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The Gig Economy Keeps Growing, But Worker Benefits Aren't (technologyreview.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: According to a new report out from Brookings, the number of non-employer firms -- primarily incorporated freelancers and gig-economy workers -- has grown 2.6 percent every year since 1997. By contrast, payroll employment has grown by only 0.8 percent annually in that time. That means a growing number of people lack employer-sponsored benefits like paid leave, health care, and retirement assistance. The Aspen Institute has proposed a system of portable benefits that are not tied to one job. Companies would make contributions to a worker's benefits on the basis of how much the employee works for them. To date, the U.S. government has not been helpful. House and Senate bills supporting gig-worker benefits have died in committee. But state and local governments are taking action. Washington, California, New York, and New Jersey are exploring avenues to provide benefits to their gig workers.
The "gig-economy" isn't a new concept. This is how things used to be before there were unions. What happened was laborers were exploited and then unionized to fight back for fair treatment. The outcome here will be no different, even if different means are used.
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around minimum wage and overtime laws. There's no other purpose. If you're a worker then you should be deeply opposed to this. Unless you're in a strong union they _will_ eventually come for you too. And the only strong union left I know of is the AMA. Lord knows us tech workers don't have anything of the sort.
The only potential good that might come out of all this is America might wise up and vote single payer healthcare in. But right now the party in charge is completely opposed to it and I don't see them getting kicked out anytime soon. We're still arguing over assault rifles and abortion for Pete's sake (hurray for wedge issues!).
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Too bad everything is locked down "forever minus one day" otherwise others might try to create instead of take.
The whole point of the "gig" economy is to strip workers of their protections by classifying them as "self-employed" contractors who have much less benefits and legally required protections, (no workman's comp, health insurance, or overtime pay) while still effectivelly treating them as employees. (Dictating their work hours, pay, job requirements, and firing options.) We've seen this coming for awhile now with the whole lack of employer trust, and constant desire to marginalize the workforce and render everyone replaceable. (C-Levels exempt of course.) It's just the latest move by greedy shareholders desperately trying to squeeze indefinite growth out of a finite resource pool.
Of course that's capitalism for you, the losses are always socialised. Society is always expected to pick up the tab for corporate screw ups. Whether that screw up is wage theft, or too big to fail is irrelevant. They "couldn't possibly have known about such risks." But when profits are to be had, suddenly they "are solely responsible for this great achievement." Even if the achievement was produced solely with public funds.
I'm personally waiting for the company store to make a come back under the guise of "helping our workers keep more of their hard earned money."
Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is a supply problem. The world is oversupplied with labor (people) for the amount of work demanded, thanks to productivity, automation, and the gradual end of the baby boomer growth era that fueled jobs and pay for everyone without a college degree.
No amount of hand-wringing or puzzling over the edges of the gig economy, or living wages, the decline of manufacturing, or working conditions, are going to overcome the fundamental pressure of demographics.
There are too many workers for companies to feel any pressure to raise wages, provide better benefits, or do anything that they don't need to, to keep sufficient workers on staff. (in general).
Welcome to what it feels like when growth stalls -- everyone yells at everyone else thinking that someone caused / can fix the problem, when in fact it's mostly out of our hands. Don't worry, it'll work itself out -- in about 10-15 years... just wait a while.
The problem with using "just get better" as a justification for accepting growing inequality is that it does not scale. If everyone had PhD's, there wouldn't be enough room for the elite positions, and many PhD's would end up mopping floors and other grunt work.
It's not a zero-sum game, but close enough that "just get better" isn't a complete solution.
American workers rank among the top in the world in economic productivity, but the benefits of that hard work is not trickling down to most workers. I'm not proposing pure socialism, just enough of it to distribute the wealth better without significantly harming incentives. There's a better balance point than what we have now. Set the dial to 5 instead of 9 on the socialism-to-plutocracy scale.
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The gig economy has always been around, what's different this time is exactly what you're talking about. When it was people like my mother working part time for packet change or to supplement my father's income while still raising children, it wasn't much of an issue.
The difference is that people are increasingly forced into those sorts of arrangements to make ends meet as employers have more and more power to negotiate salary. So, folks turn to the gig economy as an essential part of their income rather than as pocket money.
The worst thing about it is that corporate profits are the highest they've ever been. There's literally no justification for not paying workers a living wage. And our economy would probably be doing even better as people at the bottom would have money with which to pay for goods and services.
We still need people to drive people around from point A to point B, answer customer complaint calls, and that. It doesn't matter how much people improve their skills and all that, somebody has to do those jobs; we still need them, and there aren't enough engineering, executive, what have you jobs to go around for everyone and there never will be.
Are you willing to say that it's OK that some people, no matter how hard they work, have to live on the margins? Because I don't think that that's a very healthy society.
The Gig Economy Keeps Growing, But Worker Benefits Aren't
Umm... wasn't that kind of the whole point of companies pushing for a gig economy? Does anybody really believe that this consequence wasn't at least foreseen, if not downright planned for, by the corporate sector? Corporations believe it to be in their best interests both to reduce the amount of money they pay their employees, and to decrease those employees' freedom and autonomy so as to make them more docile and compliant. A gig economy gives workers the illusion of increased freedom, even as it increases their servitude. I'm pretty sure that's the penultimate wet-dream of c-levels and board members everywhere. Of course, the ultimate wet-dream is to replace all those workers with machines.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Gig-work is meant to undermine worker benefits by turning everybody into a private contractor who gets no benefits.
If it is lowering costs to business owners as well, then it is working entirely as designed.
Anybody who expected a different outcome is just a sucker
Err...because in the real ADULT world of work, especially if you incorporate and do 1099 contract work, you'd better put on your big boy pants, and realize to do it full time, you need to learn to find jobs that have a high enough bill rate that you can negotiate for your needs.
This isn't rocket surgery, you need to figure what you need for expenses, (your salary you pay to yourself), and also out of that bill rate you figure in enough for you to take off maybe 3 weeks a year for vacation/sick leave...you set up a HSA (Health Savings Account) and fully fund it pre-tax with money you put into your bill rate to pay routine medical expenses, and finally..yes, you calculate enough into your bill rate to pay for medical insurance.
If you are not working in an area that you can bill that much, then you have a couple of choices...work multiple gigs at once that can pay this amount totaled together, or realize this is just side money, and you need a W2 regular job until you are valuable enough with your skills to negotiate jobs that pay enough to do 1099 full time.
This isn't for everyone.
But if you are an adult, can act like an adult....and take care of yourself, your work, paperwork, taxes, etc....it can be a fulfilling work lifestyle, it can be lucrative and there is a good amount of freedom to enjoy from it.
I personally like the S-corp filing for my business....extra paperwork etc....BUT, it allows me to save substantially on how much of my bill rate I have to pay in employment taxes (SS/medicare)....
But again, this isn't for everyone....you have to know what you cost to live, and bill accordingly and hunt only jobs that pay that much...otherwise, this is not a full time "gig" for you.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........