Does Upwork pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Upwork employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.6 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Upwork. This rating has decreased by 1% over the last 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at Upwork?

60% of Upwork employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated Upwork 4.1 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.6 for culture and values and 3.5 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at Upwork?

Software Engineer (23) , Senior Software Engineer (20) , Account Manager (19) , Freelancer (19) , Account Executive (16) , Enterprise Account Executive (15) , Software Developer (12) , Enterprise Account Manager (11) , Product Manager (11) , Business Development Representative (BDR) (10) , Virtual Assistant (10) , Data Analyst (9) , Manager (9) , Customer Service Representative (8) , Director (8)

What are the pros of working at Upwork according to real employee reviews?

"Most people are great (there are some truly brilliant people here)" ((in 59 reviews)); "Great benefits including remote" ((in 35 reviews)); "Flexible working hours and work from home." ((in 27 reviews)); "Pay is good and nice" ((in 23 reviews)); "Great team and dynamic was very supportive." ((in 22 reviews))

What are the cons of working at Upwork according to real employee reviews?

"Frequent organizational changes and layoffs, impacting long" ((in 33 reviews)); "bad leadership and a lot of feedback" ((in 29 reviews)); "The management lacked the tools needed to support their teams." ((in 17 reviews)); "My direct manager had never even sold in her life." ((in 11 reviews)); "Salaries are obscure and no bonus for overseas employees compared to Full time employees" ((in 8 reviews))

What are employees saying about Upwork layoffs in 2026?

Explore Glassdoor’s employee reviews to understand what current and former employees are saying about Upwork layoffs and their outlook for job security at Upwork in 2026.

Skip to content Skip to footer

Notifications

Upwork

Upwork reviews

Compare reviews

3.8

60% would recommend to a friend

(630 total reviews)

Hayden Brown

57% approve of CEO

44% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

4.1

Work/Life balance

3.9

Diversity & inclusion

3.6

Culture & values

3.6

Compensation and benefits

3.5

Career opportunities

3.3

Senior management

Upwork has an employee rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 630 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Upwork employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Informationstechnologie industry (3.9 stars).

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

Sexual orientation

Disability

Parent or family caregiver

Veteran status

Reviews by job title

630 reviews

5.0

Jun 10, 2021

Great Promise, but Questionable Leadership

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Lots of smart people who are a pleasure to work with Good benefits and pay Good support of remote work Good worklife balance outside of end of month/end of quarter periods.

Cons

Leadership consists of folks who aren't suited for success. Multiple years of disappointing outcomes have resulted in Upwork shaking up the reports under those managers and still yielding similarly disappointing outcomes. At what point are the people in charge and setting the vision going to be held responsible and replaced?

1.0

Feb 11, 2020

Chicago office has no idea what they are doing

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

free breakfast and free lunch

Cons

the Chicago office has no direction, continue to not be able to deliver on promises, constantly change parameters, fire people left and right, and have quite a few spineless managers. all you have to do is take a look at upwork's stock price to understand what type of company it is. they do not care about their employees at all and are extremely two-faced.

2.0

Apr 8, 2016

Slow Execution

Manager

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Everyone really is empowered by the mission that work is no longer a place

Cons

Micromanagement and many unnecessary reviews with the CEO and multiple players of management. The CEO is too involved in the day to day minutiae and not with the vision and strategy. Also, they replaced their CFO and CAO with the General counsel, who has no finance/IPO Experience.

Upwork Response

10y

Thanks for taking time to provide feedback. I'd love to hear more feedback and welcome suggestions for how to improve. Please swing by sometime so we can discuss.

Viewing 67 - 69 of 630 Reviews

Top companies for "Compensation and Benefits" near you

Google

4.5★Compensation & Benefits

Yandex

3.8★Compensation & Benefits

Amazon

3.7★Compensation & Benefits

Criteo

3.8★Compensation & Benefits

Jobs at Upwork

Human Resources Manager

Upwork reviews FAQs

Reviews Upwork reviews

Upwork

Upwork reviews

Ratings by category

Ratings by demographic groups

Reviews by job title

Great Promise, but Questionable Leadership

Chicago office has no idea what they are doing

Slow Execution

Top companies for "Compensation and Benefits" near you

Jobs at Upwork

Upwork reviews FAQs

Want the inside scoop on your own company?

Bowls

Followed companies

Job searches

Top companies for "Compensation and Benefits" near you

Upwork reviews FAQs

Jobs at Upwork