The Gig Economy Makes Workers Vulnerable to Sexual Harassment
Clients have a good idea of who they’re hiring or letting into their homes, but workers don’t have the same luxury
Inviting someone to your home can be a signal of familial closeness, friendship, or sexual desire. Rarely do we let visitors into our bedrooms or onto our couches. We teach children to never open the door to strangers and to lock the door when their parents leave for work. At the same time, the sharing economy, with its focus on peer-to-peer service, often relies on unknown people entering the home of another unknown person to do things like cook (Kitchensurfing, now defunct) or sleep (Airbnb), or to clean, make minor repairs, or assemble furniture (TaskRabbit). Meanwhile, Lyft and Uber and other app-driven car services involve people getting into a stranger’s vehicle — violating one of the first “stranger danger” rules that many children learn.
In response to many people’s leeriness of strangers, sharing economy companies often promote their background-screening mechanisms. For example, TaskRabbit’s website notes that Taskers must pass an identity check, are screened for criminal offenses, and must attend an orientation. Uber drivers in New York City are required to undergo the same background checks and fingerprinting as…
