Dailed Down Pay

Description

Dialed Down Pay examines the frustration of working for low wages in an economy where the value of labour can seem increasingly disconnected from the effort involved. For Rose Marinelli, the work is personal, reflecting her own experience of being underpaid and the difficulty of challenging systems that determine what a person’s time and work are worth.

At the centre of the composition, a circular control dial points decisively towards “LOW PAY”, with “HIGH PAY” positioned at the opposite end. Against a textured backdrop of indistinct figures, the dial becomes a symbol of a system in which earnings can be adjusted while the people affected have little influence over the outcome.

The work draws attention to the growing reliance on digital platforms and algorithmic processes to allocate work and determine pay. For gig workers and others operating within these systems, the mechanisms governing their earnings can be difficult to see, understand or challenge. What appears to be an impartial process can leave workers feeling powerless to influence their own financial circumstances.

The dial suggests that wages are not simply a reflection of effort, skill or contribution. They are also shaped by decisions about who holds power, how labour is valued and how much control workers have over the terms of their employment.

Through its bold graphic symbolism and cool, contrasting colours, Dialed Down Pay turns an everyday economic frustration into a broader question of fairness and accountability. It asks who controls the dial — and why the value of a person’s work can be turned down so easily.