In cities like New York and the Bay Area, it’s around $60. “The average hourly wage for a tasker in the U.S. While people might not be leaving corporate gigs to become taskers, Smith argues that the money gig workers can earn is significant. It’s not a category we promote, but we want to make sure our platform is as inclusive as it can be to help all kinds of customers, both on the tasker and client side.” The side-hustle boom “Taskers can help people who can’t stand in line because they’re disabled, or have other challenges. “Our platform is a marketplace,” she says. TaskRabbit constantly reviews its offerings to ensure its services are meeting consumer wants and needs, which change over time. We’re primarily focused on home-based tasks, and our partnership with Ikea is very much focused there.” “We do see that once in a while, but they’re not really the core of our product. Line Stander, she says, is a small category. There are also more critical tasks, she points out, like shoveling people’s driveways after a big snowstorm. “We have multiple categories on our platform, and the majority of our tasks are helping people around the home, with things like furniture assembly.”
“We want to provide as many opportunities as we can for taskers to earn a meaningful income,” she says. But this past year, taskers were standing in line for COVID tests and even access to the Elizabeth Holmes trial. Before the pandemic, taskers would wait in line for concert tickets, for example. TaskRabbit made national news last month for its controversial Line Stander offering, which allows taskers to make hundreds of dollars per hour to wait in line for various events or reservations. “I do really believe in giving people this opportunity to earn extra money that they can use for their families and children,” she says. She saw the same thing when working with couriers at UberEats. Smith worked on the host side of Airbnb and was attracted to the way the company provided hosts with an income stream that had the potential to be sufficient to live on. They give the people who need the extra income the flexibility.” For my family in particular, I wish these platforms existed back then. “It can be really difficult when you’re starting off, and you don’t have the foundation you could’ve had. Smith is quick to point out that “taskers get to set their own rate and take 100% of their earnings home.” Everyone from students to the elderly hire taskers, she adds. And 54% of gig workers lack employee benefits, such as social security, health insurance, paid medical leave, overtime pay, and occupational safety protections, and they aren’t earning minimum wage, NIWR research found. Workers in most gig jobs, particularly those with the lowest wages and fewest protections, are Black and Latinx, according to the National Institute for Workers’ Rights. But companies like Uber and Lyft also faced a lot of scrutiny for not providing full-time benefits for their contract workers. These jobs also provided people with extra income and flexibility when the unemployment rate held steady at over 10% in the summer of 2020, stemming from COVID-19 lockdowns. “It’s become very clear that platforms like TaskRabbit are a resource for people unable to leave their homes, or needing extra help,” she tells Fortune. Smith argues that the pandemic drew more attention to the vital role independent contractors play in our society.
Before joining TaskRabbit in September 2020, she headed courier operations at Uber and spent three years heading host services operations at Airbnb. Ania Smith, CEO of TaskRabbit, has built a career working for corporations that are at the center of the new gig economy.
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