Project: Digging into Digital Work in Serbia: Who are crowdworkers from Serbia and why they work on global digital platforms?24Sep2018
A digital Worker Earns Less Than $ 1,000 a Month
The earnings of digital workers seem unattainable to those employed in other spheres. But is the real gain that great and what are the disadvantages of this type of work? What characterizes the digital work and workers? Branka Andjelkovic, a programme director, spoke for Politika newspaper about these and other questions raised in the Center's research on digital workers' status in Serbia (published on September 24, 2018).
Based on the data which Andjelkovic introduced to the readers, it is concluded that a typical digital worker from Serbia is on average 33 years old, as well as that almost a half of all digital workers live in Belgrade. Most are engaged in the field of software development, followed by creative industry and multimedia work, and finally translation and writing.
One of the main reasons for getting involved in platform work shows to be an urge to earn extra money on the side, which accounts for 28 percent of participants, another is the fact that the income is better than the one made at a traditional job (17 percent). Twelve percent of the survey participants said they could not find another job, reveals Andjelkovic, and adds that the survey shows the average gross salary for men to be about $ 1,000, and for women about $ 217 a week.
High average wages are, however, an image of a small number of successful digital workers, who earn significantly more than the rest of their colleagues. In fact, only eight percent of women and eleven percent of men earn more than $ 1,000 gross a week. However, this data about the average pay should be considered together with the data about the profitability of some of the skills. IT and creative industry jobs bring more money than writing and translation. Men often do jobs in the IT industry, while women are more often engaged in writing and translating texts - says Andjelkovic.