Independent work: choice, necessity, and the gig economy

6. METHODOLOGY FOR ANALYZING THE CONVERSION OF UNPAID 
HOUSEHOLD WORK TO PAID WORK
In addition to the possibility of converting payroll jobs, some portion of currently unpaid 
household work (driving, cleaning, grocery shopping, errands, home repairs, and the like) 
could become paid work that is hired out—particularly if digital marketplaces for these 
services continue to grow. 
In order to estimate the potential amount of unpaid household work that could be converted 
into new demand for independent work, we combined responses from the MGI survey with 
data from the American Time Use Survey as well as the OECD Time Use Survey. These 
time use surveys measure the amount of time people spend working, caring for children, 
doing housework, watching television, volunteering, etc. The American Time Use survey 
collects the data through telephone interviews and a 24-hour time diary and provides some 
demographic data along with the tabulated data.