Supporting Gig Worker Needs and Advancing Policy Through Worker-Centered Data-Sharing

Abstract: The proliferating adoption of platform-based gig work increasingly raises concerns for worker conditions. Past studies documented how platforms leveraged design to exploit labor, withheld information to generate power asymmetries, and left workers alone to manage logistical overheads as well as social isolation. However, researchers also called attention to the potential of helping workers overcome such costs via worker-led datasharing, which can enable collective actions and mutual aid among workers, while offering advocates, lawmakers and regulatory bodies insights for improving work conditions. To understand stakeholders' desiderata for a data-sharing system (i.e. functionality and policy initiatives that it can serve), we interviewed 11 policy domain experts in the U.S. and conducted co-design workshops with 14 active gig workers across four domains. Our results outline policymakers' prioritized initiatives, information needs, and (mis)alignments with workers' concerns and desires around data collectives. We offer design recommendations for data-sharing systems that support worker needs while bringing us closer to legislation that promote more thriving and equitable gig work futures.