The demographics of the gig economy and the roadblocks preventing mass adoption
By Philipp Toth
Whether you are a full time gig-worker, or a full time employee who does gig-work during your off hours as a side-hustle, the gig economy opens the door to countless opportunities to earn money on your own terms. Narrowing down just how many people in the world earn money through gig-work is difficult to nail down because the definition of a gig-worker can range from part-time, to full time, to side-hustlers, but in America alone, it is estimated that there are currently 75 million people doing gig-work. But the gig economy is a global trend and only continues to grow. But this begs the question, what are the demographics of these gig-workers? Is it a millennial trend? And what are the roadblocks in reaching the expert predicted 43 percent of the U.S. workforce by 2020?
The gig economy isn’t just for millennials
To answer these questions, let’s first take a look at what the age groups are within the gig economy. A Wakefield research study on the demographics of side-hustlers, people who do gig-work alongside their full-time or part-time jobs, found that 64 percent of millennials have, or have done, side-hustles to earn additional money, as well as 64 percent of Gen X’ers, and 56 percent of Baby Boomers. So the gig economy isn’t mostly just millennials, as many people might initially believe. The gig economy has something for everyone, whether that be driving a car during their free time, or painting houses or selling wood crafted furniture.
Why do so many people do it?
While many people in the gig economy are doing the work because they love doing it, and it’s a way for them to do something they are passionate about while still maintaining their full time career, the majority of people work in the gig economy simply do it because they need the additional money. The Wakefield survey found that money was the main motivator for 77 percent of millennials side-hustlers, 81 percent of Gen X’ers, as well as 85 percent of Baby Boomers.
Why don’t more people work in the gig economy
The gig economy offers a way for people to supplement their income whenever they have the time. But there a multiple severe issues with the current gig-economy that are preventing it from reaching the mass appeal it is capable of. Gig economy platforms such as Uber offer an easy to use and navigate way to earn income, but with Uber and Lyft drivers earning roughly minimum wage when vehicle expenses are taken into account, it is clear that the future of the gig economy is in non-transactional marketplaces, such as Craigslist, Nextdoor or Facebook, which allow people to do any kind of work they want to do, for whatever price they feel they deserve.
But the non-transactional marketplace ecosystem isn’t quite ready for mass appeal just yet. These gig-workers are required to perform extensive and time consuming administrative work between each and every gig, which includes managing a client pipeline, contacting and negotiating the work’s terms and conditions (which can take days), creating a work contract that needs to be approved by both parties, and waiting upwards of one to two months after the gig is completed to receive payments in their bank accounts. When these are taken into consideration, there is a substantial amount of unpaid tasks gig-workers and side-hustlers need to perform, when they should be spending their time actually doing income producing work. In order for the gig economy to streamline this process and eliminate the unpaid tasks, there needs to be a tool that handles all of the manual administration from the gig-workers work.
Heymate seeks to be that tool
Heymate is a mobile peer-to-peer deal closing tool that aims to resolve the problems of the non-transactional gig-marketplace. With the heymate app, users can create, negotiate and settle legally enforceable peer-to-peer contracts in under 20 seconds. Once a deal has been closed between client and provider, payments are escrowed until the terms and conditions are met, at which point the gig-worker instantly receives the payment for their work into their account.
The mobile app allows offers-for-work or requests for work to be posted on any available gig-marketplace and has a simple and clear interface that makes it easy to use by anyone, including the technologically illiterate and those who speak languages foreign to their area.
With heymate the people who want to become their own boss, but were financially forced to keep away from it can finally become gig-workers.
The platform launched its invite-only alpha version in Sept. 2018, and will release to the public in Q1, 2019.
To learn more about heymate, please visit our website at heymate.works or join our Telegram community (@heymate_official) to keep up to date on recent developments!
Philipp Toth is the CEO and founder of heymate, a portable deal-closing tool designed for the gig economy generation. Philipp has 12 years of experience in corporate value creation and operational excellence design and implementation, accumulated during his careers in management consulting and investment management. Heymate seeks to solve the gig economy’s efficiency gaps and payment deficiencies by allowing users to create legally enforceable peer-to-peer contracts online or offline within 20 seconds.
