Working for peanuts in

I JOINED Australia’s gig economy for a day and made just under $7 per hour, which is about a third of the minimum wage.

It was an experiement, a chance to find out first hand what this new free market system was like. So I left my job at the Geelong Advertiser, just for the day, and joined the bandwagon of fellow Australians on Airtasker

A recent survey found that one in five young Australians have made money in the gig economy, through apps such as Airtasker, Uber and Deliveroo.

I made a total net profit of $55.80 between the hours of 9am and 5pm through doing odd jobs on Airtasker.

The verdict: the system is a lot of hard work, which is difficult to obtain, and often reaps little reward.

According to its website, Airtasker is a community platform connecting people who need to outsource tasks and find local services with those who are looking to earn money and are “ready to work”.

Tasks such as cleaning, handyman jobs and admin work are commonly posted on the site.

While it’s meant to offer a glimmer of hope to some who are in need of cash, workers can find themselves locked out of this employment market, unable to compete in the click frenzy. That was my experience too. I applied for 22 tasks through Airtasker and was only able to lock in two for the whole day.

Each task became swamped with offers from several people who were all fighting to snatch the one job in a desperate tussle.

I finally nabbed the job of writing a local man’s resume for $20. But it took me five hours to complete, equating to just $4 an hour.

At first, the man even attempted to try to employ me externally from Airtasker, a move which I instantly shut down in fear of not being paid at all.

He met me at a local Geelong cafe to brief me on the type of resume he wanted and then I set to work.

In between, I snapped up my next gig as a mystery shopper in Queenscliff. For just $9 net in profit, I reviewed a bakery’s customer service experience, which required me to fill out a booklet of about 50 questions.

Lucky for me, the resume

tasker gave me a $40 bonus which, after Airtasker deductions brought, my net total to $55.80 for the day.

If the man who wanted the resume written hadn’t provided the bonus, my daily wage would have been about $20 net only, which is about $2.50 an hour.

This sum is dangerously low, especially if people relied just on wages from Airtasker to earn a living.

Deakin University school of management senior lecturer Dr Keith Abbot said workers could be easily exploited through the casualised form of gig economy work, as there was no award system in

I FINALLY NABBED THE JOB OF WRITING A LOCAL MAN’S RESUME FOR $20. BUT IT TOOK ME FIVE HOURS TO COMPLETE, EQUATING TO JUST $4 AN HOUR.