Gig Work in the COVID-19 Era: More Risk, Less Opportunity

In the spring of 2019, the researchers interviewed a group of low-income young adult gig workers to learn why they gig and whether their gig work was contributing to their skill development and economic advancement. Key findings of that exploratory work indicated that financial need was a common motivation for undertaking gig work, and that most of the participants were doing low-skilled gig work that did not advance their career prospects.

A year later, as the COVID-19 pandemic upended the U.S. economy, the researchers decided to follow up with the same gig workers to learn about their current life circumstances, explore their views on the risks and rewards of gig work during these unprecedented times, and find out whether they had continued to do gig work at all. They were inspired to interview them again because the economic and health care crises that emerged as the novel coronavirus swept across the country exposed longstanding racial and socioeconomic disparities throughout the workforce.

The pandemic and its effects also highlighted the lack of economic and health protections for low-wage workers—and especially gig workers. They typically do not have access to employer-provided benefits or other supports that other workers rely on to protect their health or financial well-being.

The study included profiles of four gig workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Please note that a Gig Worker is defined as a person who works temporary jobs typically in the service sector as an independent contractor or freelancer.)

(This report is 24 pages long.)

The researchers’ four key findings from the original study are still relevant in the context of the current situation:

• Gig work can still provide an economic safety net for people with high financial need, but the type of gig work that is currently available often comes with significant health risks. Gigging still provides little opportunity for workers to develop valuable skills.
• Other than the participants that were identified as “aspiring entrepreneurs” in the original study, follow-up participants for the most part are not using gig work to develop skills.
• Gig work still involves hidden costs, and those costs are even greater now that the country is in the midst of a pandemic. For example, gig workers must now assume increased health risks despite the lack of medical benefits and other supports typically provided by employers.
• The gig platforms’ opaque rules of engagement, which create a challenging work environment for workers in the best of times, are making it difficult for the low-income young adults in the study to grapple with the health risks and other challenges that have emerged during the pandemic. For example, even though some platforms are offering protective gear, sick pay, and telemedicine services, interviewees did not mention those options, suggesting that companies need to do more to communicate concrete information about reducing or avoiding risks associated with COVID-19. While it’s possible that some gig workers may be earning higher wages or collecting bigger bonuses during the pandemic, the few participants in the follow-up study did not appear to know if they were making more money at this time.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2020
• Author(s): Almeida, C. A.; O’Reilly, F.
• Funding Source: Citigroup Foundation
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies