Social insurance for gig workers
The gig and platform economy appears on 44 recent papers in the management, economics and AI journals, but only 2 of them carry a social-insurance, pension, health-insurance, labour-protection or classification keyword. Courts and laws in Europe, the UK and parts of the US are reclassifying platform workers. What happens to their earnings and hours when protections arrive?
What prompted this#
Since October 2025, 44 papers carry a gig, platform-work or platform-economy keyword (20 in management journals, 12 in economics): "platform economy" on 15, "gig economy" on 15, "gig workers" on 9, "platform work" on 8. Only 2 of them also carry a social-insurance, social-security, pension, health-insurance, labour-protection, regulation, employment-status or classification keyword.
Questions#
- After reclassification (Spain's rider law, the UK Uber ruling, the EU platform work directive), did platforms cut the number of workers, their hours or their flexibility?
- Did workers' total earnings rise with the protections, or fall with the hours?
- Which protections could be attached to the work rather than the status, such as portable benefit accounts, and have any been tried at scale?
Data that could help#
Platform earnings data from worker-side apps and audits, administrative social insurance records, and the dates of legal changes by country.
Next step#
Compare hours and earnings of delivery riders in Spain before and after the 2021 rider law with riders in Italy, where classification stayed contested.