Workers in the UK engaging in a rapidly growing form of unregulated online labour known as ‘microwork’ are routinely being denied the minimum wage, reports The Guardian citing an investigation by the independent thinktank Autonomy which focuses on the future of work and researchers at the University of Exeter and the London School of Economics.

The research suggests that thousands could be earning less than 4 an hour. Microworkers perform simple tasks such as identifying and captioning images to nudge along artificial intelligence operations, data entry, or simply clicking on ads to drive traffic. The industry grew during the pandemic as people were forced to work from home. A survey of 1,189 UK-based microworkers suggests that, like others in the gig economy who are not classified as employees under employment law, wages are often below the minimum wage.

The research surveyed 1,189 UK-based workers on three major crowdsourcing platforms: Clickworker, Prolific and Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Most microworkers, who number well into the millions, are from countries such as India, Kenya and Venezuela but with wages flatlining in the UK amid a cost of living crisis even such low wages are becoming increasingly attractive for UK workers. Almost two in three said they earn less than 4 an hour under piece-wage terms in which they are paid per task, with 95% making less than the UK minimum wage. The hourly rate is effectively even worse as workers must spend time securing new...

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