Crowdsourcing And The FLSA

Microlabor — otherwise known as crowdsourcing — is a concept involving a cloud labor platform that has been around for several years. Basically, a company breaks down a large task into many smaller tasks (microtasks) and posts an open call over the Internet to a large network of unidentified individuals to take up pieces of the project. People choose to accept one of the various tasks offered to the "crowd." The individuals perform microtasking — each do a discrete remote piece of a larger project.

Payment is either in small increments of cash and in incentives (such as online game credits or points toward purchase of items). Companies that use the crowdsourcing concept consider the individuals who perform the task as independent contractors.