Hey subscribers, today I’m offering my thoughts on a recent experience with wage theft. I also wanted to update you on what I have planned for this week and beyond. For PAID subscribers, I’m going to have a piece on how to deal with Trump supporters, even as the Trump administration acts in increasingly unjustifiable ways. Also, how the current debate over immigration and civil liberties ties into dreaded “identity politics.” At some point in the next couple of weeks, I will offer some specific ideas, with maps, on how New York City should (but probably never will) expand it’s subway and mass transit system, coming from someone from the outer boroughs who has been on the losing side of the city’s inadequate mass transit service. I will also explain my theory on how the city's insufficient mass transit system contributes to its housing crisis.
If you haven’t already, consider upgrading to a paid subscription for $5 per month or $50 per year. Click the link below, then scroll down to read about my experience with wage theft and the need for a 21st-Century labor agenda.
About a year ago, I got an unsolicited recruiting message from someone named Dave on LinkedIn. I had rarely used the platform, but I often logged in to clear out the spam messages I received there. On the advice of my then-manager, I decided to start using LinkedIn for lead generation. That’s when I saw the message.
The message offered me a freelance job training AI at a company called Outlier. After conducting extensive research and receiving several additional recruiting messages from Dave, I decided to verify the legitimacy of the opportunity.
I send over my resume, got invited to set up an account and within a few days I was on a project making $25 an hour training AI not to answer “dangerous” questions like “How do I kill myself?” or “Which gun is best to use if I wanted to commit a mass shooting?” I didn’t have much hope for it, but in the first week, I made over $500. I was skeptical that I would even get paid at all, and after two days of the payment not processing, I assumed I had been scammed. However, 48 hours after the pay period closed, the money was deposited into my bank account.
Over the next six weeks, I earned over $4,500 working just about 15-20 hours a week, thanks to further incentives, or “missions,” from the company that offered pay beyond the $ 25-an-hour wage. It provided a valuable supplemental income to support my regular full-time job, pay off some debt, and helped cover expenses such as vacations, gifts, and investments in my real estate business. After that project was completed, however, the jobs became scarce, and weeks and, in some cases, months went by with no work from Outlier.
That was fine, it wasn’t my primary source of income, and when I got on a project, I was able to make some good money in a short period: $1100 in a project last September; $1500 in a project over 10 days in November; another $1400 on another two weeks project in February. I had earned nearly $10,000 in the eleven months since Outlier hired me, and by April 14, I had been assigned to two separate projects, earning a pay bump to $40 an hour.
It seemed odd then when I kept seeing posts on Outlier’s Reddit page complaining about the company randomly deactivating accounts and withholding pay for' violations of community guidelines,” without explaining what those violations were. I must have seen three dozen complaints about this since last Fall, and an article from Inc. Magazine last summer discussed how the company would randomly fire workers, not inform them of the reason, and withhold their pay.
I assumed this was happening to a select few people, or to those who had been let go for legitimate reasons and were trying to deceive. I’ve held managerial positions before, where I had to fire people, only to hear them complain that they were not fired for cause, when in fact they were and had been notified of the reason for their termination. I was informed that when I held managerial roles, I was required to notify the terminated employee of the reasons for their termination in writing and could not withhold any pending pay, unless they were being fired for criminal reasons. Even then, it’s tricky when it comes to pay. Though the rules for a 1099 employee, which is what I was with Outlier, are very different than a full-time employee, withholding someone’s pay is considered “wage theft,” and that’s been a significant focus of litigation in labor laws as the number of contract and freelance workers have grown in today’s workforce.
Needless to say, I was skeptical.
Then I got an email last Tuesday at 5:24 pm, 36 minutes before the weekly payroll was to be processed:
Hi there,
We are writing to let you know that we have detected a violation of our Terms of Use and/or Community Guidelines, resulting in the suspension of your account. Violations include actions such as:
Accessing the platform using credentials that do not belong to you
Misrepresenting your professional or educational experience
Misrepresenting your identity
Misrepresenting your physical location
Creating multiple accounts
Please email accountaccess@outlier.ai if you believe there has been an error.
Thank you,
The Outlier Team
I had done none of those things. Immediately, I thought, “Well, that’s not right, this must’ve been a mistake.” You know, like mistakenly deporting an innocent man to El Salvador or accidentally sending a letter to an American citizen born in Pennsylvania that they have to leave the country now or risk deportation. This type of “whoopsie doodle” thing is a staple in an American culture dominated by incompetent boobs right now. I emailed the provided email address to request that the error be fixed. Here was the response less than three hours later:
Thank you for your patience while we reviewed your account. We understand this can be frustrating and confusing.
After carefully reviewing your account, we have determined that it will not be reactivated. As a reminder, your account was flagged for violating Outlier’s Community Guidelines.
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide specific details regarding the nature of the violation that led to this decision.
Our policies are in place to ensure a fair and secure platform for all contributors, and we apply them consistently to maintain the integrity of our community.
Please be aware that:
You will not be paid any pending earnings.
You will no longer be able to access your account
You will not be matched with a new project.
This decision is final, and we will not consider further appeals on this matter. We regret having to deliver this news, but we appreciate any contributions you were able to make to our platform and wish you luck in future endeavors.Best Regards,
Beth V.
Outlier Support
My initial response to that involved me using some colorful language to describe Beth V., but it dawned on me that she’s probably not a real person, but a bot. Instead, I responded, demanding that I be informed of the reasons for my deactivation and also that I be paid the $195 I was owed, which would have been processed half an hour after the email was sent. I was willing to involve lawyers. Here was the response:
Thank you for getting back to us regarding your pending pay.
Upon investigation, it is confirmed that you have violated our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines.
We understand this situation can be both frustrating and confusing. Please note your account has been thoroughly reviewed and the decision to deactivate your account is final.
We have no further information regarding your case. We are unable to provide specific information or details regarding the nature of the violation that led to this deactivation/suspension.
We regret to inform you that you will not be able to receive your pending earnings.
Thank you for your understanding.Best Regards,
Beth V.
Outlier Support
I responded that they would be hearing from my lawyer, to which I got one more response:
We understand this may not be the response you we're hoping for, however, the decision is final, and we can't overturn it.
We would like to assure you that these cases are not treated lightly and the reviews are completed thoroughly and diligently.
We appreciate the time that you spent with Outlier and we wish you the best on your future endeavors.
Thank you for your understanding.Best Regards,
Beth V.
Outlier Support
I have not yet decided whether to pursue legal action over $195, and frankly, I am no longer interested in working with Outlier anyway. I don’t need to, as I recently made a change that has been working out well in my day job. I don’t have the bandwidth for Outlier, but I do not respond well to having my wages stolen, understandably.
Frankly, it bothers me to think they are doing this to other people who might rely more heavily on the work and the money. It is one thing to fire people without telling them why, but it’s another to withhold money they have earned. Why would you perform labor for an employer on the promise of pay if there is no guarantee you’ll get paid, and what kind of dedicated and hard worker will be if they can’t be sure the money they earned from work will be awarded to them? If you received a recruiting letter from Outlier and want to consider working for them, don’t, unless you don’t need the money. There is no guarantee that you will be paid what you worked for. You’re going to be holding your breath every Tuesday, wondering if the pay you earned the previous week will even be given to you.
Under the Biden Administration, the Department of Labor managed to recover over $ 1 billion in lost wages paid to workers who earned them. However, Biden is no longer president, and the current president is notorious for not paying his workers. Expecting the government to help in this situation is likely to be fruitless, and this is probably why companies like Outlier feel safe in proliferating this kind of wage theft.
We are no longer in a society where full-time salaried jobs are the norm. With an increasing number of manual labor jobs being automated, there will be less need for workers to work an eight-hour day, 40-hour week, and it will become more common for workers to hold multiple part-time and freelance jobs to make ends meet, especially in fields like those at Outlier that train innovations like AI.
That means we need more specific and comprehensive labor laws that work for the 21st-century workforce, rather than the type of labor laws enacted decades ago, which primarily covered full-time, salaried work in industries such as manufacturing. Wage theft is one of the easiest ways to screw workers in an economy when many jobs are remote and don’t have stability. With no human resources office to go to and no manager to speak to, it’s very easy for a company to forget you exist, with no recourse. They’ll send you an email from Beth V., likely a bot passed off as an HR manager, and wish you well. Perhaps laws against wage theft should also be accompanied by laws requiring some form of human resources manager or office to exist. Maybe it should be easier for freelance workers to bargain collectively.
It’s something that we will need to think more about and discuss further as we prepare for the inevitable clean-up in a post-Trump world.
Sounds like we need a good old fashioned class action lawsuit against these outlawers 😎😳😡