survey 2 677 -- 573 104 Source: ILO Survey of Crowdworkers.
Where are the workers?
Gender balance among US- AMT; more men elsewhere 80.0 73.1 68.8 70.0 60.0 52.1 47.9 50.0 Male 40.0 Female 31.3 30.0 26.9 20.0 10.0 0.0 CF AMT-US AMT-India
Average age is 35 years 15 10 Percent 5 0 20 40 60 80 Years
Poor health is a problem for some crowdworkers 60.0 57.0 “[Crowdwork] has 52.8 51.8 been a lifesaver for 50.0 me, I have a disability 40.0 but cannot get 34.6 benefits so this is one 28.9 30.0 24.5 of the few things I 20.0 18.1 can do without 11.7 10.2 having to stand or 10.0 3.9 2.8 walk.” – AMT worker 2.3 0.7 0.6 0.0 0.0 Very good Good Fair Poor Very poor CF AMT-US AMT-India
Education levels are high 60.0 51.6 50.0 39.1 40.0 37.3 36.7 36.5 34.1 28.4 30.0 20.7 20.1 18.7 20.0 16.9 14.1 14.3 11.1 10.0 6.3 4.0 3.9 3.4 2.3 0.8 0.0 HS diploma or less Technical certificate Some college College degree Post-graduate degree All CF AMT-US AMT-India
Tenure of Survey Respondents 60.0 50.0 47.7 40.0 32.1 All 28.6 CF 30.0 28.8 27.3 AMT-US 24.2 23.4 23.1 22.7 AMT-India 21.1 19.7 20.0 18.3 18.0 15.7 12.5 10.0 7.3 6.8 6.3 3.9 3.4 3.1 3.0 2.3 0.8 0.0 <1 month 1-6 mos. 7-12 mos. 1-2 yrs 3-4 yrs 5+ yrs
Is crowdwork your primary means of income (i.e. main job)? 80 69.25 70 63.04 62.04 60 51.2 48.8 50 37.96 Yes 40 36.96 No 30.75 30 20 10 0 All CF AMT-US AMT-India
Whichis the most important reasonwhy you do crowdwork? 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Could not find other employment I can only work from home I prefer to work from home Pay is better than other available jobs To complement pay from other jobs To earn money while going to school As a form of leisure I enjoy it Other All CF AMT-US AMT-India
60% of AMT workers who hold another job. Their employment status: 70 64.7 60 53.2 50 40 28.4 30 19.6 20 11.9 11.8 10 3.9 3.97 2.7 0 0 Hourly wage employee Salaried employee Freelancer Owner or partner in business Other AMT-USA AMT-India
Doing crowdwork while on the other job “The pay is low, but since I do it while I do my other job it is like getting paid a little extra at my other job.” • 40% perform crowdwork during the working hours of the other job • yet only 5% do so exclusively • 55% report that their employer would be accepting of them performing crowdwork while at their other job.
Main activity prior to beginning crowdwork 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 46 working the same job or running the same business 49 26 working a different job 49 4 running a business that no longer exists 17 33 unemployed 26 18 in education or training 36 26 caring for children, a disabled person or an elderly adult 33 USA India Survey 2. AMT workers only.
4 main areas of concern 1. Pay of the tasks 2. Availability of work 3. Unfair treatment by requesters 4. Lack of responsiveness of the platforms to the workers’ concerns.
Hourly pay by platform and country Crowdflower AMT - USA AMT - India Median hourly $0.94 $4.65 $1.65 pay Mean hourly $1.77 $5.55 $3.17 pay Standard $2.61 $3.97 $4.24 deviation Observations 315 667 111 Note: Trimmed at 99% and $0 responses removed. Results are from Survey 1. Source: ILO Survey of Crowdworkers.
Insufficentwork: 90% would like to do more crowdworkthan they are currently doing now Why are you not currently doing more crowdwork? 70 60 60 50 38 40 CF 36 33 AMT-US 30 AMT-India 24 20 20 18 18 14 14 9 10 7 5 4 2 0 I am not qualified for There isn't enough The pay is not good I do not have time to Other the work work enough do more work
Continuous search for tasks… For every one hour of paid work, crowdworkers average 20 minutes of unpaid work 21% regularly work six days and 39% regularly work seven days per week “The toughest part of turking for a living is actually finding the jobs, for every hour I spend working I most likely spend 2 hours monitoring the various scripts I have running to see what jobs show up.” –AMT worker “I would very much like if the tasks would open one after another for specific jobs, other than to wait great amount of time for them.” – Crowdflower worker (Serbia) “I would want to know when tasks are up so I can plan my day.” – AMT worker
94% have had work rejected/ were refused payment 40.0 " When you work at a real job, you are given time to 34.4 35.0 learn and make mistakes 30.0 and are given feedback, 24.6 25.0 but in crowdwork, the first 20.0 18.6 time you make a mistake 17.5 (usually for a task that has 15.0 vague instructions) you 10.0 are rejected and maybe 5.0 5.0 even blocked " - AMT 0.0 worker They all Most were Some were A few were They were were not
Social security contributions among US-AMT workers Do any of your jobs take out social security from your paycheck, or do you make voluntary contributions to social security? 100.0 90.6 90.0 77.0 80.0 70.0 60.0 51.5 48.5 Yes 50.0 No 40.0 30.0 23.0 20.0 9.4 10.0 0.0 All Main job Not main job
ILO’s work on on-demand economy • Part of larger work on Non-standard forms of employment. Held tripartite meeting of experts on NSFE in February 2015 and received strong mandate from constituents to continue work on topic. ⇒ See on-demand economy as broader trend of casualization of work. ⇒ Policy work on disguised and dependent self-employment. • Legal analysis of on-demand economy. Working paper on on- demand economy and fundamental principles and rights of work by Valerio De Stefano • Analyses of income security of crowdworkers. Can we devise social protection schemes that give sufficient coverage to casual workers? Do we need to reorganize work and recognize the employment relationship?
Thank you For further information, please contact: Janine Berg berg@ilo.org Please contact me before citing from this presentation.
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