Written by Brooke Van Horne
Since the beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic in late 2019, residents of numerous countries have been subject to “stay at home” or quarantine mandates from national and local governments. These public health measures–while imperative to the safety of people around the world–negatively impacted the global economy through the shutdowns of nonessential businesses and accompanying unemployment. For many, including those who participate in the gig economy, this meant not being able to work or being forced to make difficult decisions between protecting their own health, and that of their family or paying their bills. In a working paper, the National Bureau of Economic Research defines the gig economy as work arrangements that don’t “involve a formal employer-employee relationship…as well as more narrowly to the subset of flexible jobs mediated through various online platforms” (Abraham, 2018). Many workers in the gig economy praise its flexible nature and utilize it to supplement their income with freelance work.
The amount of people working for the gig economy has exploded in the past few years due to the development of the digital economy, including apps like Uber and Taskrabbit. During a pandemic, some of these services, like Instacart–an app that allows people to hire workers to shop for and deliver their groceries–were extremely successful because they enabled workers to make life easier for those who are immunocompromised or elderly. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, however, there has been increased competition in this labor market, with IBISWorld estimating that there will be an increase of almost 1.8% in temporary workers in the year 2020 (Fernandez, 2020). This has resulted in a decrease in earnings for people who relied on gig jobs before the pandemic.. According to Time Magazine, Instacart added more than 300,000 workers in one month during the pandemic. This level of market saturation has led to workers working more hours and under more dangerous circumstances than they did before the pandemic, while at the same time earning less than they did in months prior. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers feel forced to work even though they don’t feel safe. A woman named Candy who shops for Instacart joked it turned from “a joyful job to kind of a bloodsport” during the COVID-19 pandemic (Garcia & Smith, 2020). She claimed that other people would steal things from her cart and haggle for the last commodity on the shelf.
In addition to recent increased competition due to the pandemic, workers face other risks by choosing to utilize the gig economy. Workers generally do not have the same protections under the law as those who have a more traditional working arrangement. Many aren’t given health insurance, severance pay, or a retirement plan through their employers (Abraham, 2018). In some cases, employees are put in dangerous or uncomfortable situations, often in their clients’ homes with no concrete safety measures put in place. While workers are often screened through background checks, the clients are not (Ravenelle, 2019). During the years of 2017-2018, Uber reported almost 6,000 instances of sexual assault, ranging from noncosensual touching to rape (Bond, 2019). Sexual harassment is infamously underreported and these numbers are likely much higher. Freelance workers regularly experience unwanted touching, demeaning comments, or strange requests from clients (Ravenelle, 2019).The New York Times recently published an op-ed by Alexandrea Ravenelle, author of “Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy,” about sexual misconduct in the gig economy in which she argues that companies like Uber should be held responsible for keeping their employees safe and that they should be transparent about the instances of sexual misconduct that occur through their platforms.
Due to the rating-based performance review system of many app-based services, an unequal power dynamic is created between the worker and client. Through this system, utilized by many apps, workers with higher ratings often get access to higher-paying jobs earlier than new workers or those with lower ratings (Ravenelle, 2019). According to Ravenelle, “research on temporary workers has found that they are often expected to be deferential;” gig workers are expected to be friendly and agreeable, but these behaviors, when coupled with the fact that they are in a stranger’s home can easily be mistaken for flirting or create the false image that they will be receptive to sexual advances. This puts certain types of gig workers at risk for sexual assault and other situations where they could be taken advantage of (Ravenelle, 2019). The lack of federal protection for independent contractors coupled with gig apps’ hands-off policies is an issue that gig economy workers are forced to deal with. Without having a platform to report sexual misconduct and assault, these instances go unreported and may leave workers feeling hopeless. The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted many existing issues in the United States–sparse public health measures, a divided executive branch, systematic racism. It has also put gig workers in a more vulnerable position, working harding and earning less than they do during normal times.
References
Abraham, Katharine, et al. “Measuring the Gig Economy: Current Knowledge and Open Issues.” National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018, doi:10.3386/w24950.
Bond, Shannon. “Uber Received Nearly 6,000 U.S. Sexual Assault Claims In Past 2 Years.” NPR, NPR, 5 Dec. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/12/05/785037245/uber-received-nearly6-000-u-s-sexual-assault-claims-in-past-2-years.
Fernandez, Cecilia. “Coronavirus’s Effects on the Gig Economy: IBISWorld Industry Insider.” IBISWorld, 26 June 2020, www.ibisworld.com/industry-insider/coronavirus-insights/ coronavirus-s-effects-on-the-gig-economy/.
Heller, Nathan, and Jia Tolentino. “The Gig Economy Is Especially Susceptible to Sexual Harassment.” The New Yorker, 25 Jan. 2018, www.newyorker.com/culture/culturalcomment/the-gig-economy-is-especially-susceptible-to-sexual-harassment.
Ravenelle, Alexandrea J. “For Gig Economy Workers, Client Interactions Can Get … Weird.” Wired, Conde Nast, 17 Mar. 2019, 7:00 AM, www.wired.com/story/bookexcerpt-gig-economy-weirdness/.
Ravenelle, Alexandrea J. “The Gig Economy’s Sexual Misconduct Problem, and How to Fix It.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Dec. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019 /12/08/opinion/uber-sexual-misconduct.html.
Semuels, Alana. “Gig Economy Incomes Are Shrinking as Workers Flood Apps.” Time, Time, 15 May 2020, time.com/5836868/gig-economy-coronavirus/.
Smith, Stacey Vanek, and Cardiff Garcia. “Coronavirus And The Gig Economy.” NPR, NPR, 7 Apr. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/04/07/829264795/coronavirus-and-the-gig-economy.