The Covid pandemic was notably unequal in terms of its economic, health, and social impact, but often discussions around its inequality focus on the inequalities between those employed and those that are unemployed. Research from Washington State University highlights how such inequalities also exist between people who are employed.
The researchers focused on the gig economy and collected data from 315 employed adults from 45 US states. The data highlights how workers were affected by insecurity in either employment or income. This analysis of precarity included financial and job insecurity, underemployment, and prior unemployment.
A stark divide
The data revealed a stark divide, with some participants scoring all positive on these measures and others scoring all negative. There was very little in between.
“We were expecting to find different nuanced groups. We didn’t. We only found two: those that were doing well and those that were doing really poorly,” the researchers explain. “It’s a sign of a two-speed economy and the K-shaped economic recovery: some people are being left behind. That is pretty concerning as we recover as a nation from the COVID 19 pandemic.”
The researchers examined data from a pool of employed people via Mechanical Turk during October and December 2020. The bulk of the participants were traditionally employed, with a smattering of people freelancing or in the gig economy. Despite everyone being employed in some way or other, 25% still fell into the “have-not” category.
All vulnerable
Interestingly, there was no noticeable difference in terms of demography between those who have and those who don’t. A notable exception was in terms of education, with 50% of those doing well having a degree versus just 35% for those who are struggling.
The strugglers were experiencing a wide range of other issues, however, such as lower life satisfaction, work-family conflict, and physical health issues. This then translated into lower job satisfaction and generally less commitment to their employer.
The researchers believe that this level of precarity can easily spiral out of control, as when people have an insufficient income they forgo medical care when they’re ill, which in turn can make them less fit for their job, which worsens their job insecurity, and so on.
“These cycles have implications for organizations as well as for the employees themselves,” the researchers explain. “This serves as a warning: as we see increasing reliance on non-standard employment relationships in the gig economy that by definition, contractually, have higher levels of precarity, we’re going to see more people falling into this group with more instances of these negative outcomes. Therefore, it is important for companies and society at large to identify places where we can short-circuit these loss spirals.”
Suffice to say, the work needs to be replicated across a wider sample to ensure the results are transferrable, both in terms of geography and demography, but the researchers hope at least it might prompt organizations whose workforce is often precarious to think again about the consequences of such a work style on workers.
“Organizations might see some benefits from non-standard work arrangements because they save money, but it comes with side effects of a less healthy, less productive and less committed workforce,” the authors conclude. “Is it worth prioritizing the short-term goal of saving money by using those type of arrangements? Because there are long-term consequences.”
