Digital work signals a global race to the bottom
Digital work signals a global race to the bottom Global outsourcing of digital work brings jobs to poor nations; But it could drive a race to the bottom for wages and conditions; We must rethink ways to still protect worker rights; Online technologies could hurt workers’ rights by connecting rich and poor into one labour market, says Mark Graham. William is a 26-year-old freelancer from one of Nairobi’s slums who does search engine optimisation work. He is one of millions in low-income countries like Kenya who can use online work to transcend some of their local labour market’s constraints. My colleagues and I spoke to him as part of a multi-year research project into digital labour and development. Well-paying work is hard to come by for young people in Nairobi. But, with a computer and an internet connection, William and many like him can now, in theory, do any sort of online work and become part of the so-called ‘knowledge economy’. Yet in practice, the picture i
