Crowdsourcing Wage Pledge Survey

In late 2017, new research revealed that the median wage earned by workers on Amazon Mechanical Turk, probably the most well-known platform for crowdsourced research, is around USD 2.00 per hour. Over 2,600 workers participated in the study. Less than 5% earned more than the US minimum wage of USD 7.25 per hour, even though more than 75% of Mechanical Turk workers are in the US and research shows that many of these workers rely on crowd work as a primary or sole source of income.

Crowdsourcing is increasingly important in research and is essential in many “artificial intelligence” applications, including self-driving cars.

The goal of this survey is to assess requesters’ interest in voluntarily committing to pay at least US minimum wage when using crowdsourcing platforms.

The intention is to assess interest especially among academic users of Mechanical Turk, but non-academic crowdsourcing requesters and requesters using other platforms are welcome to participate.

Survey Logistics

This survey is being conducted by M. Six Silberman with support from an international advisory board of researchers and requesters. The data collected will not be published or forwarded to any third party, except in aggregate form, without participants’ explicit consent.

For more information, see the Data Protection Statement or contact Silberman at silberman@platformwork.org.

The Survey

Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).

About you

First name(s) *

Last name *

Main institutional or organizational affiliation *

Official email address *

Additional institutional affiliations, if any

Crowdsourcing activity

I am, have recently been, or plan soon to be... *
an academic requester a non-academic requester an intermediary (i.e., posting tasks for other people to Mechanical Turk or other platforms) a university administrator and/or IRB/ethics board member a crowd worker for whom income earned via crowd work is economically important other

If you checked “other,” please explain:

Crowdsourcing is... *
essential to my research (or business) important to my research (or business) but not essential not that important to my research (or business) not at all important to my research (or business)

About how many tasks did you post in the last year to crowdsourcing platforms?

I already seek to pay workers completing my tasks a minimum wage: *
Yes (or sometimes) No

Why or why not? Please explain:

If you selected “yes,” what amount?

Views on wage commitment

Note: This survey is for informational purposes only. Selecting “I would commit” below is not a commitment.

Please select one of the following options. *
Note: “A minumum wage” refers to some minimum wage, not necessarily US minimum wage. I would be willing to commit to pay a minimum wage for my crowdsourcing tasks I would be willing to consider committing to pay a minimum wage for my crowdsourcing tasks I would not be willing to commit to a pay minimum for my crowdsourcing tasks

Please explain below.

If you would be willing to commit to a pay minimum, please indicate at what level. Consider:
- US minimum wage, currently USD 7.25 per hour, has been proposed as an appropriate absolute minimum for crowdsourced research tasks.
- The Russell Sage Foundation requires funding recipients in the US to pay at least minimum wage in the state where the grant recipient is located or USD 10.00 per hour, whichever is higher.
If you would be willing to consider committing to a pay minimum, please indicate at what level and under what conditions you might be willing to commit.
If you would not be willing to commit to a pay minimum, please explain why not.

I am not a robot *