Be your own own boss, work flexible hours, earn heaps, and take control of your future... that's the sell, but unfortunately, it doesn't match reality for many online workers in the US and around the world.

Because as well as bringing many benefits, the online economy is also enabling a largely unregulated employment market to flourish.

Jobs that pay way less than the minimum wage are now brokered via websites like CrowdFlower, Clickworker, Toluna, and Amazon's Mechanical Turk.

Alana Semuels of The Atlantic takes us inside the world of the low-wage digital worker.