Work for one day: new trends in the US economy

The "on-call" trend is growing in the US, helping companies save on overtime, health insurance and taxes.

Фото: Depositphotos

Aaron Stallings said that he was not interested in full-time work. Last year, he changed 50 companies, sometimes working 60 hours per week. He mainly worked in restaurants in Richmond, Virginia. There are obvious shortcomings in this, such as the lack of health insurance benefits and the problem of paying taxes by the employer. But he says that this arrangement reflects a new reality in which flexibility surpasses stability. Plus, he says, he is often treated better than regular staff.

“It’s definitely not easy having your first day of work almost every time,” Stalling, 25, said. “But at least I don’t feel miserable being stuck at work.”

Despite low unemployment, low wages, permanent underemployment and growing inequality, more and more Americans are forced to take on "side work." Some of them want to increase their income in this way, others just try to survive.

According to the research center Pew, nearly one in four Americans earn extra income on the side. Most of this work is related to the home - cleaning or repairs, or driving for companies such as Uber.

Recently, a new class of employers prefer the so-called "workers on call".

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the share of retail and hotel activities is 20% of positions in the United States. But the sector has acute problems with the growth of the minimum wage and spending on health care, so employers are looking for a more flexible approach that corresponds to the influx and lull in their business.

Labor experts say companies like Snag work, can create a dangerous precedent. Employers are already wary of hiring full-time employees due to overtime and health care costs.

“The only trend we see here is that companies will do anything to avoid hiring full-time employees. Add to that the fact that there is no longer a job service, and workers are increasingly aware that they need to work differently if they want to create any stability for themselves,” said Diane Mulcahy, a teacher at the college. Babson and author of the book "The Gig Economy.

Snag work and other new platforms are intermediaries that allow you to hire workers for a few days if you expect a disruption in the schedule or an influx of clients.

Snag workwhich is located in Richmond and Washington, DC, plans to expand its capabilities in other US cities. According to a company representative, these arrangements are mutually beneficial for workers with disabilities and under-equipped enterprises.

“Workers now have many options to choose shifts - Instacart, TaskRabbit, Postmates, Lyft, - said Peter Harrison, chief executive Snag, parent company Snag workthat says she has 2,1 million active users. "But for small businesses there is no opportunity to participate, as they on the contrary suffer from this because they lose workers on these platforms."

Here's how it works.

Interested workers are registered online and checked. Snag work through surveys in Skype or Whatsapp. They can search for available jobs, for which they usually pay from $ 10 to $ 15 per hour, in the company’s application and subscribe to those that interest them. (The average hourly wage for retail in the United States is $ 13,20, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.) They are on standby and are paid through an online platform Snag work. Company spokesperson Snag work reported that the company provides compensation to all employees.

However, this is of concern to some people.

“If a restaurant has servers, cooks, bartenders, cleaners—those people are employees, they have a fair number of protections under labor laws, including minimum wage, overtime pay and family leave,” said Katherine Fisk, a law professor at UC Berkeley. — For all these workers in Snag there is a danger that they are potentially not entitled to anything if they are treated as independent contractors. ”

Temporary workers also have fewer rights: they do not have the same legal protection from harassment in the workplace as regular employees, according to Erin Johansson, director of research at Job With Justice, non-profit organization that protects the rights of workers.

“This is a very problematic trend that tends to push employers down,” she said. “Who’s going to stand up and talk about sexual harassment if they feel like they’re just going to be replaced by a worker who doesn’t have the right to do so?”

Companies like Snag work, can exacerbate these problems by simplifying the replacement of workers in low-paid branches of labor with temporary workers.

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