Do you make a distinction between freelancing and gig work? Helping low-income people with their taxes changed how I feel about gig work and definitely made me see it as exploitation dressed as freedom.
I was a freelance writer for years and if you had called me a gig worker I probably would have chafed at that identify. But in the eye of the IRS it is the same.
Agree with Cristy! The bones are the same for both types of work. "Freelancer" comes from the idea of being able to work for many outlets at once, so I think that's why service providers tend toward that. "Gig worker" seems to have come about because the app companies created this new class of worker that pretty much worked full time for them but was treated as an independent contractor.
I think the exploitation is more obvious in gig work. But seeing that laid bare a few years ago helped a lot of people to realize that all the outlets employing freelancers were basically doing the same thing, just in a more subtle way.
Personally, I think they’re the same thing - “independent contractor,” “freelancer,” and “gig worker.” They’re all ways to exploit, to save costs, to avoid benefits. I think it just depends what industry you’re in, and gig worker is typically associated with drivers, musicians, work derived from apps in my mind.
I tend to believe that the difference between ‘freelancer’ and ‘gig worker’ is like the difference between ‘expat’ and ‘guest worker’: more a question of privilege because it relates to perception based on education (class), cash reserves and power to negotiate, more than a structural difference. I say that as someone who has often loved freelancing.
Great article!! With how few hours I can work due to chronic illness/disability, it’s exclusively contract or self-employment for me. I’m extremely lucky to have the position I do, but I’m basically an employee but paid as a contractor. And I’m constantly making myself flare doing this work and trying to have a semblance of a life, so I will remind myself I’m a contractor, not an employee.
Yes! That's so important. If a workplace isn't willing to accommodate your needs and schedule as an employee (which, in most cases, they probably could if they were just more creative), then don't let them treat you like an employee!
This is so on point. My uncle worked for an independent consulting firm, HGTV bought them and incorporated them for a few years, and then they basically let them all go and rehired them as individual independent contractors. It was so bizarre. Amazon and some of the big tech companies have also let some of their high earning employees go and rehired them as independent contractors to avoid paying benefits.
This is why we need to push so hard for universal healthcare in my opinion. To your point about not being able to be told when or how to work, or having to care about internal processes, company culture, or the firm itself - if we had universal healthcare, being self employed would be accessible to so many more people. I actually think that’s part of why we don’t have universal healthcare (aside from the profits of companies like United) - it gives corporations another playing chip to keep workers in line and underpaid. All the technicalities with insurance can feel like a huge barrier to even changing jobs much less going self employed, especially if you’re on a very expensive medication or treatment. I know it wouldn’t fix the retirement, union, or workers comp issues, but we’d take one issue off the table entirely.
As a separate rant, I’m so tired of “small businesses” being used as an antilabor union dog whistle. Of 33 mill US small businesses, 27 million are people who are self employed with no employees and only ~3 million have 5-500 employees (that’s from Pew). I do organizing for the Dems (it’s bleak) and I’ve ended up memorizing those numbers to combat antilabor talking points.
YES to all of this! Universal health care, real Social Security for old age/disability, housing security and basic income. Companies will fight these tooth and nail, because people having this kind of financial security would take all of their power.
Thank you for sharing those numbers. That adds a lot of perspective to what we mean when we say "small business." Thank you for you organizing work! Stay strong! 💪
Ageism forced me into freelance. I’d have liked the benefits of FT work but couldn’t get hired. I’m very cognizant of my vulnerability in terms of health insurance. I am fortunate to have it through my husband but what if something happens to him? I’d be in trouble. Also, my income is inconsistent.
A single person in my position would struggle more.
There are plenty of upsides to working for yourself, but plenty of downsides, too.
And I couldn’t have done this when I was raising my kids. I required steady income and I don’t always have it. Of course, when you get laid off from your job, you also don’t have it!
I definitely thought of you as I was writing this, Michelle! Your experience is definitely an example of how the news industry is pushing out expensive, experienced staffers and turning them into cheaper freelancers as a way to protect the bottom line.
Excellent post! Working through a temp agency (Robert Half) has allowed me to feel very empowered in that there is a buffer between the employer and me. I also developed very clear boundaries such as refusing to use my personal phone — or laptop! Yes, one fool tried that. I also speak very candidly to colleagues on my contracts about ways they are allowing their employers to exploit them. Wide experience in the workplace for decades as well as having owned a business for 20 years has given me the knowledge and experience to understand exactly who is responsible for what, and it allows me to clearly and effectively state what I will and will not do. Pushing back and/or declining certain things is not only extremely empowering, but also preserves my dignity, educates others on both sides, and models equity and a balance of power that does not exist as a direct employee. Btw, age and body size discrimination are rampant! Let's all work together to create an equitable workplace by saying "no fucking way" when and wherever we can safely do so!
Love this Dana! This is such a comprehensive look at how to follow a freelance career that helps all workers. If anybody reading this is interested in building power with other freelance/independent writers, I highly recommend my union (the National Writers Union) and especially the Freelance Solidarity Project. While there are other spaces for freelancers with "union" in their name (and they're great in their way), the NWU-FSP isn't a support group, it's an actual union that has negotiated better rates for freelancers with multiple outlets and is thinking really creatively about how to transform an often exploitative industry.
Thank you, Garrett! I’m an NWU member, too, but hadn’t gotten super involved. I appreciate you highlighting the way a union can work for freelancers, even without the official protections afforded to traditional employees.
See, I hate being a freelancer. I mean, it's not all bad. I do like having more control over my schedule, especially as someone with chronic illness. On the other hand, having to figure out my own health insurance and pay both sides of the taxes really, really decreases my paycheck and makes me so resentful of the company contracting me
It's so frustrating to have to take all of that on as an individual. Companies employ entire departments to figure out how to make enough money and still pay taxes and benefits; that's a huge challenge for freelancers that probably isn't addressed as well as it should be in the advice.
I did like your piece, by the way. I definitely am of the opinion that the broader move to freelancing is inherently exploitative. But I do think that's largely the case when people don't have a choice but to become freelancers, if they want to stay in that industry/economic sector. But your piece reminded me that some people do actually *choose* that path and so for some people, it's more liberating.
Personally, I'd be willing to give up a certain degree of job satisfaction in exchange for stability and someone else having to handle the admin side of business stuff. I don't want to be "a business owner" in order to do my job. I don't get to bill for the hours of choosing insurance!
Do you make a distinction between freelancing and gig work? Helping low-income people with their taxes changed how I feel about gig work and definitely made me see it as exploitation dressed as freedom.
I was a freelance writer for years and if you had called me a gig worker I probably would have chafed at that identify. But in the eye of the IRS it is the same.
Agree with Cristy! The bones are the same for both types of work. "Freelancer" comes from the idea of being able to work for many outlets at once, so I think that's why service providers tend toward that. "Gig worker" seems to have come about because the app companies created this new class of worker that pretty much worked full time for them but was treated as an independent contractor.
I think the exploitation is more obvious in gig work. But seeing that laid bare a few years ago helped a lot of people to realize that all the outlets employing freelancers were basically doing the same thing, just in a more subtle way.
Personally, I think they’re the same thing - “independent contractor,” “freelancer,” and “gig worker.” They’re all ways to exploit, to save costs, to avoid benefits. I think it just depends what industry you’re in, and gig worker is typically associated with drivers, musicians, work derived from apps in my mind.
I tend to believe that the difference between ‘freelancer’ and ‘gig worker’ is like the difference between ‘expat’ and ‘guest worker’: more a question of privilege because it relates to perception based on education (class), cash reserves and power to negotiate, more than a structural difference. I say that as someone who has often loved freelancing.
Great article!! With how few hours I can work due to chronic illness/disability, it’s exclusively contract or self-employment for me. I’m extremely lucky to have the position I do, but I’m basically an employee but paid as a contractor. And I’m constantly making myself flare doing this work and trying to have a semblance of a life, so I will remind myself I’m a contractor, not an employee.
Yes! That's so important. If a workplace isn't willing to accommodate your needs and schedule as an employee (which, in most cases, they probably could if they were just more creative), then don't let them treat you like an employee!
This is so on point. My uncle worked for an independent consulting firm, HGTV bought them and incorporated them for a few years, and then they basically let them all go and rehired them as individual independent contractors. It was so bizarre. Amazon and some of the big tech companies have also let some of their high earning employees go and rehired them as independent contractors to avoid paying benefits.
This is why we need to push so hard for universal healthcare in my opinion. To your point about not being able to be told when or how to work, or having to care about internal processes, company culture, or the firm itself - if we had universal healthcare, being self employed would be accessible to so many more people. I actually think that’s part of why we don’t have universal healthcare (aside from the profits of companies like United) - it gives corporations another playing chip to keep workers in line and underpaid. All the technicalities with insurance can feel like a huge barrier to even changing jobs much less going self employed, especially if you’re on a very expensive medication or treatment. I know it wouldn’t fix the retirement, union, or workers comp issues, but we’d take one issue off the table entirely.
As a separate rant, I’m so tired of “small businesses” being used as an antilabor union dog whistle. Of 33 mill US small businesses, 27 million are people who are self employed with no employees and only ~3 million have 5-500 employees (that’s from Pew). I do organizing for the Dems (it’s bleak) and I’ve ended up memorizing those numbers to combat antilabor talking points.
YES to all of this! Universal health care, real Social Security for old age/disability, housing security and basic income. Companies will fight these tooth and nail, because people having this kind of financial security would take all of their power.
Thank you for sharing those numbers. That adds a lot of perspective to what we mean when we say "small business." Thank you for you organizing work! Stay strong! 💪
Ageism forced me into freelance. I’d have liked the benefits of FT work but couldn’t get hired. I’m very cognizant of my vulnerability in terms of health insurance. I am fortunate to have it through my husband but what if something happens to him? I’d be in trouble. Also, my income is inconsistent.
A single person in my position would struggle more.
There are plenty of upsides to working for yourself, but plenty of downsides, too.
And I couldn’t have done this when I was raising my kids. I required steady income and I don’t always have it. Of course, when you get laid off from your job, you also don’t have it!
I definitely thought of you as I was writing this, Michelle! Your experience is definitely an example of how the news industry is pushing out expensive, experienced staffers and turning them into cheaper freelancers as a way to protect the bottom line.
Although I was never expensive :)
Still, they’d rather pay nothing than even the paltry wages they paid my staff and me. AI doesn’t object to cranking out “content” 24/7.
Excellent post! Working through a temp agency (Robert Half) has allowed me to feel very empowered in that there is a buffer between the employer and me. I also developed very clear boundaries such as refusing to use my personal phone — or laptop! Yes, one fool tried that. I also speak very candidly to colleagues on my contracts about ways they are allowing their employers to exploit them. Wide experience in the workplace for decades as well as having owned a business for 20 years has given me the knowledge and experience to understand exactly who is responsible for what, and it allows me to clearly and effectively state what I will and will not do. Pushing back and/or declining certain things is not only extremely empowering, but also preserves my dignity, educates others on both sides, and models equity and a balance of power that does not exist as a direct employee. Btw, age and body size discrimination are rampant! Let's all work together to create an equitable workplace by saying "no fucking way" when and wherever we can safely do so!
Love this Dana! This is such a comprehensive look at how to follow a freelance career that helps all workers. If anybody reading this is interested in building power with other freelance/independent writers, I highly recommend my union (the National Writers Union) and especially the Freelance Solidarity Project. While there are other spaces for freelancers with "union" in their name (and they're great in their way), the NWU-FSP isn't a support group, it's an actual union that has negotiated better rates for freelancers with multiple outlets and is thinking really creatively about how to transform an often exploitative industry.
https://nwu.org/freelance-solidarity-project/
Thank you, Garrett! I’m an NWU member, too, but hadn’t gotten super involved. I appreciate you highlighting the way a union can work for freelancers, even without the official protections afforded to traditional employees.
See, I hate being a freelancer. I mean, it's not all bad. I do like having more control over my schedule, especially as someone with chronic illness. On the other hand, having to figure out my own health insurance and pay both sides of the taxes really, really decreases my paycheck and makes me so resentful of the company contracting me
It's so frustrating to have to take all of that on as an individual. Companies employ entire departments to figure out how to make enough money and still pay taxes and benefits; that's a huge challenge for freelancers that probably isn't addressed as well as it should be in the advice.
I did like your piece, by the way. I definitely am of the opinion that the broader move to freelancing is inherently exploitative. But I do think that's largely the case when people don't have a choice but to become freelancers, if they want to stay in that industry/economic sector. But your piece reminded me that some people do actually *choose* that path and so for some people, it's more liberating.
Personally, I'd be willing to give up a certain degree of job satisfaction in exchange for stability and someone else having to handle the admin side of business stuff. I don't want to be "a business owner" in order to do my job. I don't get to bill for the hours of choosing insurance!