A half-million registered users across the globe are finding work on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, where researchers and businesses called “requesters” crowdsource tasks like transcribing audio or answering surveys.  

But rather than opening up new doors for workers, Mechanical Turk has become a hellscape of the digital economy. A quarter of workers using these online job platforms can’t find work anywhere else. Instead, they rely on online odd jobs that pay a median wage of $2 an hour.   

Because crowdsourced workers are considered independent contractors rather than employees, they are not granted by minimum wage and overtime protections. Meanwhile, Amazon takes a neat 20 percent cut on what requesters pay workers, which some workers say has pushed their wages even lower. 

Crowdsourced work will only continue to grow. It’s up to us to call on Amazon to take steps to protect this vulnerable labor class.   

Amazon’s low standards have turned Mechanical Turk into a playground of worker exploitation. Requesters have the power to reject work that doesn’t meet their standards, leaving workers with no pay to show for their precious time. Workers say requesters routinely underestimate how long a task will take. 

The decentralized marketplace encourages businesses to see workers as inanimate cogs in its digital machine. But behind the algorithms, working people are suffering. “I’ve felt so ripped off that I’ve walked away and cried,” said one Mechanical Turk worker of her experiences being underpaid on the platform. 

Companies like Amazon and Uber tell us this “gig economy” is the way of the future. And they’re right -- more and more workers are flocking to crowdsourced work sites like Mechanical Turk. But without basic regulations and worker protections, Mechanical Turk is a step backwards for workers rights. That’s why we’re coming together now to stand with crowdsourced workers and demand basic protections like minimum wage.