<nettime> Low-Wage Workers & the Internet Industry (Information Observatory)

[James Jacobs <freegovinfo@gmail.com>]

Information Observatory (http://informationobservatory.info/) has published its first piece of 2016 on low-waged workers in today???s ???new??? economy.


Low-Wage Workers & the Internet Industry
January 4, 2016

"What are the overall impacts of tech companies on occupational structures, employment patterns, and labor practices? This question is large, complicated, and vital.[1]

To engage it, a meaningful starting-point pertains to low-wage workers. As well-compensated engineers and entrepreneurs have been raised up as the Internet industry???s public face, low-wage workers have become a mere afterthought. The very terms that analysts use to characterize this category of workers suffer from ambiguity and imprecision: ???flexible,??? ???independent,??? ???temporary,??? ???contingent,??? ???freelance,??? ???casual,??? ???precarious.???  The International Labor Organization (ILO) states, simply, that such workers fall within a ???non-standard form??? of employment.[2] Two facts, however, are certain. First, low-waged workers are crucial to the business models that are being advanced by Internet companies.  Second, low-wage workers in the ???new economy??? are increasingly pursuing ???old-economy???-type job struggles and demands.[3] To press ahead from here, a conception of the labor process is essential."

Full text Available at

http://informationobservatory.info/2016/01/04/low-wage-workers-the-internet-industry/



James Jacobs
freegovinfo.info
freegovinfo@gmail.com
@freegovinfo

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