Introducing Fairwork in the United States

The United States is home to more gig platforms than any other country, with apps for ride-hailing, food delivery, dog walking, babysitting, warehouse work, haircuts, car washes, tutoring, snow plowing, and more. Some of the first and largest gig platforms, including Uber, were founded in the US, and more than two million workers there rely on these platforms for income.

Given the role US companies have played in shaping today’s gig economy, Fairwork is excited to announce its first year of scoring in the US. Over the next year, Fairwork US will conduct the first ratings of working conditions on US platforms. The rating process, happening in more than twenty countries around the world, compares the working conditions provided by platforms against the Fairwork Principles. Ratings equip workers and consumers to better understand the practices of platforms, and identify those which provide workers fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation.

Fairwork US will be led by Veena Dubal, Associate Professor of Law at the University of California’s Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. Dr. Dubal is a respected labor law scholar and advocate for workers and has written extensively for both academic and popular audiences on the challenges faced by platform workers. She will work closely with the Oxford-based Fairwork team, as well as with our international network of partners.

This partnership presents an opportunity to support the efforts of the millions of US-based gig workers in fighting for better conditions and a fairer gig economy.

Fairwork is grateful to the Ford Foundation for supporting this partnership.

Open Research Fellow position

We are currently recruiting a Research Fellow to join the Fairwork US team. The fellow, who will join the project for one year, will conduct primary and secondary research with and on app-based workers in the US and use that research to leverage change on behalf of gig workers. They will also work with a network of international partners and collaborate on research and publications. Candidates should have a Master’s degree and experience with research design and qualitative methods.