Carpet like a Google employee: Get a salary of 3 USD / hour, less than a person working at a fast food restaurant

Many times these people have to view and rate malicious content.

Ed Stackhouse is an employee of data collection company Appen. His job is to evaluate the ranking of search results on Google with a salary of less than 3 USD / hour. According to Stackhouse, this amount is less than the income of his daughter who works at a fast food restaurant.

Stackhouse told the Los Angeles Times that he and his colleagues “have the worst salaries in America.” While it works with some third-party contractors, Google doesn’t decide on the pay and benefits of employees like Stackhouse because they’re not considered employees of the company.

“Reviewers” help Google “categorize information to improve the system”. That means Stackhouse sometimes has to view and rate violent or pornographic content. If these sensitive content is rejected, the reviewer will be reduced to work. Therefore, they usually do not require a work limit.

“Malicious content appeared many times in my dreams. This is the reason I never work late again. I will quit my job,” Stackhouse added.

In addition, Stackhouse said he also saw a few search results written by Google’s AI chatbot Bard. His job is to judge right from wrong, appropriate or scary.

Stackhouse is a member of the Alphabet Workers Union, which is fighting for reviewers to receive poor wages, no benefits, and the same treatment as other employees in Google’s workforce. . Employees doing this job are only paid from 10 to 12 USD/hour. But after months of protests, some were raised to $14 to $14.5 an hour.

Google says it has more than 10,000 reviewers around the world. According to Forbes, only about 3,000-5,000 people get a raise.

In April 2019, Google announced a minimum standard wage of $15/hour or more for its expanding workforce in the US. This means that even with a raise, some employees still do not receive the standard salary. However, the reviewers work part-time and do not have access to Google’s system. Therefore, the company’s salary and welfare policy does not apply to them.

Parul Koul, a software engineer at Google and executive chairman of the Alphabet Workers Union, told Business Insider that any employee working for the search giant “shouldn’t be struggling to get by.” earn a living”.

“We support Google’s reviewers. We want to demand that Google provide them with minimal benefits and meet face-to-face to negotiate the fair working conditions they deserve.” Koul added.

Stackhouse now lives in Asheville, where the living wage for an adult with one child is $39.49. The average salary here is 7.25 USD/hour. Stackhouse did not disclose what position his daughter works at the fast food restaurant.

The minimum wage in Buncombe County, NC is $7.25. Stackhouse did not tell the Los Angeles Times how much his daughter makes or what her role in the fast food business is.

According to the Times, Stackhouse has a serious heart condition that requires medical treatment but is not eligible for benefits because Appen limits his working hours to 26 hours a week, making him a part-time employee.

Source: Business Insider, LATimes