Taskr reviews5/7/2023 “It’s a fallacy that it’s a race to the bottom,” he says. He says no one is forced to work at a particular time, do a job they don’t want to do, or work for a fee they’re not happy with. The minimum wage in Australia is AU$18.29 an hour (£10.27), while in the UK it is £7.50 (AU$13.34) an hour for workers aged 25 or over (£7.83 from April).Īirtasker founder and chief executive Tim Fung is well aware his company is launching in the UK in the middle of intense controversy over gig economy companies such as Deliveroo and Uber. Jobs currently up for bidding include writing a 1,000-word blogpost for a paltry AU$20 (£11), and designing a logo for AU$75 (£42). Job posters’ budgets for some creative tasks on Airtasker will make freelancers wince. People are desperate for work, even though they have no idea how big a job it is, or the time commitment.” Other hirers have very vague instructions such as ‘edit my book,’ but they don’t say how many words it is. “There are a lot of hirers looking for anything from cleaners to graphic designers at below the minimum wage. I don’t bid any more, but I’ve kept an eye on Airtasker out of curiosity as no one seems to be documenting how low the rates actually are,” she says. “There are some really low rates around which work out to AU$5 an hour. She used Airtasker to look for writing, editing and other digital work, but only completed two jobs out of the 70-odd she bid on. Jackie (not her real name) set up Twitter account to raise awareness of the downsides of the gig economy. However, many fear their ability to find work on the site will be affected if they speak out. Low pay remains one of the main reasons not all Australians are enthused with Airtasker. Trade union body Unions NSW, representing 600,000 workers in the Australian state of New South Wales, has called Airtasker a “ superhighway to serfdom”, and warns on its website that it “flagrantly disregards the minimum wage and other labour standards by encouraging workers to compete and underbid each other for bite-sized pieces of work”. They fear that the likes of Airtasker are the next step in the gig economy: driving down wages, busting union agreements and labour standards, and ignoring health and safety in a race to the bottom. Photograph: Airtaskerīut critics – and there are many – see it very differently. Airtasker is launching in the UK this month.
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