Risk Shifts in the Gig Economy: The Normative Case for an Insurance Scheme against the Effects of Precarious Work*

Abstract

Over the last decade, the term ‘gig economy’ has risen to prominence in public discourse, but has failed to attract sustained attention from political philosophers. The gig economy is a subsection of the overall economy that predominantly relies on ‘on-demand work’:11 Prassl 2018, p. 11. workers22 Throughout this article, we deliberately speak of ‘workers’ in a broad sense: not only those permanently employed count as workers of a firm, but all those who actually work for it. receive short-term and freelance contracts rather than permanent jobs. Firms treat them as independent sellers of services and only hire them to perform a particular ‘gig’, that is, to complete a specified task or project. Gig work thereby increases the granularity of work contracts: work is sold in ever smaller quantities and, in extremis, firms only buy the exact amount of labour they need, at the particular moment they need it. On a social level, the higher granularity of labour market transactions leads to an expansion of the reach of markets. Not only a one-off hiring decision, but the conditions of every single micro-labour contract become subject to the market forces of supply and demand. From an economic perspective, the ability to hire and dispense with workers at will is often seen as a measure for ‘removing friction’ in labour markets, and unlocking efficiency gains as ‘unproductive human capital’ is ‘set free’.33 On the flexibilization of labour markets in the 1990s, see Davies and Freedland 2007. Major expositions of this policy programme include European Commission 1994; OECD 1994. Whenever a firm can do without a worker’s additional unit of labour, she re-enters the labour market, which can then, in theory, allocate her work to the most productive use. The business practices of ride-service providers like Uber and Lyft in the US best embody this trend, paying drivers by the ride and only if there are rides. But, beyond such extreme and well-publicized cases, many firms are gradually moving away from the paradigmatic form of employment in the industrial age—a job with a fixed number of hours, worked in set shifts, in one place, and for a predetermined salary (call this ‘standard employment’)—towards work that is contracted at short notice on the basis of current demand (call this ‘gig work’).44 Some other forms of work, like fixed-term employment with a longer duration or employment at temporary work agencies, lie somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. They often display many of the normatively problematic features of gig work, but to a lesser extent. While various statistics employ different criteria for determining whether or not someone counts as a contract worker, the number of people affected by this shift has dramatically increased over the past decades and is projected to rise further. According to a recent study, those in alternative work arrangements—like on-call workers, contract workers, and freelancers—made up 15.8 per cent of the US workforce in 2015, up from 10.7 per cent a decade before.55 Katz and Krueger 2019, p. 382. At Google, contract workers are now reported to outnumber permanent staff.66 Wakabayashi 2019. The trend towards gig work poses a challenge to the paradigm of standard employment, which is modelled on the industrial worker and has dominated debates in political philosophy and labour economics.77 See also Vallas and Schor (2020), who focus on the specific context of the platform economy, where firms obtain a near-monopoly position in connecting buyers and sellers of labour. They contend that such gig-economy platforms require new regulatory approaches, as they reject responsibility for individual but over one many regulatory of the past the work and not to gig such work rise to the context of standard employment, has a social workers will not become but they will work, only of or at a social like as is not to short-term the but trend towards work and a new for that on the of in on to the rise of forms of employment and that the shift in employment is best as a of of firms business by of workers, thereby them to that this that current and the shift are normatively the of the article, this has the shift from the of affected that workers, ability to form and thereby of of gig work not we the gig economy to of and, the shift from the of that firms in the gig economy in a they a on the of the on the of work in affected and on social the as the of gig the to at an the of gig work, and for the of this article, such is a the of a of which that the and a form of employment, the higher the to social by the which can the of a has to the of gig work the of gig workers by a new this we that there has a shift towards forms of employment, which is best but not the rise of the gig has by who and to by social by and of in with and the of the trend towards gig that this trend is best as a the of firms business by of workers, thereby them to increased on we a broad of as or where of human has at and where the is p. are by in business are are business can for increased in is often by and social that See for a of in debates in the philosophy of work, this of is for the of forms of the to is an and political in See and to the of the or See in the and the to a social and social and can if they do not as we will by people from and Over the past labour markets in seen a rise in the number of people who are in temporary or forms of that the of work can the of conditions over and the or to in of work is by an of economic a a recent that the in US employment the has in temporary and contract Katz and Krueger 2019. the for that the number of is, of employment contracts that do not amount of the has risen from to over the past for Not has become an for the and that per cent of the by from in from the and p. the flexibilization of employment has to the forces of and and the of in the of in regulatory political in the labour market not but only by of are of in the of has as has the of by as a form of has are to the rise of temporary in as temporary workers to and and at the are also the of of the of the flexibilization of the labour the of forms of employment is not that they with or to but that they workers to thereby them in a form of and ability to and to the recent not in of an or a but a business is to workers and thereby business as as The in a which in or in an in to a The most of this is by them on to See who as business and the a firm can employment and in to demand or for other this to workers to such increases in they to or buy additional The up a firms but in the context of standard employment they of permanent work fixed with and workers from such an to for other of business on to that this is but the to which they all on the rise the in most to the contracts of permanent to employ workers only contracts as workers need not to contracts of to the number of of work a for business The most extreme of this trend are where do not number of of work and workers are only if The from fixed or contracts a of platforms the to the for individual gig and only at the a worker not but set by a for business is in the from fixed work firms to in a to in demand. often to on work at short and to work if the for on to workers a or the workers the for such by and work is of thereby to the other the in the of rather than the the for and workers are are but to business and the of such by on to firms in the to which they do the of specific but is also affected by the of business of the of labour the of in firms like Uber and Lyft the in an employment a fixed number of work hours, a fixed work they hire people as in workers often labour for a single Throughout all of the economy, employ of They on to temporary workers, only temporary to new workers or work contracts for if the most the that the gig economy in also a number of that on of in or the or in the of business in the gig economy, this a of this The the of gig work on workers and at which the of gig we a new paradigm for conditions of a of often has of and not only at but also at is The subsection gig work in shift the of where gig work is is to that it. 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