Challenging boundaries: exploring pricing strategies, and unpaid labour time to explain earning disparities in online labour markets

Abstract

This paper challenges the prevailing perception of the boundless nature of Online Labour Markets (OLMs), where platforms connect service providers, such as online freelancers or workers, with clients. The focus is specifically on the pricing strategies employed by online freelancers on Upwork, a prominent international freelance platform. This article contributes empirically and theoretically to debates on the purported boundlessness of OLMs. It illustrates how online freelancers, when confronted with the rules and practices of platform algorithms, develop distinct strategies to navigate the challenges and access work across regional boundaries. Importantly, our findings reveal that despite adopting similar pricing strategies there are earnings disparities among freelancers across regional boundaries. Consequently, unpaid labour time incurred by workers in developing countries while providing services through the platform becomes a discernible cost borne by freelancers in their pursuit of accessing more lucrative opportunities.