Platform Employment in BRICS Countries: Effects on the Labour Market, Poverty, and Inequality

Platform employment represents a rapidly developing type of non‑standard work, mediated by online platforms and digital technologies. According to some estimates, up to 12.5 percent of the global workforce is currently engaged in some form of platform employment. In many BRICS countries, the share is substantial. Estimates derived from national surveys and statistical sources indicate that platform workers account for approximately 1.7 percent of all employed persons in Brazil. In Russia, 3.5 percent of workers are regularly employed through platforms, while an additional 12.5 percent of the working‑age population participates in platform work on an occasional basis. In India, platform workers make up about 1.5 percent of the labour force. In China, using a broad definition, the figure reaches as high as 25 percent.

The emergence of digital employment platforms expands opportunities for remote work and helps reduce spatial inequalities in labour markets by connecting workers to clients and tasks in other regions or via international platforms. Their appeal for various demographic groups lies in simplicity: quick and easy registration, flexible scheduling and format, and the ability to manage one’s own workload. For workers in the traditional economy, platforms provide a convenient source of supplementary income or a way to monetise a hobby. For vulnerable groups that face barriers in conventional labour markets—students, women with young children, persons with disabilities, and older adults—platforms can offer a pathway out of economic inactivity. By integrating these populations into the workforce, platform employment becomes a tool for reducing poverty and improving well‑being, contributing directly to the Sustainable Development Goals.

That said, platform employment is a double‑edged instrument. It offers both an opportunity and an impetus for economic development—reducing spatial, income, and infrastructural inequalities—while simultaneously posing challenges to long‑term social sustainability. Platform workers typically lack access to social protections such as paid sick leave, vacation, or pension entitlements. Over time, this can lead to declines in health and well‑being, and increase the risk of poverty in old age. These vulnerabilities became starkly visible during the pandemic that began in 2020, and since then, the situation of platform workers has drawn sustained attention from researchers and policymakers. As a result, platform employment in many countries is now undergoing a phase of institutionalisation. States are seeking effective regulatory solutions that would integrate platform work into existing labour market frameworks—without undermining the economic effects associated with its development.

Regulating platform employment has been an item on the agenda of regular meetings of BRICS ministers of labour and employment for several years. The group's shared position emphasises the need to develop a regulatory framework that encompasses all new or non‑standard forms of employment, ensuring full respect for workers' rights and access to social protection—including through social insurance mechanisms. Since 2015, these issues have formed part of broader efforts to harmonise national labour markets, including through joint assessments conducted with the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Several BRICS nations are at the forefront of developing and regulating platform employment. India, for instance, was among the first to define and formally introduce the concept of "gig worker" into legislation (The Code on Social Security, 2020). This step laid the groundwork for designing social insurance models tailored to platform workers and prompted the creation of a digital infrastructure for their implementation. Such models are currently being rolled out at the level of individual states, with the next phase aiming to extend them nationwide.

In China, which is home to one of the world's largest platform workforces, minimum wage standards and access to social security were extended to platforms in 2021. These provisions were further strengthened in 2024, with new requirements mandating compliance with regulated work schedules and maximum working hours.

Russia adopted its law on the platform economy in July 2025; it will enter into force in October 2026. The law, together with secondary legislation now being drafted, establishes for the first time the mutual rights and obligations of digital platforms and the self‑employed contractors they engage. Key provisions address the principles governing task assignment, payment procedures, and worker safety during task execution. Questions of social guarantees currently remain under discussion.

Other BRICS countries are still in the early stages of building regulatory frameworks for platform employment, but they are expected to advance in this area over the coming years as digitalisation continues to reshape society and labour markets. 

The Declaration adopted at the 11th BRICS Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting, held in 2025, explicitly includes the challenge of protecting platform workers' labour rights and ensuring their access to social security systems among its priority areas for cooperation (Paragraph 21 of the 2025 Declaration). The diversity of experience that the BRICS countries have accumulated—both in monitoring and in regulating platform employment—combined with the variations in their economic conditions, makes such collaboration particularly valuable.