Digital technologies have led to the emergence of new forms of flexible work, such as crowdwork or information and communication technology-enabled mobile work, over the past decade. This is considered as a positive development for its high flexibility in hours and place of work, and also for providing employment opportunities to workers in developing countries, individuals with disabilities or those with care responsibilities. This article examines the on-going trend in outsourcing low-skilled work to the crowd through online platforms, and how platform design features and algorithmic management are used by digital labour platforms to assign, monitor and evaluate work. The paper argues that these distinctive features of digital platforms have an impact on working conditions in terms of access to tasks, remuneration and working time flexibility. The paper draws on a global survey of 675 workers on five globally operating platforms in 27 developing countries. Its findings highlight the need for transparency in platform architecture, design and algorithms to ensure that workers are protected from the vulnerabilities they face with digital work.

Digital labour platforms have been increasingly gaining popularity over the past decade. In particular, there has been much debate about workers’ motivations and working conditions on microtask platforms. There exists little evidence on whether dependence on digital microtask platforms provides workers with work and income security in the long term and whether it provides opportunities for skill development. This paper explores the extent to which the seemingly flexible platform work ensures work and income security and provides opportunities for skill development for workers with different levels of experience, based on novel survey data collected on five globally operating microtask platforms and in-depth interviews with workers. The findings show that despite high financial dependence on this work, returns to experience on the platform are meagre in terms of earnings, and highly experienced workers face the same risks as new entrants with regard to discrimination, high work intensity, lack of autonomy and control over work, and social protection. There is also a skills gap between the nature of tasks available on these microtask platforms and the workers’ education levels. Finally, experience does not ensure that workers have the opportunities to undertake complex and challenging tasks, and the possibilities to develop their skills and improve career prospects are limited.

The chapter looks at the impact of changing work patterns on poverty and income inequalities and discusses policy implications from the findings based on micro‐data from 40 countries. It finds that, on average, the standard form of employment is better remunerated than other types of work. Temporary and informal workers, part‐time workers and unpaid family workers, many of whom are women, are also disproportionately affected by poverty and social exclusion. Given the rise of non‐standard work forms and the increasing gap between the top and bottom, in many countries market income inequality has remained high or increased since the mid‐2000s. Despite this, some countries have been able to reduce poverty rates and disposable income inequality in the same time period, mainly by pursuing combinations of social protection and labour market policies.

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of poverty in the world today – covering both recent trends and the current situation – taking into consideration income‐based poverty as well as non‐income dimensions, such as access to basic services. It also examines the incidence of poverty across a range of socio‐economic groups, geographic regions, employment statuses and skill levels. Estimates of poverty used in this chapter have been compiled for over 100 countries across developed, emerging and developing countries, representing around 85 per cent of the global population. This is the first time that data of this nature have been collected for such a wide range of countries, permitting a novel analysis of the role of decent work in tackling poverty in all its dimensions.