Is the GiG economy exploiting workers?

By
avoiding traditional employment protections?

An economy that depends mostly on temporary or part-time positions like delivery drivers,
freelancers, and independent lawyers is known as the gig economy(Britannica, Miranda
Marquit). The gig economy is a phenomenon that has been rapidly expanding in recent years and
has reshaped the nature of work.

The main advantage of the gig economy is its high flexibility, which has led to a significant
increase in employment growth. However, at the same time, it has its fair share of cons as the gig
economy offers workers little or no job security giving employees no assurance about the future.

The gig economy also has a lack of benefits as big organizations like DoorDash do not provide
their employees with benefits like health insurance. Second of all, there is another problem of
personal expenses as the workers in organizations like DoorDash do not get paid for gas while
driving for them. Lastly, a key problem is the ethical issue as the gig economy employment is
more on the informal side and doesn’t have reasonable salaries.

This generates a debate about the ethical issues of the gig economy. The workers part of the gig
economy are mostly being ignored and misclassified as non-employers which leads to them
being robbed of the right to job security as per Article 23 of the United Nations which states that
“Each person has the right to a job, with freedom of their choice of work, side by side
safekeeping the right to protection against unemployment”(un.org, UDHR).In this research
report, I will evaluate the different perspectives on this issue and conclude if the gig economy is
one of the main reasons for exploiting workers.

Nonetheless, the first perspective would be that (“Gig economy provides workers with
flexibility, employment opportunities and independence.”)

The gig economy is a field that has proven to grow exponentially in the next couple of years. In
2023 January 2023 9.94 million people in the US were self-employed reported by the Bureau of
Labour Statistics(finmasters.com). According to the World Bank report, the gig economy
accounts for 12% of the global labour force (www.worldbank.org September 7, 2023).
Moreover, to the independent workforce scale, 75 million Americans are freelancing, these stats
are expected to grow to 86.5 million in 2025 and over 100 million by 2028. Secondly, 89 % of
the companies plan to utilize their freelance talent more over the next 5 years(33rdsquare, Kara
Masterson, 2024 1st September).
We can expect the World Bank report to give us accurate knowledge and statistics, as it has a
development data group with numerous experts in it. This group is responsible for statistical and
data work and maintains the financial and sector databases. The World Bank works side by side
with multiple highly reliable international bodies like the UNITED NATIONS and also works
with other countries, to ensure that all the users have faith in the quality and integrity of data
produced (data.worldbank.org).

In the 2021 State of Gig Work report by Pew Research, 17 % of female American adults
reported earning money from the gig economy same time compared to 15 % of male US adults
who reported making some sort of money this way, moreover, Hispanic adults make a large
share in the gig economy sector with 30 % reporting that they make money this way, followed by
20 % black adults, 19 % of Asian adults and 12 % of white adults in the Us. The gig economy is
allowing both genders and every race to have the same opportunities and there are no biases over
here which tends to be more on the 9 to 5 office jobs side (finmasters). The gig economy has also
proved to be an online opportunity for young people as in the 9 to 5 world of jobs these young
Gen Zs were taken with unseriousness however online platform is like an opportunity for them to
start their businesses without any degree in some sort of education.

Moreover World Bank report says the number of people hired in sub-Saharan Africa on the
largest digital platform grew by 130 %, while in North America those numbers only grew by
14%, furthermore, 60% of the firms in sampled underdeveloped countries outlined increased
outsourcing to the gig workers. “Online gig work could be used as a lifeline for countries with
economic struggles to escape poverty. It can help to address the gaps in job openings across
provinces and territories and for entrepreneurs, startups and small firms”, cried Mamta Murhti,
Vice president for the World Bank(worldbank.org, September 7, 2023).

Most of my information was taken from finmasters.com. Finmasters is a highly reliable site full
of articles mostly revolving around money, it has a writers' team consisting of a lot of individual
experts in their profession. All of the experts have to follow a strict editorial policy in which
there is another editorial team that reviews every article and makes sure that they review the
articles' accuracy by an editor and fact-checked by a staff member. These articles have also been
updated regularly to keep them up to date. The facts are backed up by citing at least one reliable
source. Thus the credibility of Finmasters can not be questioned over here as its articles are
thoroughly reviewed kept up to date and fact-checked by a professional team
(finmasters.com/editorial-policy).

Mamta Murhti’s presence cannot be questioned here as she became a World Bank vice president
on July 1st, 2020, and controls the global exercises of education, jobs, health, social protection,
gender, etc. Mamta has held many captainship positions at the World Bank, including director of
operations policy(2019), director of strategy and Operations in the Africa Region (2015-2018),
and regional country Director for the EU, established in Brussels (2012-2015), thus we can say
that Mamta is qualified in her field to make comments like those.

Now I would like to highlight the negative points of the gig economy, thus my second
perspective would be,(that the “Gig economy is a violation of human rights as it provides
workers with no job security, stability, and benefits”)

According to an article by Milica Aleksandric, 24% of gig workers do not have health insurance
and 29% of workers' salaries are lower than the state minimum wage. Furthermore, only 21.9%
of these workers were part of an employer-sponsored retirement plan in 2020, and 19% of the
gig workers reported going hungry due to not being able to buy enough food to even feed
themselves due to this 30% of the workers had to use supplementary nutritional assistance
program benefits,2 times the pace of a regular employee (finmasters.com, Milica Aleksandric).

Milica Aleksandric is a project manager who has worked in the field of marketing and
advertising. She also has a bachelor's degree in Business Information Science from Singidunum
University. Thus we must respect her presence in this research report as she is qualified to write
articles with correct statistics.

The Economic Policy Institute report states that 69% of gig workers reported losing money in
some way due to technical difficulties, and 31% were not able to pay utility bills like gas, oil,
food, and electricity (files.epi.org, Ben Zipperer, Celine McNicholas, Margaret Poydock, Daniel
Schneider, and Kristen Harknett, June 1, 2022).

Gig workers are also often mistreated during their work which has led to them feeling unsafe,
Hispanic adults, black adults, and young adults from ages 18 to 24 take a large portion of this
problem. Uber drivers are often harassed in India, according to Sarvesh Kumar a 30-year-old
delivery driver in Delhi, one time he was making a food delivery while there was heavy rainfall
his bike went out of control as the brakes failed and unfortunately for Sarvesh he had bruises on
his knees and arms, however, he was still expected to make the order as he was charged with a
fine equivalent to the order fees (thequint.com). This shows that there are a lot more people like
Sarvesh caught in the wrath of unfortunate experiences like these however they are treated rudely
by these organisations with little to no justice. Drivers are robbed regularly in India while some
robbers pretend to be customers, some customers refuse to pay their fair price.

Gig work also results in multiple illnesses which include( mental sickness, and work exhaustion).
The reason for mental stress due to gig work is that the workers end up earning less than they
expect, a report from Earnest (an online blog website) discovered that 45% of Uber drivers earn
less than 100 dollars (Healthline. com, Hanna Brooks, June 4, 2020).
According to an article by Niels Van Doorn, Fabian Ferrari, and Mark Graham about Rajesh
Jayaseelan, an Uber driver who evacuated India and moved to London leaving his family behind
to earn money, he unfortunately died in his apartment alone on 17th April 2020. After Rajesh
was engulfed in the wrath of COVID-19 he spent days locked up in his apartment starving and
too scared to call an ambulance, as he was worried if the landlord knew about his situation he
would be evicted. By the time he admitted himself to a hospital, he was not able to survive and
passed away. This shows how gig workers experience multiple setbacks in life with employment
and residency issues and multiple safety and health issues in the gig economy (July 2022, Niels
Van Doorn, Fabian Ferrari, Mark Graham).

Niels Van Doorn is an associate professor of new media and digital in the field of media studies
and was also the principal investigator of the ERC-funded research project (2018-2023) and also
holds a PhD in communication and science from the University of Amsterdam
(platformlabour.net). Fabian Ferrari is the Director General of Mexico. He has a degree in
economics with a speciality in finance. Fabian Ferrari holds over 20 years' worth of experience in
banking having led various departments within Santander, including corporate banking, treasury,
etc, (April 30 2021, thebusinessyear.com). Mark Graham is a professor of internet geography at
the Oxford Internet Institute and is also a senior researcher at the green Templeton College. He
has led multiple research projects which vary a lot, some of these topics include the gig
economy, ICTs and development, digital labour, etc (www.oii.ox.ac.uk). Thus in conclusion we
can say that all three authors are highly qualified in their field to make articles with correct
statistics and conclusions.

There are multiple courses of action to deal with the problems caused by the gig economy. First
of all one of the main problems of the gig economy is that there is no social protection, thus the
International Labour Organization (ILO) should take action here, as an international body ILO
plays a large role in rule-making for worker rights, therefore it is suggested for it to build a
special set of provisions that can look after the regular minimum needs which the gig worker
needs. Secondly, technology has been one of the main causes of deregulated platforms, we could
make use of this same technology to lay out labour law protection potentially, and an app could
be made to provide services which skillfully balance the demand and supply of the labour market
and records the payment received by the service provider which the ILO can use to make sure
that the gig workers are making at least minimum wage (researchgate.net). These apps could also
help new gig workers understand their field well.

Before researching the gig economy I thought that it was a lifeline for the poverty to get out of it.
However, after going through multiple articles, it has come to my attention that the gig economy
is something which still requires a lot of development to make it safer for the whole world.