"Wage discrimination" as described in the article is not an unfair or illegal practice:
“Algorithmic wage discrimination” refers to a practice in which individual workers are paid different hourly wages—calculated with ever-changing formulas using granular data on location, individual behavior, demand, supply, or other factors—for broadly similar work.
Surge pricing is a form of "algorithmic wage discrimination". Driving for Uber on a Friday night will net you more than a Monday at noon. Likewise, the fact that wages are higher in expensive metros is another form of "algorithmic wage discrimination." People hired during periods of a labor shortage may have a higher wage than a co-worker hired during an economic downturn. I am skeptical many would point at these scenarios as unfair - but all of these fall under the category of "wage discrimination" as discussed in the article.
I also think this article unnecessarily injects racial messaging and leads readers to think that the algorithms are discriminating on the basis of protected class. That is not alleged in this article.
Comments
"Wage discrimination" as described in the article is not an unfair or illegal practice:
Surge pricing is a form of "algorithmic wage discrimination". Driving for Uber on a Friday night will net you more than a Monday at noon. Likewise, the fact that wages are higher in expensive metros is another form of "algorithmic wage discrimination." People hired during periods of a labor shortage may have a higher wage than a co-worker hired during an economic downturn. I am skeptical many would point at these scenarios as unfair - but all of these fall under the category of "wage discrimination" as discussed in the article.
I also think this article unnecessarily injects racial messaging and leads readers to think that the algorithms are discriminating on the basis of protected class. That is not alleged in this article.