Serving Workers in the Gig Economy

Chapter 1. Serving Workers in the Gig Economy

TL;DR: Supporting Workers in the Gig Economy

• Macro forces are unbundling the benefits and protections that have traditionally come from full-time employment.
• This is putting great strain on public policies aimed at protecting workers, in particular the notion of “worker classification” (employee vs contractor) as the primary determinant of responsibility for benefits and protections.
• Meanwhile, new services are emerging to support workers in the gig economy, providing many of the benefits and protections previously attached to employment, but using a model that understands and fits with the shape of the gig economy.
• Here, we explore the categories of services being developed and profile a sampling of companies building offerings in the space.

The Great Unbundling

We are in the midst of a great social and economic shift. Global, mobile connectivity and ubiquitous data are steadily restructuring not only our interpersonal relationships, but our economic and industrial systems. This great reshaping has often been referred to as unbundling—the breaking up of previously understood packages of goods and services into their component parts, eventually to be rebundled in new ways.

We are familiar with the unbundling of the media and publishing industries—from triple-play cable packages to Internet + Netflix + Amazon + AppleTV; from compact discs to MP3 downloads, to streaming services; from print newspapers and books to blogs and eBooks—and ...