Lmst

Pluralistic: What's a "gig work minimum wage" (17 Feb 2026)

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/17/no-piecework/

A robotaxi may take you to your destination, but you know what it can’t do? Close its own door. In Atlanta, a Waymo called a DoorDasher to come to its aid.

An autonomous service. Until it isn’t.

New piece on how humans are being turned into on-call stabilisation hardware for “smart” systems:

https://medium.com/@Diogo_Mendes/meatspace-8ab3cc96b0c7

#ai #automation #gigwork

I spent two days gigging at RentAHuman and didn't make a single cent https://arstechni.ca/86bh #marketing #gigwork #aibots #AI

Beneath The Wage: Tips, Tasks, and Gigs in the Age of Service Work

Annie McClanahan

(Zone Books)

"Today, 80 percent of U.S. workers do service work, from delivering takeout to mopping floors to teaching. Each time we are handed a bag of groceries or a cup of coffee, call for a cab or have our homework graded, we confront both the enormity and the intimacy of the contemporary service sector.

Do these jobs have anything in common? Who is doing this work? And what kind of labor politics does it generate?

If service work has often been treated as a footnote to modern capitalism, Beneath the Wage reveals it as crucial to understanding how exploitation functions today. Uncovering a history that runs from eighteenth-century servants to present-day gig workers, Annie McClanahan retheorizes capitalism from the perspective of the service economy, challenging conventional assumptions about how work is waged, regulated, managed, and automated.

Assembling a diverse set of sources for understanding and reimagining service work—from reality television and conceptual poetry to novels and workers’ own descriptions of what they do—McClanahan explores three paradigmatic types of contemporary service labor: superexploited tipwork, deskilled clerical microwork, and informalized gigwork. She shows how work done “beneath the wage” depends on racialized and gendered forms of economic domination, is often excluded from labor organizing and regulation, and yet has begun to generate a new politics of social reproduction and solidarity."

https://www.zonebooks.org/books/293-beneath-the-wage-tips-tasks-and-gigs-in-the-age-of-service-work

#GigEconomy #FoodDelivery #GigWork #InformalEconomy

Gig-work delivery jobs are getting more dangerous
#GigWork #DeliveryWorkers #WorkersRights #LabourJustice #PrecariousWork #PlatformEconomy #Unionize #RoadSafety #BikeInfrastructure #MigrantWorkers #AlgorithmicControl #Canada #PublicPolicy #SocialJustice
https://the-14.com/gig-work-delivery-jobs-are-getting-more-dangerous/

The delivery robots being trialed in Leeds

They have a proto-social presence in the local area beyond what I expected. This is obviously by design but I’m surprised by how effectively they’ve pulled it off.

#automation #capitalism #gigWork #platformCapitalism #robotics #robots

Uber vs. DoorDash deliveries for me today (an Aussie public holiday):

- DoorDash: Five deliveries in 3hrs (rejected an additional five as too far): $43.57 plus tips.
- Uber: No deliveries in three hours, no offers.

#Delivery #DeliveryDriver #GigWork

Screenshot of Uber earnings in a 3hr period on Australia Day.

As shown, no deliveries, because there was no assigned requests during that time.

Screenshot of DoorDash earnings for a 3hr period on an Australian public holiday.

Accepted fire assignments, earned $43.57 with tips. Also rejected five other offers because too far.

Gig sounds like a little bit of a fancy term, but the reality is it's flexible employment: Kapoor https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/india/swiggy-executive-says-delivery-jobs-are-flexible-employment-warns-against-misapplying-formal-norms-q8h5o0ot?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #Swiggy #gigwork #RohitKapoor

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal clarifies gig worker strike impact, 10-minute delivery model safety, insurance, and career progression. Get the facts now! https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/india/zomato-ceo-gig-worker-strike-delivery-clarification-ugmtek7a?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #ZomatoCEO #DeepinderGoyal #gigwork #deliverymodel #foodeliveryapp

AI “Companion Bots” Actually Run by Exploited Kenyans, Worker Claims

"How do you explain that you get paid to tell strangers you love them while your real family sleeps three meters away?"

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-companion-chatbots-kenya

#AI #Africa #GlobalSouth #GigWork

Cần bạn tham gia khảo sát 5 phút từ dự án sinh viên về công việc tự do và startup kỹ năng! Ý kiến của bạn sẽ góp phần xây dựng nền tảng bán hàng linh hoạt hỗ trợ AI (gợi ý mô hình đào tạo, gamification...). Đóng góp ngay để hỗ trợ phát triển dự án nhé! #NghiênCứu #NghềNghiệp #KhảoSátMáyLạnh #StartUp #AI #CôngNghiệp40 #Research #GigWork #SideHustle #StudentProject #AIPowered

https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1pkpv2u/survey_student_project/

I'd be happy to work for cheap on any paid projects while I look for a job -- provided they fit my skillset. I'm great with Python and machine learning, I've worked on ML research and developed novel ML algorithms, and I also have tons of experience working with automated file transfers, databases, automated Excel reporting, and probably other things you may find useful. Just ask! I take pride in doing quality work, and I'm a really clever monkey. :)

#Jobs #MachineLearning #JobOpportunities #Python #ETL #ResearchJobs #AI #Algorithms #FediHire #FediHired #GetFediHired #GetFediBHired #GigWork

Spreadsheets!!!
Filled in my #dasher tracking sheet today and added a chart!

This one shows most of the stores I've got orders from since I started tracking that more closely in March. (there is a 'long tail' of <5 orders on the right that is not included in the picture.)

No big surprises for me in here. McDs and Dairy Queen are the 'bread and butter' locations. Other good performers pop up as the number of orders declines including NoodleBox, Boston Pizza, and Walmart.

Little Valley and Panago are good ones on the less frequent side.

7-11 is frequent, but pay is terrible.

“Walmart SFS" is their package delivery vs. grocery. It's an anomaly. It does not allow tips, and the orders are generally 5-10 packages at a time per offer which is why it has the most orders, but the very little cash.

I'm also always considering these numbers geographically... as in, where is the best place to stage myself for the most pay. There is a 'north' and 'south' side of town and It's not a clear choice.

#PortAlberni #DasherLife #DoorDash #Uber #GigWork #Charts #Data #Spreadsheet #AppleNumbers

A column graph showing columns with blue areas on bottom and green on top. Green is tips, blue is base pay from door dash. There are dollar amounts in each bar area and there is a red number at the top of each bar showing the number of deliveries.

The Y axis of the chart is in dollars from $0 to $1500.
The X axis shows names of stores.

$1,500
$1,400
$1,300
$1,200
$1,100
$1,000
$900
$800
$700
$600
$500
$400
$300
$200
$100
$0
351
$281
Walmart SFS
234
$525
178
$368
$956
McD South
$833
Dairy Queen
140
$176
$367
7-11 Redford 22134
138
$312
$669
McD North
113
$267
$458
Spice Hut
104
$314
$430
Noodlebox
96-
$214
$464
A&W
95
$272
$364
Alberni Sushi
86
$234
$375
Wendy's
84
$275
$456
Boston Pizza
82
$248
$339
Spice7
79
$230
$462
Walmart
75
$301
$284
Driftwood
70
- $168
$258
BarBurrito
67
$127
$258
Cascadia
63
$117
49
$147
$241
Subway Johnston 11928
60
$81
$190
7-11 Johnston 27086
$163
Little Valley
48
$99
$170
Subway Redford 41068
44
$76
$173
Pizza Hut
43
$141
$191
$181
36
$105
$187
$50
$130
19
$315
$77
$47
$.
Panago
Pizza Pizza
Papa Johns
PItaPit
Quesada
Uber Reward
Tims Johnson 101462
Tims Redford 105208
Landmark
11
$33
$37
Wildflower
10
$30
$53
Bombers Café
RHM Donair and Subs

My son has a nascent photography business. He's talented and something may actually come of it. Right now he's storing all of his raw and processed images on our family NAS, which means they're being backed up nightly into the cloud. I just calculated that they're currently about $2 of our monthly backup storage cost, and slowly growing.
Do I charge his business for the storage?
#parenting #finance #gigWork

Obviously, #NorthKorea knows how to use the #GigWork-based #Enshittification of not just #IT but also other #Jobs.

And no, forcing people into #cubicles won't solve this problem!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7x0gvfFa0Q

Supreme Court rules #Uber drivers are employees in #NewZealand, opening door for #SickLeave, #HolidayPay, and #MinimumWage. #Gig companies warn of collapse if forced to pay decent wage.

https://www.thepost.co.nz/business/360888599/end-road-uber-appeals-after-top-court-rules-drivers-should-be-treated-employees

#union #unions #GigWork #Wellington #KatherineRich #EmmaFoley #WorkersFirst #capitalism #exploitation #ClassWar #corruption

Door Dasher Life Fun Facts: This might be useful to think of when you're rating your Dasher.... Who's at fault in this situation?

Let's say I accept an offer for McDonalds.
I head straight there... pull up to the store, and as I walk in the app buzzes again with a 2nd order for the same McDs.

Naturally, I accept. (not accepting reduces my Acceptance rate and potentially my ability to get new offers).

Now I have two orders at the same place! Great! Efficient!

The first order comes up quickly, I put it in my bag, 'pick it up' in the app, and wait for the 2nd order.

Now the fun begins. The restaurant says the 2nd order will be 10 minutes beyond the pickup time. I notify the app, and both customers of the wait... and I wait... and wait... if I remove the 2nd order from my app it affects my completion rate *and* means the customer has to wait for another dasher to come along.

Eventually the 2nd order is ready and I head out to make the deliveries. Both of course now late.. the first potentially cold (even in an insulated bag) *and* late.

In addition, sometimes, often a day or two later, the dasher will receive a “Contract Violation” for the lateness. 3 Contract Violations in a short period and you can be deactivated.

So... there ya go. It happens. I'm never sure what the best course of action is... unless both orders are immediately ready, which you can never predict, someone will end up losing; the store, customer, dasher, or a mix of all three.

#DasherLife #GigWork #DoorDash #Uber

P.S. It's worth noting that Door Dash is the only service I know of that is this strict. Uber Eats does not have mechanisms like this (at least in my experience). Never used Skip, so can't say on that.

I wonder what regulatory pressure might have been involved here. DoorDash's Crimson Card (their debit card where they instantly send payouts) has always been a pain in the ass to move money out of, having to wait several days in order to do so. I always figured it was so that they could mine the data from your purchases, knowing that many dashers can't afford to wait several days to put money in their own account and they'll instead have to use the Crimson Card. The conspiracy theorist in me believes that they track your gas purchases on the card and give you shittier offers when they think your tank is full, betting that you'll be more likely to take those bad offers on a full tank than a near-empty one.

Well, now, for a two dollar fee, you can immediately move your own damn money into your own damn account instantly, where DoorDash can't see what you do with it.

Finally.

#doordash #dasher #GigWork #GigEconomy