Inside the online sweatshops

Posted on 6 Aug 2010 at 15:52

It's easy to see why. PriceRunner, for example, pays between 10p and 33p for surfers clicking through on adverts using the Commission Junction affiliate, although it pays more – up to a princely 40p a click, depending on click quality – for webmasters affiliated directly with the price-comparison site.

It's a drop in the ocean to the sharp end of the business. According to eConsultancy, Britons spent a record £14.7bn over the web in 2008, with £3.82bn in sales coming through affiliate programmes.

Elance

Another work aggregation site, Elance, lets would-be freelancers bid for contracts, with those offering the work often accepting the lowest bid. There are good contracts available on the site, but the blind bidding process, along with competition from around the world, means freelancers may have to pitch well below their usual rates.

“You may be one of 50 or more 'professionals' bidding on the same project,” said graphic design artist Peter Beach in his blog. “The absolute worst time to be anywhere near these sites is during a deep recession, where employers know creatives are desperate and easy prey for acceptance of sub-standard fees.”

And then there are the fees. Even if you do win a contract, Elance will take between 6.75% and 8.75% in commission from the payment.

Elance defended its business model. “Elance is a marketplace of talent and there is no question that there is competition on the site, however the odds of finding a good job are probably significantly better than sending a blind resume to a company for those willing to invest the time and effort,” said Ellen Pack, vice-president for marketing at Elance.

“Hourly rates range from $5/hour to $150/hour. While I think working online should not be presented as an easy way to make money, and it is not for everyone, I do not think it is any more competitive than the current job market,” she added.

Online rights?

With workers being paid mere pence an hour for their efforts on some of these sites, are the employers flouting labour laws? According to legal experts, there is no protection under employment law for such schemes as they are classed as self employment.

“Unfortunately, the National Minimum Wage, like so many other protective statutory measures, does not apply to self-employed workers,” said Caroline Walker, founder of Cavendish Law.

“The result is often that those who carry out online or casual work do so for surprisingly low rates of pay, with no job security or protection from unfair terms and practices," she said.

“There are some advantages to carrying out work of this kind, namely the ability to work flexible hours, freedom to work for other companies and scope to work from home, often meaning there is no shortage of willing participants.”

Supporters of these schemes also point out that no-one is forcing anyone to undertake the work, and that if someone is willing to toil for a pittance then good luck to them. Trade unions disagree, saying that anyone undertaking work deserves proper remuneration.

"The TUC supports new ways of making it easier for people to find work but those doing work via the internet should not mistreated,” a spokesperson for the Trades Union Congress told PC Pro.

Author: Stewart Mitchell

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User comments

Joe from MediaPiston

Stewart,

Thanks for mentioning our young company, MediaPiston in your article.

MediaPiston is a pre-release service, and evolving every day. As such, it does have bugs, and I apologize if we couldn't get the information you were looking for. We're working on a better system of communication between the writers, our staff and the customers.

One thing I'd like to share is that MediaPiston's focus is on high quality -- and that means high pay. Although your $4.25 assignment took an hour, for writers in our system doing dozens of these every day, they go much faster.

Also, MediaPiston is unique in that we apply more scrutiny to new contributors and we reward higher pay and better assignments to demonstrated loyality and consistent high quality.

Unlike a lot of other crowdsourcing platforms that are based on a premise of "lowest bid wins the deal", we believe in higher pay for higher quality and we're building out our system with that philosophy in mind. We believe it will be one of the many things that set us apart.

Best regards,
Joe from MediaPiston

By jheitzeb on 9 Aug 2010

Too quick to judge

The author of this article is too quick to judge. If you actually read some of the research with respect to MechTurk worker's motivation, you would understand that the majority are doing it for fun, out of boredom, or to kill time. Also, many people who are on MechTurk supplying hits are researchers and graduate students who often pay out of pocket to get data for research projects. Research helps society on a whole and is not for profit. Last, I don't think the research community would appreciate our studies being referred to as "menial" or "mindless". Perhaps you should learn a little more about people's motivations before being so quick to judge. Or is it all about getting a good story?

By research1 on 9 Aug 2010

By the way...

The research on motivation for MechTurk workers can be found at: Current Directions in Psychological Science under: Burhmester, Kwang, & Gosling.

I am not defending major corporations who HAVE the money to pay decent wages, but simply find it cost effective not to. However, I am defending the research community who, on a whole, cannot afford their research expenses as it is....and those efforts are to serve mankind in general.

By research1 on 9 Aug 2010

You're spot on.

I've been turking for a few months now, and can attest to the fact that Mr. Mitchell's experiences are typical.

Self-serving denials like MediaPiston's and research1's are typical as well. Most requesters I've dealt with seem to have convinced themselves that they are, if anything OVER-paying, as if it takes no longer to compose a sentence than it does to read one.

It's sickening, but if you need the money desperately enough, you're going to keep going there, tip-toeing through the list of job offers like the minefield it is.

By dualienoted on 9 Aug 2010

Turker Worker

I think your experience with MTurk represents that of most people on their first day or so looking through the site. There are a lot of tasks that are not worth doing, this is true. But many of the tasks are nearly mindless. If you can be making $1.50 an hour while watching a movie or doing other stuff, why not?

Likewise, if you are willing to devote some time and hard work, requesters often reward you with higher and higher qualifications. By doing this, I have been able to get some batches of HITs that pay between $10-$20 an hour.

You're right, MTurk is never something I would rely on for rent or as a full time job. But in my free time? Make a couple extra hundred a month? Yes please.

By araenel on 13 Aug 2010

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