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McKinsey Global Institute
Independent work: Choice, necessity, and the gig economy
While comparing those who do independent work out of necessity with those doing
traditional work out of necessity reveals similar levels of satisfaction overall, independent
workers still scored higher on some dimensions such as flexibility of working hours and
location as well as the topics and activities they are working on. But they are notably
less happy with their level of income and their income security than their counterparts in
traditional jobs. As we discuss below, our survey finds that those in independent work out
of necessity are almost twice as likely to come from low-income households as traditional
workers who would prefer independent work.
Altogether, our findings on satisfaction are consistent with existing research. Benz and Frey
similarly found that self-employed workers are substantially more satisfied than traditional
employees and that this effect is consistent across a wide range of geographies. Moreover,
their analysis shows that the most important drivers of this difference were the increased
autonomy independent workers enjoy and the fact that they tend to find the work they do
more interesting.
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The comparable satisfaction of independent workers on the question of benefits is
surprising, since this is an area where independent workers would appear to be at a
disadvantage. In the United States, it is not clear whether these responses stem from
low expectations, improved access to health insurance since the introduction of the
Affordable Care Act, or poor or eroding benefits for traditional employees that lessen
the trade-offs involved. In Europe, the similarity is less surprising, since most countries
offer state-sponsored health-care and retirement benefits. Another factor could be
that some independent workers are simply risk-takers by nature who are less prone to
worrying about safety nets and future savings. It is also possible that the responses to this
particular question, along with respondents’ satisfaction with their boss, could suffer from
non-response bias due to the fact that a higher percentage of the independent workers
(approximately one in six) said the question did not apply to them.
Comparing free agents to traditional workers by choice shows that the positive effect of
independence is consistent between the United States and Europe. For the necessity
groups, there are some variations but they are mostly not statistically significant—and for
those that are, the relative satisfaction levels hold across Europe and the United States. One
interesting thing to note is that within the two groups of workers motivated by economic
necessity, independence has a stronger negative effect on income security in Europe than
in the United States, but the negative impact on satisfaction with the actual level of income is
larger in the United Sates.
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