‘We’re Google’s lowest-paid workers, but we play a vital role’ — Google search raters protest pay of less than $15 an hour

The combination of low wages and lack of benefits is why Google raters converged at the company’s Mountain View headquarters Wednesday, in an effort that could affect thousands of workers in Alphabet’s multitiered workforce. The raters and the Alphabet Workers Union-Communications Workers of America implored the tech giant to raise their pay and status to at least match those of the company’s other contractors.

“We’re Google’s lowest-paid workers,” Curtis told MarketWatch in an interview ahead of the action. “But we play a vital role in its growing source of revenue.”

Google raters don’t qualify for healthcare, tuition reimbursement and other benefits Google extends to its TVCs, along with the $15 minimum-wage requirement. Raters who belong to the union joined union leaders Wednesday in delivering a petition to Google headquarters containing their demands, which include a request for a meeting between the union and Prabhakar Raghavan, a senior vice president at Google. As of midday Wednesday, the petition had almost 1,000 signatures, including 703 signatures from raters and 180 from Google employees or TVCs.

More on the Google union: What can a small union for well-paid Google workers accomplish? Quite a bit, experts say

The union said through a spokeswoman that it estimates there are about 5,000 Google raters in the U.S., who are mostly concentrated in rural areas and have hourly wages ranging from $12 to just under $15 an hour. They are directly employed by different Google subcontractors.

Curtis, who lives in the Coeur d’Alene area of Idaho, told MarketWatch that despite the low pay and lack of benefits, she has worked as a rater for eight years because she is a stay-at-home mom of two, and the job allows her to work remotely.

“We’re very educated and well-qualified for this job,” she said, adding that when she joined, raters were required to have bachelor’s degrees and pass qualification exams. Because different employers hire raters, it’s hard to determine whether the same requirements apply to all raters.

A few other raters shared their stories Wednesday at the action, which was live-streamed. They spoke not only about low pay and a lack of benefits, but also a system that they said can sometimes prevent them from doing their work.

In-depth: Unions’ push at Amazon, Apple and Starbucks could be ‘most significant moment in the American labor movement’ in decades

Teresa Partain, a rater who traveled from Kansas to take part in the action, said sometimes she’s unable to complete “tasks” because instructions aren’t clear. “We’re not able to communicate with other Google employees to help complete them,” she said.

Terri Blazek, a rater who called in from Georgia to speak during the action, said she is having problems with her vision because of a neurological condition, but “I literally do not have a manager or boss to email to try to take time off for my health.”

Another rater, Zai Snell from New Jersey, said at the action that it is important that he work remotely because his son has an autoimmune disorder and he wants to protect him. “So many people are dealing with circumstances” that necessitate working from home, he said, adding that he and his fellow raters deserve to be paid fairly and have benefits no matter where they work.

A Google spokeswoman said the company would have no comment on the action and why the company does not consider raters to be TVCs. She would not confirm the number of raters nor the number of TVCs that Google employs.

See also: Google’s U.S. layoffs affect nearly 3,000 employees on both coasts, from data scientists to massage therapists

Also at the action Wednesday was Megan Abell, senior director of advocacy for TechEquity Collaborative, a member-based Bay Area organization that encourages tech employees and companies to address equity issues in tech. Abell said Google employs 102,000 direct employees and 121,000 contract workers.

“The stories we’ve heard today of poverty benefits, terrible wages and no voice on the job are sadly not the exception,” she said. “They’re the rule for tech.”

Roberto Clack, executive director for Temp Worker Justice, agreed.

Subcontracting has “systemically driven down labor standards across America,” Clack said during the action. “These workers are fighting this rip-off work structure all over the place.”

For more: ‘It is an employer’s market’ — Tech layoffs may have turned the Great Resignation into the Great Recommitment