Cloudwork

Remote work has become rapidly normalised as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend has been aided and accompanied by explosive growth in the online gig economy. With this growth has come new opportunities for workers from all over the world to participate in a planetary-scale labour market.

The Fairwork Cloudwork Ratings 2023 assesses and scores basic standards of fairness in working arrangements on 15 web-based digital labour platforms according to the five Fairwork principles: fair pay, conditions, contracts, management, and representation.

The ratings show that most cloudwork platforms are not meeting minimum standards of fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation. However, some platforms have chosen to incorporate standards of fairness into their design and operations—including as a result of engagement with Fairwork researchers. This shows that platforms can choose to address harms and injustices in the global online work economy.