Gig workers are experiencing 'a lot of pain' over the coronavirus: Expert

Alexandrea J. Ravenelle, author of ‘Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy’ joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to discuss the difficulties gig workers are facing as coronavirus fears escalate.

Video Transcript

- Well, one of the other potentially vulnerable groups that we have talked somewhat about, the folks who are operating the gig economy. Some of them not working right now. They don't have that same sort of safety net, or salary, that other workers do. To talk more about that, we're joined by Alexandrea Ravenelle.

She is author of "Hustle And Gig, Struggling and Surviving In The Sharing Economy." She's joining us from New York City. Alex, so as we look at the, I mean, obviously the gig economy now is pretty vast. And includes a lot of different kinds of workers. Where are you seeing sort of the most pain within that community? And who's actually holding up a little bit better right now?

ALEXANDREA J RAVENELLE: That is a great question. So Uber and Lyft drivers right now are experiencing a lot of pain. Various shelter-- shelter at home orders are keeping people of course from going out into the streets, which is a good thing. But also means that these drivers, who still have car payments, who still have insurance payments, are not having any type of income.

We are seeing a lot of demand for delivery workers. So individuals who can deliver groceries, who can deliver takeout food. But at the same time, they're also being exposed to a lot of risks, because they are out. They are not able to shelter at home. And they're being exposed to people all throughout the city.

- Alexandrea, it's Rick Newman. So the big stimulus bill Congress just passed has provisions to include some gig workers in unemployment benefits and things like that, so that they will get something, even though under traditional rules, they would not. Can you tell if that's going to work?

ALEXANDREA J RAVENELLE: That's a good question. So the pandemic unemployment assistance does allow for unemployment. But it allows for half of the usual unemployment, and then the additional $600 per week. So it is better than nothing, but it's not the same option that your standard W-2 employee would get.

The other issue is that states have to opt in, and we need to have platforms reporting how much money people were making, and confirming that people were employed. And we've certainly had some platforms delay on conveying that information to the states, which is delaying people's ability to get unemployment.

- Even prior to this pandemic, we saw a lot of interesting research from economists that essentially stated that gig economy was a lot more inflated, and over projected than reality. And for the most part, a lot of people do not actually want to be gig workers.

They would prefer full time work, and this is not necessarily a choice. I think this crisis has really brought to light a lot of those gripes, right? And those proper protections, even basic things like hand sanitizer is not provided, as we've seen with the walkouts this week.

What do you think this will all shape up to be as we look ahead, post-pandemic, which is hard to imagine at this current state. Do you think that the gig economy will be completely upended to a certain degree?

ALEXANDREA J RAVENELLE: I think that the gig economy is unfortunately here to stay. I think that workers have seen the stagnation of their salaries, that workers are increasingly relying on multiple sources of income. At the same time, I think that we are going to see some changes in the gig economy. The fact that we now are offering at least partial unemployment for gig workers, and other independent contractors, suggests that there might be a movement in the future to offer these benefits, or at least the social safety net, to other workers. And I think that will be a good movement for everyone.

- I base this question to you on we used to see signs in New York City for the Freelancers Union. Might we see some kind of organization of gig economy workers under one umbrella, so they could use the strength in numbers to perhaps win benefits from different companies that we're now all dependent upon, literally, for survival in some cases?

ALEXANDREA J RAVENELLE: Yes. So this has really drawn attention to how essential gig workers are for our economy. Individuals who are white collar workers, who are professional workers, who are sheltering at home, are becoming increasingly reliant on those gig workers who are working for Instacart, who are doing the delivery services.

Who can bring them the things that they need and they don't have to venture out. And we've seen some organizing. So Instacart workers organized a strike on Monday. We've also seen other workers organizing under Gig Workers United. And I think that we'll start to see even more organizing going on.

I think we'll also start to see more reliance on social media to draw attention to the plight of these gig workers, and how they are working without any personal protective equipment, and how they're not having hand sanitizer, or any type of hazard pay, in many cases.

- Alexandria, kind of a follow on that. Just seeing the trends that we're seeing with hiring, right? With the Walmarts, with the Amazons really doubling down those efforts, do you anticipate that there will be kind of this consolidation in some of these gig workers who pivot, and say, hey, I'm going to take this job at Walmart, and not be an Uber driver for the time being? Do you anticipate they'll stay in those roles?

ALEXANDREA J RAVENELLE: That's a good question. I-- so Walmart has actually said many of those rules are going to be temporary, at least at first. And they're hoping to keep many of those workers on. I think that when the pandemic ends, we might not see as much reliance on delivery. And some of those workers might find that they've pivoted into Walmart, or into part-time, temporary work.

And then they end up pivoting back to doing Uber, or other gig platforms. Or that they're simply not getting paid enough at that part-time job. And so they're going back to doing gig work, at least part time, and on the side, as a side hustle.

- Thanks for your perspective, Alexandrea Ravenelle is author of "Hustle And Gig, Struggling And Surviving In The Sharing Economy." A lot of people are struggling, and hopefully surviving, at this point in time. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.