gig economy

Humans as a Service: The Promise and Perils of Work in the Gig Economy

by Jeremias Prassl  · 7 May 2018  · 491pp  · 77,650 words

offer much more than mere matchmaking services: they are in the business of digital work intermediation. To deliver tightly curated products and services to customers, gig-economy operators actively shape the entire transaction by means of close control over their workforce: from setting terms and con- ditions and checking relevant qualifications, to

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workers and tasks; user ratings also provide quality control and feedback, and digital payment systems render the entire transaction cashless. This is the ‘platform paradox’: gig-economy operators present themselves as marketplaces, even though, in reality, they often act like traditional employ- ers. Instead of passive matchmaking, platforms rely on rating systems

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of a ‘sharing economy’. Superficial * * * 8 Introduction as this may seem, language matters. This is the central theme of Chapter 2, ‘Doublespeak’. Discussions of the gig economy to date have been characterized by a clash of narratives—‘simple stories [that] distort multifaceted realities’, in the words of Frank Pasquale:16 platforms either

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that platforms’ inherently exploitative practices should be banned altogether. Neither suggestion will detain us for long. Matters become more interesting once we turn to the gig economy’s two central claims in refuting traditional employment laws: entrepreneurship and innovation. There is plenty of evidence for elements of both when platforms’ innovative use

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can play a crucial role in ‘Levelling the Playing Field’. Chapter 6 returns to questions of consumer protection and tax enforcement to show how characterizing gig-economy ‘micro- entrepreneurs’ as workers and platforms as their employers closes down avenues for exploiting regulatory arbitrage, corrects negative externalities, and avoids asset misallocation. At a

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fundamental level, the gig economy’s problems—for workers, con- sumers, taxpayers, and markets—are all driven by a single issue: by presenting themselves as mere intermediaries rather than powerful

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, order their food through Deliveroo, request handyman assistance from TaskRabbit, and out- source small digital tasks on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Welcome to the gig economy. The ramifications are far-reaching. Traditional companies are replaced by platforms; their long-term employees recast as independent entrepreneurs. The platform economy, Professor Orly Lobel

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sophisticated algorithms connect workers and customers, and exercise ongoing control over the ensuing relationships. We then chart the astonishing variety and global growth of the gig economy, with a particular emphasis on the underlying business model: how do platforms make money? Finally, we turn to the broader impacts of digital work intermediation

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offer, each platform operates as a digital labour intermediary: matching consumer demand with workers from its pool—and exercising close control over the entire relationship. Gig-economy services can be accessed with hitherto unimaginable ease (and often at much cheaper prices) once consumers have registered their personal and credit card details with

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arbitrage and negative externalities are at the core of most platforms’ valuations. Matching and Intermediation We have already seen how the dominant story behind the gig economy’s commercial success is one of platforms’ vastly superior matching opportunities, unlocking and creating surplus value in the economy. Platforms then reap a * * * The Economics

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language of markets—but they operate like old- fashioned employers, relying on technology to exercise tight control over their workforce. Tomassetti doesn’t deny that gig-economy platforms have dramatically lowered transaction cost in comparison with established competitors. Lowering transaction cost alone, however, cannot account for platforms’ phenomenal valuations and claims to

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‘not have the freedom to determine their own working patterns’.57 The US National Employment Law Project (NELP) has been a similarly vocal critic of gig-economy work, highlighting ‘micro wages’ and exploit- ative working conditions.58 Unpredictable consumer demand makes flexi- bility illusory; invasive data collection denies users privacy; workers

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equally are these distributed? Commentators * * * 28 Work on Demand are concerned about the entrenchment of a two-tiered labour market. As The Economist has noted, gig-economy entrepreneurs: have created a plethora of on-demand companies that put time-starved urban professionals in timely contact with job-starved workers, creating a sometimes

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implications of the competing stories we have encountered—for they are crucial building blocks in shaping narratives about, and thus the legal regulation of, the gig economy. * * * * * * 2 Doublespeak P ‘ olitical language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness’, wrote George Orwell in 1946. ‘When there is

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nothing surprising about such lobbying efforts in and of themselves, of course: every industry seeks to create positive public perceptions of its * * * 34 Doublespeak activities. Gig-economy doublespeak, however, raises a much more funda- mental point. Its narratives are not mere marketing tools; they are designed to cultivate particular political and regulatory

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of language in rebranding work and shaping regu- latory responses. Zero-hours work is criticized for worker exploitation, low * * * 42 Doublespeak wages, and insecurity; the gig economy is lauded for fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. Language Matters We no longer talk of ‘work’. The enthusiastic language of ‘gigs’, ‘tasks’, ‘rides’, ‘lifts’, ‘hustles’, ‘hits

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—casting platforms as community actors, rather than economic oper- ators, and rebranding employment as freelance entrepreneurship. Peers, Neighbours, Friends In the early days of the gig economy, observers were faced with a discourse of ‘collaborative consumption’,37 peer-to-peer sharing, and neighbours helping neighbours: ‘Rideshare with Lyft. Lyft is your friend

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first surfaced, examples of hideous corporate-speak abound in today’s business world, from euphemistic CEO missives to * * * Rebranding Work 45 misleading product descriptions. ‘The gig economy, however,’ she argues, ‘has taken such abuse to an entirely new and dubious level . . . language has become a weapon to be used in direct defiance

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to employment law. Rebranding old-school labour intermediation as an exciting new technological innovation thus poses a fundamental challenge to existing regulatory structures: if the gig economy is a radically new way of organizing work, old-fashioned employment law should no longer apply. Entrepreneurship and Innovation In these accounts, the on-demand

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stimulating diversity, grapple with the exhilarating challenges, and reap the vast financial rewards of entrepreneurship. * * * 46 Doublespeak It gets even better: micro-entrepreneurship in the gig economy is char- acterized as a tool for inclusive growth in times of secular stagnation, bring- ing more and more citizens into gainful economic activity. Given

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and owned ‘key assets used to provide the underlying service’ should be classified as service providers.66 Even those uncomfortable with the legislative classification of gig- economy workers as independent contractors eschew employment status. At the least radical end of the spectrum, we find proposals to create a ‘third’ employment status for

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Princeton economist who has repeatedly collaborated with on-demand platforms, have argued in favour of the statutory introduction of a third, intermediate category to capture gig-economy workers. Their ‘independent worker’ would be entitled to some protection, including collective bargaining rights and elements of social security provision, whilst being denied recourse to

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at a first par- allel with historical developments when exploring how Taylorist control led to low wages and harsh working conditions for gig-economy workers. But it is not only gig-economy working conditions for which there is ample historical precedent; the parallels are much starker than that. The very business model of the

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tasks instead of complex jobs; powerful intermediaries controlling large workforces; * * * Nothing New under the Sun 73 hybrid arrangements between open market and closed hierarchies: the gig economy is but the latest (and perhaps the most extreme) example of labour- market practices that have been around for centuries. Nothing New under the Sun

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govern- ment entities).’6 Drawing on the work of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) economists Tom Malone, Joanne Yates, and Robert Benjamin, Sundararajan suggests that gig-economy innovation will fundamentally reshape our economy by incentivizing entrepreneurs to move away from the hierarchical organization of business in large corporations towards open markets: ‘[A

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promises of high income and were subsequently detained with promises of future earning opportunities—or threats of lawsuits against them and their families.22 The gig economy has similarly unlocked new ways of tapping into otherwise idle time through increased labour-market participation for traditionally excluded groups, from immigrant workers to homebound

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on-demand work? Governments across the world have long struggled to develop policies that increase labour-market participation and bring traditionally excluded groups into work. Gig-economy innovation, it appears, has finally delivered a tool towards that elusive goal. History, however, warns us of a darker consequence: as entrepreneurs pass the risks

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as a radically new and innova- tive economic model to bring entrepreneurship to all is a crucial step in * * * 84 The Innovation Paradox shielding the gig economy against increasing regulatory efforts to hold both intermediaries and those ultimately benefiting from the work responsible for compliance with tax laws and employment regulation. Not

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fragmentation don’t. [A] fragmented and discon- nected workforce will find it much more difficult to harness their group genius.’80 In other words, the gig economy’s highly individualistic, task-by- task model of independent contracting fundamentally undermines many of the proven (if serendipitous) conditions required for innovation to prosper. The

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steps are wide- reaching: employment law protects workers against many of the difficulties Humans as a Service: The Promise and Perils of Work in the Gig Economy. First Edition. Jeremias Prassl. © Jeremias Prassl 2018. Published 2018 by Oxford University Press. * * * 94 Disrupting the Disruptors we encountered thus far—without threatening the flexibility

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to overcome some of these obstacles, with new unions such as the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) actively engaged in organizing gig-economy workers.64 Given that gig-economy workers heavily rely on their smartphones and computers, organizing is increasingly taking place over the Internet and communica- tion apps. The results are

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access to basic legal advice.70 In future, unions or workers’ collectives might even set up their own platforms—or develop international certification standards for gig-economy operators who agree to design their business models in line with appropriate employment standards.71 The success of individual initiatives notwithstanding, the overall problems for

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industrial action. Rights vs Flexibility? In making the case for employment protection, there is one final argument we need to tackle: the myth that many gig-economy workers might not actually want employment law rights, because they enjoy the flexibility that independent contracting brings. Employment law, this narrative suggests, is downright harmful

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, and complementary to, existing norms. * * * Rights vs Flexibility? 117 Restoring employment law responsibility will bring huge benefits to workers—and is key to ensuring the gig economy’s long-term sustainability. Consumers, taxpayers, and even platforms themselves will ultimately benefit from a marketplace in which everybody plays by the rules. Let’s

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to public funds. * * * 130 Levelling the Playing Field Revisiting the Business Model Perhaps the most important consequence, however, would be a fundamental change to the gig-economy business model itself. In Chapter 1, we encoun- tered a series of competing explanations of the industry’s economics. Some argued that platforms create value

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of documents, it has quickly become dominated by language- and pattern-recognition software.15 For now, it seems more likely that automation will drive further gig- economy growth. Technology increasingly allows traditional jobs to be broken down into discrete tasks. Think of a commercial lawyer advising on a merger transaction: traditionally, she

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.16 Automation will almost certainly destroy some jobs—but we should be careful about assuming that it will have significant short-term consequences for the gig economy. Remember the goal behind Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk)? To provide artificial artificial intelligence, by getting humans to do what computers cannot. Rethinking Employment

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. Steven Hill, Raw Deal (St Martin’s Press 2015), 11. 40. Mariano Mamertino of economics consultancy Indeed, as cited in Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), Gig Economy: The Uberisation of Work (REC 2016), 52. 41. Elance-Odesk, Annual Impact Report (Elance-Odesk 2014), 23, https://blog-static. odesk.com/content/Elance-oDeskAnnualImpactReport2014

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identified as key benefit’, ORB International (10 October 2016), https://perma.cc/H983-VE3Z 74. Work and Pensions Committee, Oral Evidence: Self-Employment and the Gig Economy (HC 847, 2016–17), Response to Q188 (Heidi Allen MP), http://data. parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/ work-and-pensions-committee/selfemployment-and-the

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, but I am exceptionally grateful for the discussions, indus- try insights, and challenges offered by government officials, international organizations, employer representatives, trade unions, academics, and gig- economy platforms—including in particular Uber’s Amit Singh and Guy Levin. I was fortunate to receive feedback on a first draft of the book from

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Work The Platform Paradox Labour as a Technology Making the Gig Economy Work Platforms as a Service Exploring the Gig Economy Charting Solutions A Broader Perspective 1. Work on Demand Understanding the Gig Economy Digital Work Intermediation How Big Is the Gig Economy? Explosive Growth The Economics of the Gig Economy Matching and Intermediation Regulatory Arbitrage Cash Burn Network Effects

The Gig Economy: A Critical Introduction

by Jamie Woodcock and Mark Graham  · 17 Jan 2020  · 207pp  · 59,298 words

did we write this book? What will the book cover? Notes 1 Where did the gig economy come from? The preconditions that shape the gig economy The rise of the gig economy Notes 2 How does the gig economy work? What is a platform? The case of Uber The geographically tethered model The cloudwork model Understanding how platforms

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Appendix: Draft Convention on Platform Work Notes References Index End User License Agreement List of Figures Chapter 1 Figure 1 The preconditions that shape the gig economy Chapter 2 Figure 2 The spatiality and temporality of platform work Figure 3(a) The availability of cloudwork Figure 3(b) The location of cloudworkers

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Conclusion Figure 5 Transparency Figure 6 Accountability Figure 7 Worker power Figure 8 Democratic ownership List of Tables Chapter 2 Table 1 Governance in the gig economy The Gig Economy A Critical Introduction Jamie Woodcock Mark Graham polity Copyright © Jamie Woodcock and Mark Graham 2020 The right of Jamie Woodcock and Mark Graham to

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just describe it, but also to shape it so that it can become more just and fair. What do we mean by the gig economy? The ‘gig’ in the term ‘gig economy’ refers back to the short-term arrangements typical of a musical event. An aspiring musician might celebrate getting a gig, or tell

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some of the key social, economic and political implications of these transformations of work – providing an account of the development, debates and operation of the gig economy. These themes are then further explored by looking at the experience of gig workers themselves, as well as considering emerging forms of resistance and pathways

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towards less exploitative forms of work. Why did we write this book? Both authors have studied work, and workers, in the gig economy in various ways since the gig economy took off, including extended periods of on-the-ground research in the UK, the Philippines, Vietnam, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, South

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a significant erosion of working conditions, the other of hard work, but new opportunities, capture the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of the phenomenon. The gig economy is full of other such stories: stories of hope, success, desperation, exploitation and everything in between. In this book, we draw on a combination of

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the docks and in factories. We then introduce the political economy, technological and social preconditions that have facilitated the rise of the gig economy. In chapter 2, we explore how the gig economy works by examining the platforms that organize this work. This involves first exploring how work platforms serve as intermediaries, then using

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’ (Mitropoulos, 2005: 12). It is easy to observe the growth of this kind of precarious work, including temping, outsourcing, agency work and the gig economy. However, growth in the gig economy is not only driven by the private sector. In the UK, the largest employer of precarious workers is the state. There has been

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in the book. We have outlined this brief history of work to make the point that the precarious nature of work in the gig economy is not new. However, the gig economy represents a transformation and reorganization of work significant enough for us to be concerned about it. In the rest of this chapter

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, we argue that there are three key factors that have facilitated the growth of the gig economy. Firstly, broad political shifts taking place in the economy including worker power, state regulation and globalization and outsourcing. Secondly, the technological changes and new networks

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and times, but we would argue that, together, they influence how most people think about today’s gig economy. Although we use the term ‘gig economy’ in its singular form, we acknowledge that there are actually myriad gig economies all over the world that are experienced in significantly different ways. In other words, the experiences, practices

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have supported this. Platform infrastructure operates in a similar way to the stream mill, providing the technical basis for new organizations of work in the gig economy. The platform provides the ability for so-called technology companies to employ (or claim not to employ) large numbers of distributed workers. Early platforms were

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key driver in moving work away from the traditional organizational structure of the firm and into the organizational forms of the contemporary gig economy. First, in their role as connectors, gig economy firms are now able to reach ever greater populations of clients and workers. This is especially important for the recruitment process (i

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of humanity has now been connected to the global network. Consumer attitudes and preferences New economic activity requires consumer demand. An important precondition for the gig economy is therefore preferences and desires of end users and consumers. In some industries platforms have to encourage entirely new demands and behaviours. In others, they

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market activation policies that are forcing workers into low-paid work, often subsidized by the state. Alongside these policies, some countries are actively encouraging the gig economy as a potential source of economic prosperity and progress. South Korea, for instance, is investing public money in platforms in the hope that they will

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are more likely to act unilaterally, without the checks of collective bargaining or negotiation. Globalization and outsourcing The final precondition that has deeply shaped the gig economy in its current form is a combination of political economy and technology: the effects of globalization and outsourcing. This is a development and intensification of

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scale up or down in response to changing market conditions, and quickly adapt existing models to new contexts. The rise of the gig economy This chapter has shown that the gig economy is characterized by not just firms using platforms to create two-sided marketplaces that connect buyers and sellers and services. It is

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2017: 69). Gig work has to become numerically dominant to have far-reaching effects. As Callum Cant (2019) argues in his book on Deliveroo, the gig economy operates as a capitalist laboratory through which new techniques of management, control, worker exploitation and the extraction of profit are tested and refined. The success

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.kr/www/biz/2018/08/367_253635.html. 7. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/conemp.nr0.htm 2 How does the gig economy work? This chapter is about how gig economy platforms operate. It takes examples from two fundamentally different types of gig work – geographically tethered work and cloudwork, to illustrate how they

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effects, by employing cross-subsidization to draw in different user groups, and by having a designed core architecture that governs the interaction possibilities. For the gig economy, as we have written elsewhere, ‘the common feature of all digital labour platforms is that they offer tools to bring together the supply of, and

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employer would deploy. Across both cloudwork types and geographically tethered work, platforms present themselves as different to traditional waged employment. At the core of the gig economy is a controversy over the classification of the people involved. In most countries, work can be categorized as conducted by an employee or someone who

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required the development of technology that can do this efficiently, reliably and cost-effectively. The preconditions that we have argued facilitate the growth of the gig economy can be clearly identified in this model. The changes in political economy have created a deregulated environment in which the platform can position itself as

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spatial patterns of social organization, new dimensions of inequality and new relations of domination and dependence’. In order to make sense of this in the gig economy, we have distinguished between the different kinds of platforms and their relative spatial control, temporal control, ability of workers to set pay rates, task discretion

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-owed-thousands-in-holiday-and-sick-pay 14. See https://ig.ft.com/uber-game/ 15. See https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/26/gig-economy-flexibility-exploitation-record-employment-low-wages-zero-hours 16. See Capetalk (2016) [LISTEN] How much does Sweepsouth pay its domestic workers? Capetalk, 27 February.

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are required to successfully organize, finding new weaknesses in the control of work (Woodcock, 2018b). There is therefore a learning process taking place in the gig economy, as workers find new and emerging forms of resistance and organization. Worker resistance and organizing has historically drawn on the fact that workplaces tended to

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://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-seattle-unions/u-s-court-revives-challenge-to-seattles-uber-lyft-union-law-idUSKBN1IC27C Conclusion: What next for the gig economy? The gig economy is not just a synonym for algorithmic wizardry, large datasets and cutting-edge technologies. Whenever we think (or indeed research or write) about work

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necessarily involves workers. This means actual people with complex lives, working in relationships with each other. When talking about the numbers of workers in the gig economy across the world, the everyday lived experiences of these workers can fade into the background. After all, with millions of stories, we cannot possibly as

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that are harder to grasp. When workers become numbers that are graphed or plotted, their agency – whether collective or individual – fades into the background. The gig economy thereby risks being understood as something that is done to workers, rather than something they engage with, create and produce, in different ways. While we

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for labour power have ushered in a world of work that represents a departure from older ways of organizing the labour process. But today’s gig economy is not just enabled by technology. Particular political and social circumstances – consumer attitudes and preferences, gendered and racialized relationships of work, permissive regulatory environments, ineffective

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). This is happening across sectors and around the world as a result of particular technological, social, political and economic preconditions. Work, for those in the gig economy, is on demand, no longer embedded in organizations, and mediated by platforms that capture significant rents. It is often characterized by informational opacity and asymmetry

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just how the machine works, we want to try to envision some alternative mechanics. We have done this framed around four problematic characteristics of the gig economy: a lack of transparency, accountability, worker power and democratic ownership. In some cases, we propose tweaks to the machine; in others we propose a

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the impacts of our actions. Building mutual understanding about work and working conditions is a starting point for larger structural change. Narratives about what the gig economy is need to be taken away from its current gatekeepers. By building more transparency about the nature of platform work, workers and their advocates lay

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is really needed for genuine positive change is for platform workers to have, create and take more power in their collective destinies. Workers in the gig economy have potential ‘associational power’ (Silver, 2003). This power comes from the ability of workers, brought together at work, to act collectively in their interests.

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union, big tent domestic unions, international union federations like UNI Global, or unions like the Industrial Workers of the World. What matters is simply that gig economy workers find ways of collective bargaining, and that they are able to build the associational power, symbolic power and structural power that would be required

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-dollar companies. Trebor Scholz (2017b: 47), who argues for ‘platform cooperatives’ (platforms that are democratically governed and cooperatively owned), proposes an alternative model for the gig economy that begins with a thought experiment: Just for one moment imagine that the algorithmic heart of any of these citadels of anti-unionism could be

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to embed that power, and focus that regulation, on building more democratic institutions that occupy key nodes of information exchange in the digital economy. Multiple gig economy models have emerged, ranging from general online freelancing platforms, which are necessarily limited in the amount of control that they can exert on work, to

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transportation and care work platforms, which are characterized by extremely high levels of explicit coordination and power asymmetry. But what all gig economy models have in common is a defining logic that seeks to shift maximal risk and minimal reward onto workers. Platform companies achieve this through technologies

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. Alternate Routes, 29: 242–53. Graham, M., Hjorth, I. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2017a) Digital labour and development: Impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 23(2): 135–162. Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, V., Wood, A., Barnard, H., Hjorth, I. and

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) The Urban Experience. Oxford: Blackwell. Harvey, D. (2007) A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Heeks, R. (2017) Decent work and the digital gig economy: A developing country perspective on employment impacts and standards in online outsourcing, crowdwork, etc. Paper No. 71. Manchester: Centre for Development Informatics, Global Development Institute

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-opportunity-in-the-digital-age Manyika, J., Lund, S., Bughin, J., Robinson, K., Mischke, J. and Mahajan, D. (2016), Independent work: Choice, necessity, and the gig economy. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Featured%20Insights/Employment%20and%20Growth/Independent%20work%20Choice%20necessity%20and%20the%20gig%20economy/Independent-Work-Choice-necessity

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-and-the-gig-economy-Full-report.ashx Marlow, J. (1971) The Tolpuddle Martyrs. London: History Book Club. Marx, K. (1845) Theses on Feuerbach. Available at: https://www.marxists.org

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, 33(1): 56–75. Wood, A., Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, A. and Hjorth, I. (2019b) Networked but commodified: The (dis)embeddedness of digital labour in the gig economy. Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038519828906 Woodcock, J. (2014a) The workers’ inquiry from Trotskyism to Operaismo: A political methodology for investigating the workplace. Ephemera

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racism 30 ratings strategy and transparency 122–3 Ravenelle, Alexandrea 37, 70 Raw, Louise 14 Reagan, Ronald 34 reddit 123 regulation 144 lack of for gig economy workers 128–9 labour law 19, 114, 117, 126, 128 state 19, 33–6 regulatory entrepreneurship 49 repeat transactions and platforms 68 resistance see worker

The Gig Economy: The Complete Guide to Getting Better Work, Taking More Time Off, and Financing the Life You Want

by Diane Mulcahy  · 8 Nov 2016  · 229pp  · 61,482 words

referenced over and over throughout our new, independent careers.” —Billy Cripe, Chief Marketing Officer, Field Nation Diane Mulcahy deftly covers the fundamental drivers of the Gig Economy, as well as the mindset and behaviors you’ll need to succeed in this brave new world of DIY careers. Her research pierces our entrenched

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for understanding these changes and navigating them with your greatest goals in mind. —Dave McLaughlin, General Manager, Eastern US & Canada, We Work THE Gig ECONOMY DIANE MULCAHY THE Gig ECONOMY THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO GETTING Better Work, TAKING More Time Off, AND FINANCING THE Life You Want! DISCLAIMERS This publication does not provide financial

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Want 8. Be Financially Flexible 9. Think Access, Not Ownership 10. Save for a Traditional Retirement . . . but Don’t Plan on Having One The Future Gig Economy Acknowledgments Notes Index Free Sample From THE ECONOMY OF YOU By Kimberly Palmer About AMACOM INTRODUCTION Take this job and shove it. —JOHNNY PAYCHECK Five

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and career ladder on one end, and unemployment on the other end, then the broad range and variety of alternative work in between is the Gig Economy. The Gig Economy includes consulting and contractor arrangements, part-time jobs, temp assignments, freelancing, self-employment, side gigs, and on-demand work through platforms like Upwork and

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at many U.S. colleges and universities. How long will it be before this teaching model moves into our public school system? The more the Gig Economy demonstrates that white-collar and professional work can be restructured, contracted out, and purchased more cheaply, the more disruptive it feels. TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES: Somehow, when

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better work. By disaggregating work from a job, workers can realize levels of autonomy, flexibility, and control that have been traditionally unavailable to employees. The Gig Economy is also disrupting how we live. Our traditional highly leveraged, high-fixed-cost lifestyle won’t work as well in an economy of variable work

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life, and finding satisfying work that helps achieve your vision of professional and personal success. So, stop looking for a job, and start creating your Gig Economy life. Part One GETTING BETTER Work · Chapter One · DEFINE YOUR SUCCESS This is the beginning of anything you want . . . —ANONYMOUS Our earliest ideas of success

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decision, we can challenge our assumptions and, in many cases, find a better and more satisfying and option. Adopt an Opportunity Mindset Succeeding in the Gig Economy requires us to work in different ways—not always as full-time employees—and to think about work differently by shifting from an Employee Mindset

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security, and increasingly avoid hiring full-time employees, maintaining the Employee Mindset is unrealistic and highly risky. A less-risky approach to succeeding in the Gig Economy is to transition to the more proactive Opportunity Mindset. Workers with Opportunity Mindsets see themselves as active creators, builders, and architects of their own career

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of us to succeed—leverage our existing skills, experience, and interests into a diverse portfolio of multiple gigs. Diversification is the new normal of the Gig Economy. Diversifying our work reduces our risk, opens up new opportunities, expands our networks, and develops our skills. Diversifying our interests brings balance and variety to

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personal coaching for her clients. Her firm is thriving. Create Income Security by Keeping Fixed Costs Low The variable, changeable nature of work in the Gig Economy doesn’t easily support a highly leveraged, high-fixed-cost lifestyle. It’s difficult, risky, and stressful to commit to high monthly debt payments or

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costs low and manageable so the income needed to cover them is reasonably easy for us to earn. When I interviewed independent workers in the Gig Economy—from authors and speakers with lucrative consulting gigs to freelancing recent graduates with lower levels of income—they all emphasized the importance of maintaining a

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, Stride Health, and Honest Dollar are other organizations and startups that are creating online platforms and solutions to help independent workers access benefits. As the Gig Economy continues to disaggregate workers from jobs, we can expect to see more demand and more options emerge for purchasing customized and portable benefits. INCOME SECURITY

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online introductions to other attendees. This technology is helping turn big conferences into targeted, efficient, and curated opportunities to connect. Outbound Connect by Creating Your Gig Economy Pitch Job titles used to be an easy, shorthand way to convey where we were in our careers and what our skills and competencies were

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out and continue cultivating your connections. INBOUND AND OUTBOUND CONNECTING IS THE NEW NETWORKING Connecting with the right people is critical to succeed in the Gig Economy. Other people are our greatest source of ideas, opportunities, and referrals. We have to generate our own opportunities and plan to change jobs, gigs, and

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projects frequently in the Gig Economy, so finding ways that we feel comfortable connecting with others is essential to our success. To build connections without networking, consider: What ways of Inbound

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an incredible year of travel, learning, experiences, and time together. Looking back, I consider that year one of my biggest and most meaningful accomplishments. The Gig Economy requires us to think about time off differently. Instead of being granted two to three weeks of annual paid vacation from our job, we can

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dissatisfied with rigid schedules that force them to work in ways that are inefficient or less productive and acquire poor time-management habits. Fortunately, the Gig Economy offers us options for escaping this lose-lose dysfunction of the corporate time suck. Independent workers retain autonomy, control, and flexibility over their workday and

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are reasonably free to schedule and allocate their time to maximize their productivity and results. The Gig Economy values skills above all, so in-demand talent, strong performers, and employees with a good exit strategy are also well positioned to retain control of

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chores with mental ones such as listening or talking, we can accomplish both efficiently and effectively. BEING MINDFUL ABOUT TIME IS THE NEW BUSY The Gig Economy gives us greater opportunity to take greater ownership of our time and align our time with our priorities. As you contemplate restructuring your time, consider

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chapter to explore concrete ways to restructure your finances and increase financial flexibility in your own life. Increase Financial Flexibility by Making More Money The Gig Economy presents us with numerous opportunities to generate additional income on our own schedule. We can monetize side gigs (which we discussed in detail in chapter

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your means. You are more financially flexible and more financially secure. Increase Financial Flexibility by Creating a Financial Plan In the uncertain environment of the Gig Economy, a financial plan is essential. Research shows that across income levels, households that engage in financial planning are more likely to save for emergencies, save

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, insurance, and savings.4 Interestingly, the majority of this group of comprehensive planners reports an annual household income below $100,000. Independent workers in the Gig Economy have more financial management responsibilities than the average household. We need a plan to cover volatile income streams and periods of unemployment. If we do

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like Intuit (makers of TurboTax), AND CO, and FreshBooks are developing tools targeted to independent workers to manage taxes, expenses, budgeting, and invoicing. As the Gig Economy grows, we can expect to see more apps and startups create tools to help manage the back office and financial planning needs of independent workers

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. FINANCIAL FLEXIBILITY IS THE NEW LIVING PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK Succeeding in the Gig Economy requires us to be financially flexible and implement a different, more deliberate approach to managing money. Without a steady paycheck, we have to rethink and

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funds, like Social Security, appear unreliable at best and insolvent at worst, depending on your generation. There are three discrete possibilities to retire in the Gig Economy: Save to finance a traditional retirement Plan to work longer and retire later Create a new vision of retirement Let’s look at each in

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turn. Save to Finance a Traditional Retirement Saving for retirement is a daunting task, but in the Gig Economy, independent workers have the opportunity to save more for retirement than a typical employee. Contractors and other independent workers who don’t have access to

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for retirement in their highest earning years and scale back in leaner times. This flexibility is better suited to the variable incomes that characterize the Gig Economy. The table below summarizes how much more self-employed and contract workers are eligible to contribute to retirement accounts compared to employees. Independent Workers Are

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vision will help you estimate how much it’s likely to cost and help motivate you to save enough to realize it. Succeeding in the Gig Economy requires different skills than succeeding as an employee. If you’ve cultivated those skills—developing an opportunity mindset, diversifying your work, taking time between gigs

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, and confusing labor market policies. There has been much debate about how to change our laws and modify our labor markets in response to the Gig Economy. The most important and significant one centers on how to address the current categorization of workers as either employees or contractors. The distinction between contractor

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is in persistent disequilibrium. So far, the Department of Labor has not expressed an interest or willingness to quantify the size and growth of the Gig Economy through data collection, or enact any policy changes to support it. The government has stood inactively by, failing to update policies to offer increased security

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our labor market. The following proposals represent a subset that have gained traction in the debate. They give us some early ideas about how the Gig Economy might evolve going forward. Eliminate Categorization of Workers First to go would most certainly be the complicated, ill-defined, and outdated distinctions between employee and

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current labor system encourage. Add a Third Category of Worker Instead of eliminating worker categorization, one of the most common, incremental policy proposals for the Gig Economy is to add another one.9 Numerous academics and policy commentators propose creating a new third legal category of “independent worker” or “dependent contractor” as

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that protects independent workers from declines in income. The mechanics of the different proposals vary, but the idea is to reduce the volatility of the Gig Economy’s variable income. Income insurance could either supplement or replace unemployment insurance. In Reich’s example, if “your monthly income dips more than 50 percent

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probability that income will vary, and jobs will change. The middle class will have to be rebuilt on a different foundation in the Gig Economy. Traditional Work Foundation Gig Economy Foundation Steady paychecks Diversified income Secure full-time jobs Work, not jobs Highly leveraged home ownership Low leverage or no leverage flexible living arrangements

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, talking through concepts and ideas, and in the midst of it all, undergoing her own transformation from full-time employee to working independently in the Gig Economy. I am incredibly grateful and appreciative for the many significant contributions she made to this book. I thank all of the many people I interviewed

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about the topics in this book. I appreciate their willingness to share their experiences, perspectives, and stories about their personal and professional lives in the Gig Economy. I especially thank those that have also been willing to speak in my class, including Sharon Bially, Dorie Clark, Devin Cole, Jessica Fox, Rachel Greenberger

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an academic home and a wonderful teaching environment for the past six years. I created the idea and the syllabus for my Gig Economy class in 2011, before the term “Gig Economy” was part of the popular lexicon, and right from the first draft, Dr. Candy Brush provided enormous support and encouragement for the

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Blitz, Susan Duffy, Patti Greene, Rachel Greenberger, and Jan Shubert, who have offered support, counsel, and friendship. Over the past five years of teaching the Gig Economy in Babson’s MBA program, my students have given me excellent feedback, asked insightful questions, challenged my assertions, and generously shared their own experiences, perspectives

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-eleven-retiree-health-benefits/ 25. Author Tim Ferriss is credited with introducing the term “mini-retirement” in his book The 4-Hour Workweek. THE FUTURE GIG ECONOMY 1. U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, U.S. Department of Labor, “Statement of Seth D. Harris Deputy Secretary U.S

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the print index are listed below Accenture access, vs. ownership accountant Affordable Care Act age-related difference in time perception “Airbnb lifestyle” alternative work, see Gig Economy American Dream American Express anchoring antitrust laws, contractors and appreciation of home values ask in connecting for introductions and referrals automatic savings Baby Boomers bad

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debt from elevator pitch Ellis, Linda, “The Dash” Employee Mindset employee-in-a-job model employees advantages of being vs. contractors corporate benefits impact of Gig Economy learned helplessness about time prorated and portable benefits tax rate employers contribution retirement plans student loan repayment benefits tax compliance rate end dates, negotiating Entrepreneur

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, social connections Freelancer Freelancers Union FreshBooks full-time employees job disappearance as last resort fundraising Gabriel, Allison Gaignard, Jayson, Mastermind Dinners Gallup poll Generation X Gig Economy finding gigs of future good work vs. good job growth labor issues MBA course newness of pitch for outbound connect retirement to mix work and

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is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Mulcahy, Diane, author. Title: The gig economy : the complete guide to getting better work, taking more time off, and financing the life you want / Diane Mulcahy. Description: New York, NY : AMACOM, [2016

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Spotify’s messaging to artists. They are mythologies that intertwine and overlap with what was once called “the gig economy,” referring to Uber, Grubhub, and other precarious app-based work. Selling artists on the gig economy is a particularly perverse dynamic: in some ways, musicians were the original gig workers, and in today’s

Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century

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journalist Anne Helen Petersen, “felt anything close to secure.” Even college graduates feared sliding into the “precariat,” fated to eke out unstable livelihoods in the gig economy. In the wake of 9/11, journalist Hunter S. Thompson warned that children of the era were “doomed to be the first generation of Americans

…

to avoid paying health care and other benefits. Days before the IPO, Uber further slashed driver revenue shares, fueling anger and skepticism about whether the gig economy offered meaningful improvements over traditional labor. Uber also marked the twilight of the internet as an automated money machine for investors. Unlike Google’s AdWords

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Job? Uber and Others Are Maneuvering to Shape the Answer,” New York Times, March 26, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/business/economy/gig-economy-lobbying.html. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT Uber further slashed driver revenue shares: Michael Sainato, “ ‘They Treat Us like Crap’: Uber Drivers Feel Poor

Fixed: Why Personal Finance is Broken and How to Make it Work for Everyone

by John Y. Campbell and Tarun Ramadorai  · 25 Jul 2025

app Dave.com, for example, offers budgeting tools along with small amounts of affordable short-term credit and information on opportunities to work in the gig economy. Technology that analyzes spending patterns can work well for lenders as well as for some borrowers, since some types of spending, such as on entertainment

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gamification: cryptocurrency and, 197; manipulation of customers with, 185 Garber, Alan, 145 gender gap: in financial literacy, 33, 34–35; multiple-choice tests and, 270n5 gig economy, short-term credit and, 91 global middle class: growth of, 11–13, 12–13; struggles of, 13–15 global wealth distribution, 17–18, 19 gold

Money in the Metaverse: Digital Assets, Online Identities, Spatial Computing and Why Virtual Worlds Mean Real Business

by David G. W. Birch and Victoria Richardson  · 28 Apr 2024  · 249pp  · 74,201 words

that claims of child abuse (Court Record 2022) and gambling by minors (Weitz & Luxenberg Attorneys 2023), or concerns raised about children engaging in an unprotected gig economy (Parkin 2022), do not align well with the safer internet we are looking for. Many of the serious claims being made against Roblox could have

Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People and Planet

by Klaus Schwab and Peter Vanham  · 27 Jan 2021  · 460pp  · 107,454 words

, more workers now work remotely or under freelance contracts than ever before in modern history, making it harder to assemble them. In the case of gig economy workers like those driving or delivering for Uber, Grab, or Didi, the workers no longer physically work in the same place. They may not even

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the influence taxi unions once had, as the structural demands of the drivers were not met. It showed how difficult it is to ensure the gig economy respects the rights of its workers. In a further development, in November 2020, California voted on a Proposition that would designate

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gig economy workers as employees, but after a campaign labeled as the “most expensive initiative in the state’s history”, the proposal was rejected, suggesting a resolution

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, Financial Times, April 2018, https://www.ft.com/content/e00099f0-3c19-11e8-b9f9-de94fa33a81e. 15 “The Worldwide Uber Strike Is a Key Test for the Gig Economy,” Alexia Fernandez Campbell, Vox, May 219, https://www.vox.com/2019/5/8/18535367/uber-drivers-strike-2019-cities. 16 “Uber Pre IPO, 8th May

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unions. But this relationship is on the wane. Legislative reforms and increased globalization provided a first hit to the traditional power of unions. And the gig economy that resulted from the Fourth Industrial Revolution in most places did away with unions, collective bargaining, and the traditional employment relationships as we've known

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, in terms of their work and pay. And even some drivers who had previously worked in factories expressed their satisfaction about switching to be a gig economy worker. One of them told us that as a Grab car driver, he earned on average four times the monthly salary of his factory days

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an online platform has proven a popular alternative to finding work in the traditional employment market. But in many other cases, the emergence of the gig economy has been less kind to workers. In the US, for example, the rise of ride-hailing companies has meant that hundreds of thousands of workers

…

new minimum wage). And during the 2020 COVID crisis, Aziz Bah of the Independent Drivers Guild, a newly created union for platform drivers, said many gig economy workers were hit harder than other workers, having no employer-provided health insurance and being on average in a more precarious financial situation because of

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check for $1,000 written to every American adult, Humanity Forward believes UBI can serve as a safety cushion for workers already operating in the gig economy or those faced with a life or work situation that requires a basic safety net. Seen from our perspective, such a check may not be

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of anti-union policies, the right answer is to end such practices. At the same time, there is another factor at work: work in the gig economy globally has been on the rise, but traditional unions have so far largely been unable to provide adequate answers to its challenges. For gig workers

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'Brien, CNN, August 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/10/tech/uber-lyft-california-preliminary-injunction/index.html. 52 Ibidem. 53 “Human Capital: The gig economy in a post-Prop 22 world”, Megan Rose Dickey, TechCrunch, November 2020, https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/07/human-capital-the

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-gig-economy-in-a-post-prop-22-world/. 54 “The Government's Good Work Plan Leaves the Gig Economy Behind,” Sanjana Varghese, Wired Magazine UK, December 2018, https://www.wired.co.uk/article/good-work-plan

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-uk-gig-economy. 55 “This New Program Aims to Train the Growing Freelance Workforce,” Yuki Noguchi, NPR, January 2019, https://www

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Free Law,” Freelancers Union, https://www.freelancersunion.org/get-involved/freelance-isnt-free/. 57 “A Union of One,” Ari Paul, Jacobin Magazine, October 2014. 58 “Gig Economy: EU Law to Improve Workers’ Rights,” European Parliament, April 2019, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20190404STO35070

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/gig-economy-eu-law-to-improve-workers-rights-infographic. 59 Ibidem. 60 “Gig Economy Protections: Did the EU Get It Right?” Knowledge at Wharton, May 2019, https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/eu-gig-economy-law/. 61 “Want More Diversity? Some Experts Say Reward C

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and Danish approach to, 117–120, 123 constructive relationship between Danish companies and, 117–120 Financial Times on loss of manufacturing jobs (1990–2016), 120 gig economy, 237–238, 240–243 increased female participation in the, 9 US and UK politically polarizing, 122–123 Labor market reskilling American labor market deficiencies in

Rockonomics: A Backstage Tour of What the Music Industry Can Teach Us About Economics and Life

by Alan B. Krueger  · 3 Jun 2019

half the dropout rate of other workers. Fully half of musicians are four-year college graduates, compared with one-third of the workforce overall. The gig economy started with music. Not surprisingly, musicians are almost five times more likely to report that they are self-employed than non-musicians. In 2016, 44

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.com, and ShowSlinger.com—is likely to propel freelance musical work in the twenty-first century. Musicians have long been at the vanguard of the gig economy, facing many of the same problems that gig workers face today: obtaining health insurance, saving for the future, paying down debt, planning for taxes, and

Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy

by Alexandrea J. Ravenelle  · 12 Mar 2019  · 349pp  · 98,309 words

their tireless encouragement and support. My students and colleagues at Mercy have been especially gracious and eager to help, regularly forwarding me articles about the gig economy and inquiring about the status of my research. My editor, Naomi Schneider, showed early interest in this project, when it was just a one-

…

meals, helping with childcare, and offering their support and understanding when I was overwhelmed with deadlines. My brother Chuck shared his own experiences in the gig economy world and was an upbeat cheerleader. My husband, Sam Duncan, kept me fed, the dog walked, and the baby sleeping, and prevented the ever-

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back before doing things like that again.’” The stories from these twentysomething and thirtysomething workers underline the volatility of working in the twenty-first-century gig economy. Taking jobs in what has been heralded as a futuristic utopia of choose-your-own-adventure employment with flexible schedules and unlimited earnings, these young

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apps that promise to transcend capitalism in favor of community. Supporters argue that this new economic movement, alternatively described as the on-demand, platform, or gig economy, will build community, reverse economic inequality, stop ecological destruction, counter materialistic tendencies, enhance worker rights, empower the poor, and bring entrepreneurship to the masses.3

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the name of disruption and returning to a time when worker exploitation was the norm. This book explores contradictions between the lofty promises of the gig economy and the lived experience of the workers, between app-enabled modernity and the reality of rolling back generations of workplace protections. The sharing economy promises

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related to income inequality and American labor struggles over the past two hundred years. This historical connection demonstrates that while the underlying notion of a “gig economy” is fundamentally forward-facing—new tools, new capabilities, and new ventures—most of its basic practices are distressingly familiar. It’s an exercise in regression

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For millennials contending with the possibility of downward mobility, earning additional income through the sharing economy can be a popular stopgap measure—the majority of gig economy workers are between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four.17 STRUGGLERS, STRIVERS, AND SUCCESS STORIES As I met and interviewed workers, the same themes

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RESEARCHING THE SHARING ECONOMY My research is based on nearly eighty ethnographic interviews with workers for Airbnb, Uber, TaskRabbit, and Kitchensurfing. When I discuss my gig economy research, I often hear a response that sounds like this: “I love Uber/Airbnb/TaskRabbit! I spoke to my driver/host on the way here

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workers worked long hours in a piecemeal system, workplace safety was nonexistent, and there were few options for redress for injustices. I outline how the gig economy’s lack of responsibility for workers results in an effective destruction of Occupational Safety and Health Administration protections and worker’s compensation as workers clean

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members, only ten thousand users are active.6 The technological version of the sharing economy, also described interchangeably as connected consumption, collaborative consumption, or the gig economy, is often dated back to the 1995 inventions of Craigslist by Craig Newmark and PayPal by Pierre Omidyar.7 Later contributory organizations included the free

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themselves as entrepreneurs, workers, or sharers who are creating a new type of economy? What types of skills and capital do workers bring to the gig economy? My research draws on three main theoretical themes: the Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft trust divide; the increasing casualization of labor with a related shift in risk; and

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the cost of annual car payments or several months’ rent.”48 Based on these reports—issued by the companies themselves—it appears that while the gig economy may offer workers a way to fight stagnating wages and workplace instability, at best, this work is subsistence entrepreneurism. Increasing Social Inequalities As the

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workers, nineteen Kitchensurfing chefs, and fourteen Uber drivers/messengers. These four services were chosen because they illustrate the diversity of businesses within the sharing or gig economy: incredibly successful, well-funded companies worth billions (Uber and Airbnb), an established but somewhat struggling start-up (TaskRabbit), and a relatively new upstart (Kitchensurfing).62

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“workplace arbitrariness,” such as policy changes and sudden firings—issues that remain particularly salient in today’s sharing economy. Much like miners and mill workers, gig economy workers experience considerable pay cuts. Both the erratic hours, where work today doesn’t mean work tomorrow, and worker income often seem to be based

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economy workers—classified as independent contractors—find themselves without any of these protections. And yet, this is only the start of the workplace troubles that gig economy workers often experience. Like their colleagues in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, sharing economy workers may also encounter unsafe workplaces and on-the-job

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with sexual harassment. “In the same way that female engineers and start-up founders struggle to report harassment for fear of retaliation or lost funding, gig economy workers are in precarious positions,” says Sam Levin.20 Workers who report sexually uncomfortable situations risk being viewed as problem workers and often note their

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the drug dealers he encountered in the projects of Chicago were overwhelmingly poor, on governmental assistance, and living with their mothers.3 But in the gig economy, the logic that gainful employment will reduce crime—or prevent someone from engaging in criminal enterprises—is turned on its head.4 Although workers want

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without insurance or utilize the state exchanges, effectively shifting the cost of, and obligation to provide, health insurance to the taxpayer and government. Very successful gig economy workers may even manage to outsource their work—at least until the platforms ban such activities.23 With all of the outsourcing going on, it

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they deliver drugs, defraud companies, or engage in money laundering. But the structuring of gig-based employment leaves workers in a precarious situation. By deeming gig economy workers to be independent contractors, companies deny them many of the protections often associated with employees. Since their work is temporary and their numbers are

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many choices, which increases their vulnerability to being used for criminal ends or at least being involved in legally questionable activities.30 But not all gig economy workers are without choices. Successful Airbnb hosts and Kitchensurfing chefs find themselves with a surplus of choice: when they’ll work, who they’ll

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they tend to bring more specialized skills and financial capital to their sharing economy work, enabling them to live the dream careers promised by the gig economy. In addition, successful workers in these two organizations are much more likely to view themselves as entrepreneurs and to take advantage of the outsourcing opportunities

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among sex workers and those working in minimum-wage fast-food jobs or in blue-collar fields.4 The embarrassment associated with working within the gig economy suggests that this may be an occupation of last resort for some workers. MAKING ENTREPRENEURSHIP “EASY” For Damla, however, Kitchensurfing lived up to the

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not the host but the apartment.7 SKILLS, CAPITAL, AND CHOICE But aside from these differences, what sets Airbnb and Kitchensurfing apart from the other gig economy services described in these pages? Three words: skills, capital, and choice. As noted in chapter 2, Kitchensurfing and Airbnb present higher skill or capital-

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capital and skills, the sharing economy can offer a dream job with increased flexibility, choice, and control. But for workers who lack these components, the gig economy simply takes already low-level work, adds an app, and increases the precarity factor. This new economic movement isn’t equalizing the entrepreneurial playing field

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rights without responsibilities.”43 This message of personal responsibility, part of a neoliberal ideology, gets a further boost with the entrepreneurial ethos employed by the gig economy platforms. The companies claim the sharing economy allows workers to “be your own boss.” Work is arranged according to your schedule (“work when you

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, the lack of workplace security and dependable income could make “taken-for-granted models for organizing one’s life” essentially unattainable.53 FREELANCE WAGE OR GIG ECONOMY MIRAGE? Sharing economy services such as Uber and TaskRabbit argue that their workers also command premium incomes. In 2014, an Uber blog post describing drivers

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costs of benefits—sick leave, paid time off, unemployment or health insurance—that commonly equal 20 to 30 percent of compensation. As a result, the gig economy also raises issues related to inequality and stratification. Even though services market their platforms as bringing entrepreneurship to the masses, the real winners are individuals

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mow their own grass in an effort to “maximize the efficient allocation of time.”65 Just like participants in the underground economy, workers in the gig economy—especially when paid as 1099 workers—are engaged in “informal economic activities [that] bypass the existing laws and regulatory agencies of the state.”66 Workers

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sample for most sharing economy services (for-hire driving remains the exception), minority participants, with lower median net worth, may be especially vulnerable in the gig economy. The workers who found themselves involved in criminal activity were all Strugglers and Strivers—none were Success Stories. It’s not certain if they were

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a way to help people supplement their incomes as needed without experiencing an undue burden of risk. An easy fix would be to change how gig economy workers are classified by employers. INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR (MIS)CLASSIFICATION While many sharing economy services tell their workers that they are small business owners or independent

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who was a “dependent contractor” for Uber might not be able to take advantage of special rate incentives with competing services or an entirely different gig economy platform. An alternative category—independent worker—has been recommended by former deputy secretary of labor Seth Harris and Princeton economist Alan Krueger.89 If US

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of workers’ compensation and minimum-wage requirements is especially troubling. A third strategy is to maintain the status quo but reduce the economic vulnerability of gig economy workers. In 2017, Virginia senator Mark Warner, a former tech entrepreneur, introduced legislation to test-drive a portable benefits plan for gig workers. The bill

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an employee, with some entrepreneurial individuals seeking to go into business for themselves as independent consultants and contractors. Even workplaces that are part of the gig economy, such as Uber, TaskRabbit, Airbnb, Munchery, and Kitchensurfing, pay their professional workers as employees. Why should frontline workers be treated any differently? Allowing workers who

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York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, February 9. Gee, Kelsey. 2017. “In a Job Market This Good, Who Needs to Work in the Gig Economy?” Wall Street Journal, August 8. Geerts, Achilles, Borris A. Kornblith, and W. John Urmson. 1977. Compensation for Bodily Harm. Brussels: Fernand Nathan. Geron, Tomio.

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. Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette. 2001. Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence. Berkeley: University of California Press. Hsu, Tiffany. 2017. “Ikea Enters ‘Gig Economy’ by Acquiring TaskRabbit.” New York Times, September 28. Hu, Winnie. 2017. “Yellow Cab, Long a Fixture of City Life, Is for Many a Thing of

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Its New Focus Is Helping Sharing Economy Workers.” Fast Company, November 12. ———. 2014b. “Pixel and Dimed—On Not Getting By in the Gig Economy.” Fast Company, March 18. ———. 2015a. “The Gig Economy Won’t Last Because It’s Being Sued to Death.” Fast Company, February 17. ———. 2015b. “The “Sharing Economy” Is Dead, and We

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Credit. New York: Basic Books. Manyika, James, Susan Lund, Jacques Bughin, Kelsey Robinson, Jan Mischke, and Deepa Mahajan. 2016. “Independent Work: Choice, Necessity and the Gig Economy,” McKinsey Global Institute, October. Marx, Patricia. 2013. “Outsource Yourself.” New Yorker, January 14. Mass, Alon Y., David S. Goldfarb, and Ojas Shah. 2014. “Taxi Cab

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against Taxi and For-Hire Drivers. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor. O’Donovan, Caroline. 2017. “A Senator Just Introduced the First-Ever National Gig Economy Bill.” BuzzFeed, May 25. O’Donovan, Caroline, and Priya Anand. 2017. “How Uber’s Hard-Charging Corporate Culture Left Employees Drained.” BuzzFeed, July 17.

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Cantillon, Ricard, 36 Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Piketty), 40 capitalism, 5, 23 capital issue: overview, 7, 23, 31, 39; distribution inequality, 186; in gig economy services, 166–68; hosts and, 19–20, 165; human and social capital, 183; participant recruitment and methodology, 42 career opportunities, 23, 36, 50, 56, 58

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; piecemeal system, 66, 68; sexual harassment and, 119–20; stereotypical work; vulnerability categories, 193–94 gentrification, 47 Gesellschaft, 31–36 Gett/Juno, 190–91, 233n72 gig economy: overview, 8; comparison of services of, 166–68; evaluation of, 174; labor rights and, 71; as marketing opportunity, 163–64; as sharing economy, 26; term

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191–92; successful workers risks, 18–21; tax revenues and, 205–6; time rule solution, 202–3, 206; worker success rates, 10–18. See also gig economy sharing economy activities: categories of, 27. See also exchange of services; increased utilization of durable assets; recirculation of goods; sharing of productive assets sharing economy

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Simmel, Georg, 32 Sinclair, Upton, 93, 177 sit-down strikes, 70 skills issue: overview, 7, 23, 31; ability, 4; in-demand job skills, 38; in gig economy services, 166–68; marketable skills, 183; participant recruitment and methodology, 42 Slater, Samuel, 66 Slater Mill, 66, 225n15 sleep reduction, 16 smartphones: apps, 50; data

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: driver requirements, 222n64; nightclub bottle service, 223n75; taxi apps, 32–33; taxicab syndrome, 104 Taylorism, 178 technological issues: advancements, 26; automation, 179; entrepreneurship and, 38; gig economy, 26; job destruction, 186; technology as secondary, 191–92. See also cashless payment systems; customer review sites; smartphones technology focus: apps, 6; contactless payment systems

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120, 191 unemployment rate, 10, 175, 176 unexotic underclass, 231n4 unicorns (startups), 2 unionization: overview, 6, 23; deregulation and, 178; early attempts at, 64–65; gig economy workers and, 71–72, 94; Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 and, 227n8; Wagner Act of 1935, 70; worker benefits and, 71, 177–78 United

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