Major digital labor platforms in the United States are accused of misclassifying gig workers as independent contractors, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. The 155-page document titled “‘The Gig Trap’: Algorithmic, Wage and Labor Exploitation in Platform Work in the US” examines practices at seven major companies: Amazon Flex, DoorDash, Favor, Instacart, Lyft, Shipt, and Uber. These companies reportedly offer flexibility but often pay less than minimum wages due to opaque algorithmic control.
Lena Simet, senior researcher on poverty and inequality at Human Rights Watch, stated that “Digital labor platforms have created a business model that evades employer responsibilities while keeping workers under tight algorithmic control.” Workers are said to be assigned tasks and compensated through algorithms with unpredictable rules.
Human Rights Watch’s investigation focused on ride-hailing, shopping, and food delivery workers across Texas and other states. The findings highlight economic insecurity among workers who face low wages and barriers to unionizing. Surveyed Texas workers earned significantly below federal minimum wage levels.
The report underscores the issue of worker misclassification which allows companies to bypass compliance with labor laws. This includes avoiding contributions to Social Security and Medicare. According to estimates from tax data by the Census Bureau’s Nonemployer Statistics, Texas potentially lost over $111 million in unemployment insurance contributions from 2020 to 2022 due to this classification issue.
In response to inquiries from Human Rights Watch, Lyft highlighted the flexibility app-based work provides but did not address specific concerns raised in the report. Amazon met with Human Rights Watch but offered no public comment. Other companies did not respond.
Human Rights Watch calls for regulatory action from U.S. authorities like the Department of Labor and Federal Trade Commission to ensure gig worker rights are protected. Simet emphasized that “as more people are drawn to platform work,” there is a need for authorities “to guarantee them the protections they are entitled to.”
