Airtasker is a platform for people to bid on jobs that they wish to complete in exchange for an agreed fee.
It’s a great platform, people download an app and after submitting their ID and CC details they can submit jobs which workers then anonymously submit their price to complete the work.
Tasks can range from house cleaning, lawn mowing, or even a few things from left field such as ‘do my shopping for me’ or ‘send me a cleaner who is ok with nudity’.
As our particular business is house cleaning we have seen many ads posted that relate to this subject, and we have even completed a couple on this platform. We have also noticed several problems with using the app when bidding on jobs and general problems with jobs being posted
People can select their desired duties required of a cleaner when posting the task, such as how many bedrooms, bathroom and if they require an oven cleaning or some other small extras. We have seen many jobs posted that are 3 or 4 bedrooms and also want these little extras done – such as one hour for an oven clean, and one hour to clean inside some cabinets (for example). If you allow one hour per bedroom (as we do), an hour for an oven and an hour for other extras – you are looking at least a 6 hour job to complete properly, but most likely more.
The average price suggested by the poster of these jobs is between $100 and $150. People willing to complete this task can obviously bid higher than this, but the system is designed to create a blind bidding war, and they’re basing their bid from the task description and the posters budget. I have seen many postings with cleaners bickering in comments and calling each other scammers also.
Assuming someone bids on the higher end of this task and gets the job for $150. The task should take around 6 hours according to our own findings and what the poster has requested. Straightaway airtasker takes a fee of 20% from the person earning the money, so this then becomes $120. This then gives the person performing the task $20 per hour, which is below minimum wage.
Something has to give when somebody is earning this much, either the quality of the work will drop (because they’re being paid unfairly) or they will not complete the task to the customers satisfaction. All of this does not include travel time, which should be a factor when it comes to cleaner.
They are not travelling to the same job for 8 hours per day, they are travelling all across Brisbane – which comes out of their hourly rate while cleaning homes at below minimum wage.
Part of our aim at BayMaids is to create a fair platform where cleaners can earn a living wage and also have good working conditions, without being forced by either the economy or bidding platforms designed to suck dollars out of the person completing often difficult work. Airtasker is not going to be there for you if a cleaner does not perform to a required standard, or accidently breaks something at your property. We are biased but this is another perfect example of why you should choose a local business, who supply good conditions for a worker and who are a focused on providing exceptional customer service.