The Underappreciated Work of Side Hustlers
What will it take for gig workers to have dignifying work benefits?
My Lyft driver turns off the highway an exit early. She says she loves driving for a living even though she hates the traffic. As we cross a bridge overlooking the onslaught of cars on the highway that we would’ve been stuck in, she tells me how she drives Lyft full-time to support her 9-year-old son but is trying to find a way out of it. Lately, whenever a Lyft driver has mentioned in passing that they’re driving full-time, it has sounded like it’s something they’re ashamed of.
Technology has made it considerably easier to make money. With apps like Uber, DoorDash, and TaskRabbit, people can work flexible hours seemingly on our own terms, yet they have to sacrifice many of the benefits conventional employment usually comes with. Many gig economy workers are spending countless more hours on the job than a typical 8-hour job and are lucky to pocket $100 a day. Because of how difficult it is to succeed today in this type of work, working a “side hustle” full-time is seen as a less-than-ideal option compared to conventional employment. Many people seem to value this type of work less than hourly and salaried jobs because it comes with fewer benefits and recognition.
The onus should not always be on gig workers to “find better jobs” — it should be on the companies providing these opportunities to figure out how to offer dignifying benefits.
Gig work is still not seen as a legitimate profession and the workers? Not quite deserving of traditional employment benefits. Their work in the gig economy is still largely unreported, with no clear measure of how many people are engaging in side hustles. And this presents a huge problem, as Elizabeth Buchwald writes in MarketWatch, “because the gig economy matters. All that missing data could help economists understand the state of our economy and the changing nature of the workforce, and — in a climate of stagnant wage growth — shed more light on how much money people earn. It’s also crucial for policy makers who may seek to enact minimum wage and overtime pay laws for workers.”
Recognizing what’s happening in the gig economy is important because it can tell us how the economy still needs to improve even considering the notable decline of unemployment rates. The onus should not always be on gig workers to “find better jobs”— it should be on the companies providing these opportunities to figure out how to offer dignifying benefits.
Some people cannot take on traditional employment arrangements for whatever reason. One Lyft driver I had, for instance, mentioned he was going home to take care of his mother after that ride. No person should have to be “deemed worthy” of having health insurance benefits and paid leave.
I realize how lucky some people are to have a 9-to-5 job that pays well, comes with health insurance, paid leave and vacation time, and a public transit pass, among other things. And I don’t see why people working in the gig economy shouldn’t be entitled to those kinds of benefits, too.
