Information asymmetry has been the basis of the Gig Economy to date. Marketplace providers know so much that the worker cannot possibly negotiate a better deal. Consequently, we see that millions of people who earned far more as full-time employees are now scraping by on one-third or one-fifth the pay they used to earn when gigging in similar jobs.
Regulation could solve this, but so could a new business model in which platforms partner with workers to build sustainable independent businesses. That means they can earn enough to live and retire, take care of their healthcare costs, and have the flexibility that a full-time job cannot offer. Business would do better to lead than fight this evolution.
Gig and full-time jobs are converging on the question of compensation and benefits. We just have not seen the leverage needed for workers to differentiate their offerings and market them.
What is that leverage? The ability to differentiate services, which is primarily a sales and marketing issue. When platforms allow workers to differentiate what they do, treating them as unique local options instead of commodity-priced infinitely replaceable cogs, the opportunity for fairness will follow. And, I believe, the marketplaces will be poised to earn far higher revenues.
Creating a labor market that supports everyone who works requires extending the benefits and protections awarded to full-time employees to all workers. It’s a monumental undertaking, but a necessary one if we want to walk the talk of supporting entrepreneurs and if we want to maximize the potential of our increasingly self-employed and independent workforce.
Source: How U.S. Law Needs to Change to Support the Self-Employed and Gig Economy, Harvard Business Review, July 23, 2018.