Why labor?

Through its products and business practices, the tech industry is having a massive impact on how we work. Tech companies are leading a wave of twenty-first century outsourcing, weakening labor standards throughout the industry’s supply chain from Silicon Valley to Nairobi and Manila. 

At the same time, workplace technology is expanding across all industries, both in the hands of workers and in the hands of their bosses who can use these tools to monitor and surveil working people. What’s more, tech platforms are changing the very nature of work: turning skilled professions into bite-sized, on-demand gig work. It’s clear that without intervention, tech innovation will race towards automated efficiency and cost-cutting—often at the direct expense of workers.

We ensure that tech employs high labor standards and that the industry’s products and practices enable worker power rather than undermine it. We investigate inequities in the tech industry’s use of contract work and the technologies shaping how work is done, including the impact of AI and how it’s changing the labor force. 

In partnership with labor advocates and workers, we create frameworks that protect workers from harm and foster innovation that will create safer workplaces, open up new career opportunities, and improve workplace products and services.

Closing disparities in contract and data work

We investigate inequities within contract work and advocate for policy that strengthens workers’ rights.

Learn More

Tackling the AI supply chain

We work with advocates and workers in California and around the world to understand AI’s global supply chain and build frameworks to protect workers everywhere.

Learn More

The workers powering AI

Artificial intelligence is neither artificial nor intelligent. Much of AI’s “magical” automation is actually powered by contract workers in the U.S. and globally. Pick any high-profile AI product, and you’ll find contract workers behind it.

The number of workers participating in contract work has grown dramatically in recent years, in part fueled by AI, without adequate benefits and protections to ensure stability. We need to shine a light on these workers, the harms they endure, and the regulations that can ensure that the people powering AI are getting the wages and protections they deserve.

Understanding how tech impacts workers

Labor resources

Inside Tech’s Shadow Workforce – Research Update 2024

Beyond our borders – a global approach to contract work

To the California Privacy Protection Agency: Workers need data protections NOW

Why layoff protections matter: Testimony from a Google contract worker

To the White House: Our response on automated worker surveillance and management

“Inside Tech’s Shadow Workforce” – Explained

Read on

Share your story

Workers are at the core of our labor advocacy. Workers who share their stories illuminate disparities and help us convince people in power to change these conditions. Do you have a story to tell? Share your story with us to help paint an accurate picture of what it’s really like to power the tech industry. We’ll keep it as anonymous as you’d like.