Gig economy
"Why Is Everything Turning Into Uber?" by Second Thought |
Gig Economy is a euphemism intended to legitimize a system of pseudo-employment whereby proletarians are informally contracted to perform tasks on a piecemeal basis, usually via a proprietary app controlled by the contracting company. Gig work has grown to take up an ever larger proportion of the overall employment landscape, with many fields previously worked by full employees with rights and protections now being 'Uberized'.[1] The Gig Economy is part of a broader worrying trend in employment, alongside zero-hour contracts and the increasing use of temporary workers to do work that previously would be hired as a full employee with benefits and protections.
Etymology
The term Gig derives from the sub-culture of semi-amateur music performance where performers are payed per show or gig. In gig economy terms each task or job is a gig and therefore companies attempt to justify not being obliged to pay a fixed wage and benefits on the grounds that workers are paid on a per-job basis as 'freelancers' and therefore are not 'employees'.[2]
See also
References
- ↑ Vallas, Steven and Schor, Juliet B. 2020. What Do Platforms Do? Understanding the Gig Economy. pp. 273-294. Annual Reviews.
- ↑ "gig" English usage Wiktionary