#1. Worker-Owned Apps Are Trying to Fix the Gig Economy
What would happen if gig economy workers came together to cut out the middleman and build their own platforms? This isn’t a theoretical question. Hundreds of worker-owned apps are springing up and already providing alternatives to Silicon Valley giants like Uber and Deliveroo. One such ‘platform cooperative’ is Up & Go, a home cleaning app owned by workers in New York. Launched in 2017, cleaners earn $25 per hour which is twice what they could earn independently. The platform takes a 5% cut, compared to 20% or more elsewhere. “On other apps, the owners set your wages, but we set our own wages,” notes worker-owner Esmeralda Flores.