The gig economy isn’t always a simple thing to define. However, you can generally think of it as a type of freelance work characterized by short-term contracts. The most appealing element for workers is a chance to largely set their own hours and act as their own boss. However, unpaid wages and a variety of other concerns have made this subject significantly more complex than it may appear at first glance. But to fully understand gig work, it’s necessary to start with some of its most important features.
The Most and Least Appealing Elements of Gig Culture
The most appealing nature of the gig economy is freedom. Workers will generally be able to freely dedicate as much or as little time to the freelance work as they desire. Want a day off – not a problem. Someone fully immersed in the gig economy might be able to take months off and jump right back in. It’s work without the guardrails which normally force certain schedules and behaviors.
However, guardrails are often present for good reason. Gig workers have more freedom, but so do the people employing them. And this is where things get messy. A gig worker is an independent contractor and, as such, doesn’t have a lot of the federal labor protections afforded by traditional jobs. This can mean issues with healthcare and the like. But the problems can also extend all the way to workers not being properly compensated for their labor. Taking more from a worker than is considered appropriate is considered unpaid wages or wage theft.
Wage and Pitfalls
The freedom of gig work is impressive, but it does come at a significant cost. A 2020 survey showed that about 29% of gig workers were earning less than their state’s minimum wage. This is especially concerning when you factor in the cost of health insurance and additional risks.
For example, consider the equipment you use at work. If it’s a standard office job, that might be computers, fax machines, or the infrastructure that keeps them operational. Now imagine if you didn’t get paid when one of those elements suffered a technical problem. It’d be obvious unpaid wages within a standard job. But that’s just the nature of life as a gig worker. Because a gig worker uses his own equipment, he’s responsible for maintaining it and suffering the financial consequences of malfunctions.
More Blatant Wage Theft
Of course, there are also instances of more deliberate and malicious manipulation of gig workers’ wages. The digital economy is one of the major factors allowing for gig work in the first place. It vastly simplifies the process of tracking small jobs and managing all of the people involved. However, this also tends to integrate with complex algorithms. These algorithms can be beneficial to all parties, but they can also hide underlying logic meant to shortchange workers.
Unpaid wages also fall under the banner of a more actively malicious policy. Think about the time spent on the job doing prep work or traveling. You’d never assume that’d be off the clock. However, with the gig economy, that’s often the case. Employers are typically well aware of that fact and use it in their cost analysis when determining whether to use gig workers or full-time employees. It’s legal, but the ethics can and are heavily debated.
Legal Classifications and Technicalities Around Unpaid Wages
The gig economy as a whole is a relatively recent creation in terms of legal applicability. The justice system often moves at a slow pace, and this is the case here. From the Biden administration to the Trump administration, there’s been a continual movement of redefinitions that impact the legal protection of gig workers. Outside of the national level, every state has a host of its own laws that impact gig work as well. California would, in theory, offer the most protection, as workers are labeled employees unless they meet certain exceptions. However, this is complicated by Proposition 22, which excludes app-based gig workers. Given the digital nature of gig work, this is a huge restriction that removes much of California’s protections.
Gig Work and the Future of Unpaid Wages
In the end, employees are typically only as protected as the law requires. The law, at present, is currently in heavy growth and development. Each state offers legal differences for gig work, and it’s expected for individual administrations and parties to change things on a rolling basis within the nature as a whole. Eventually, things should stabilize, but at the moment, gig workers face tremendous concerns about their legal protections.
