Remember the last time you tapped an app for a service? Maybe it was Wolt delivering your dinner or Pawshake taking care of your dog while you were enjoying your summer getaway in the charming cottage you found on Airbnb. The journey to your friend’s place might have been via Uber rather than a traditional taxi. And wasn’t it TaskRabbit that connected you to the handyman who assembled your furniture? Behind these interactions are the gig workers. Gig work permeates our daily lives despite many of us, especially in Europe, are probably concerned about gig economy.

Gig actually stands for “a job”, not as in employment but more as in a project or a task. Gig workers operate as independent on-call service providers. Though it might seem like a modern concept, on-call labour, piece-based compensation and the requirement that workers provide their own equipment are as old as capitalism, perhaps even older. What is new is platform-based businesses that use digital technology to connect providers and purchasers of services for a fee. In most cases these businesses have some mechanisms in place to allocate work, supervise and discipline workers and practically all of the platforms collect payment from the customer.

The opponents of gig work are concerned that gig work will replace most of the standard jobs simply because it is efficient and convenient. The problem is, of course, not in its efficiency and convenience, but that these platforms do not recognize their workers as employees. They claim that their workers are independent service providers or partners. As a result, these businesses bypass supplying means of production, sidestep entitlements and benefits, circumvent employment laws on minimum wages and working hours, and shift risk for fluctuations in demand directly to workers. Simply put, both the work and income from these platforms lack security and predictability. Gig workers rarely earn decent money. Most of them undertake it as a side job. Even those committing full-time often fail to meet the minimum wage in their respective countries, earning between 18% and 45% of the median monthly earnings according to the European survey on gig work.

The rise of gig work concerns many European politicians, policymakers, and citizens. Most European economies can be described as social market economies, whereas Anglo-American countries are typically described as liberal market economies. While both are capitalist in nature, they differ significantly in terms of employment regulation and social protection. The primary function of the European Social Model (ESM) is to protect European workers from labour market risks. Specifically, the ESM aims for high levels of job security and high levels of income security. Job security is often achieved by making temporary employment more expensive than permanent employment and by imposing significant costs for terminating employees. Income security is not only ensured through a decent minimum wage but also by offering generous unemployment benefits. These benefits are predominantly financed through a heavy payroll tax. It is easy to see how gig work goes against all the values behind the ESM. This explains why companies like Uber get so much pushback by European regulators who try to detain the expansion of precarious labour practices.

However, the truth of the matter is that precarity has been and still is a reality for some workers in Europe, especially immigrants and other disadvantaged groups in the labour market. These workers may turn precisely to gig work to sustain themselves. Gig work platforms offer one major advantage compared to the traditional labour market – and it is not greater flexibility. It is the fact that platform businesses do not care whether you are an immigrant, a woman with caregiving responsibilities, a person with a disability, or a person aged 55 or older – they do not discriminate.

This does not mean that gig work is a solution to a malfunctioning labour market. The facts remain – gig work is not secure or well-paid. Gig work offers a superior choice vis-à-vis unemployment, particularly concerning short-term psychological and financial well-being and especially when unemployment benefits are not available. However, gig work echoes characteristics of “bad jobs” that have been shown to hurt workers even more than unemployment. With this in mind, it is wise to be cautious before hailing gig work as the remedy for economic inclusion of vulnerable groups.