Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Gig economyLatest NewsCareer developmentLearning & developmentMinimum wage

Gig economy ‘like quicksand’ and workers unable to develop skills

by Ashleigh Webber 29 Jan 2020
by Ashleigh Webber 29 Jan 2020 Some gig work platforms like Deliveroo are helping workers with their costs.
Shutterstock
Some gig work platforms like Deliveroo are helping workers with their costs.
Shutterstock

Gig workers are often “trapped” in insecure work because long hours, financial insecurity and piecemeal work mean they are often unable to develop skills that will get them further in their careers.

This is according to digital think tank Doteveryone, which found many platform workers have no option but to continue working in the gig economy because they can find no way out.

Gig economy

Two-fifths of UK workers opt for flexible or temporary work

Young people increasingly struggle to move out of insecure work

“We heard from them how gig work is ‘like quicksand’ – low pay becomes unliveable pay after costs are accounted for – and the promise of flexibility is an illusion when, in reality, workers must be available 24/7 and scrabble for every gig available,” its Better work in the gig economy report states.

It recommends that the government’s National Retraining Scheme is adapted so it is able to better support gig workers’ skills development.

It suggests the scheme could include micro-learning and mentoring courses that can be used flexibly around variable working schedules; incorporate financial and mental health support; and offer ways for workers to demonstrate and get recognised by other organisations for the transferable skills they develop through gig work.

Some workers would like to see gig work platforms offer them options to help them move up the career ladder or progress within gig work itself.

One cleaner from London said: “I would like some constructive criticism, some training, that could get me to the next level of gig work. I feel like there’s a hierarchy within [gig work] and if there is training to be had to get pay higher, well, please tell me what I need to do.”

A “minimum gig wage” should also be introduced by the government to ensure that self-employed workers are compensated fairly, the report suggests.

It says: “As recommended in the 2017 Taylor Review, a regulated floor will create a base level across all platforms, protecting workers from unfettered competition. But a minimum wage alone does not account for the additional costs of gig work.

“The Minimum Gig Wage would include an allowance to cover a fair amount of the extra costs gig workers face, including the full cost of statutory employee benefits and protections that employees enjoy. This would mean gig worker’s ‘take home’ pay (after costs) would achieve parity with employees and make purchasing employee benefits and protections viable.”

Although some larger gig platforms like Deliveroo and Uber take on a share of workers’ financial risks – such as accident and injury insurance – some of the costs workers incur have a significant impact on their take-home pay.

A driver in London said: “I do 60 hours, I make £750. But then you have to deduct expenses, around £150 on fuel. I can take out £600 but then you pay insurance, VAT for cars. It’s been four weeks where I’ve made no more than £400. You’re just managing your expenses and taking £150 – £200 home.”

Martha Lane Fox, executive chair and founder at Doteveryone, said: “The gig economy can be fantastically empowering if you can work on the terms you wish for. But it can also be destabilising, dehumanising and dispiriting if you don’t.

“The convenience of a taxi ride or a takeaway must not be traded for the rights of people to work with financial security and dignity and to fulfil their dreams for the future.”

L&D job opportunities on Personnel Today

Browse more L&D jobs

Ashleigh Webber
Ashleigh Webber

Ashleigh is editor at OHW+ and part of the Personnel Today editorial team. Prior to joining Personnel Today in 2018, she covered the road transport sector for Commercial Motor and Motor Transport.

previous post
Timpson employee who threatened to ‘shoot’ colleague was unfairly dismissed
next post
New-look training could be on the cards for OH, as NMC outlines review of SCPHN standards

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

Deliveroo signs deal with union GMB to cover...

12 May 2022

Queen’s Speech: absence of employment bill leaves organisations...

10 May 2022

Union urges Uber to make pensions Sharia compliant

20 Apr 2022

Employment Bill could face further delay

4 Apr 2022

Zero-hours work ‘tightens grip of structural racism’ on...

9 Mar 2022

Pimlico Plumbers holiday pay ruling: four steps for...

9 Mar 2022

Pimlico Plumbers loses holiday pay appeal in case...

1 Feb 2022

Status of Workers Bill heads to House of...

31 Jan 2022

False self-employment case adds to worker status conundrum

28 Jan 2022

Bill to create single worker status enters final...

27 Jan 2022
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+