Contingent work, casual work, gig work or contract work, is an employment relationship with limited job security, payment on a piece work basis, typically part-time (typically with variable hours) that is considered non-permanent.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the nontraditional workforce includes "multiple job holders, contingent and part-time workers, and people in alternative work arrangements".[1] These workers currently represent a substantial portion of the US workforce, and "nearly four out of five employers, in establishments of all sizes and industries, use some form of nontraditional staffing". "People in alternative work arrangements" includes independent contractors, employees of contract companies, workers who are on call, and temporary workers.[1]
Terminology
Contingent workers are also often called consultants, freelancers, independent contractors, independent professionals, temporary contract workers, staff-augmentation workers, or temps.[2][3] Contingent[4] work jobs are widely referred to as McJobs.[5] This term was made popular by Douglas Coupland's novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, and stems from the notion that employment in McDonald's and other fast food and retail businesses is frequently insecure. The term contingent workers differ from regular employees primarily in the nature of their employment relationship and contractual arrangements. Contingent workers perform services under short-term or project-based contracts, without continuous relationship with the employer, while employees typically work for an organization on a long-term basis and are included on its payroll
History
Industrial Revolution
The concept of what is now considered to be a job, where one attends work at fixed hours was rare until the Industrial Revolution. Before then, the predominant regular work was in agriculture. Textile workers would often work from home, buying raw cotton from a merchant, spinning it and weaving it into cloth at home, before selling it on.
In the 1770s, cotton mills started to appear in Lancashire, England, using Richard Arkwright's spinning jenny and powered by water wheels. Workers would often work in twelve-hour shifts, six days a week. However, they would still often be paid on a piece work basis, and fines would be deducted from their pay for damage to machinery. Employers could hire and fire largely as they pleased, and if employees had any grievance about this, there was very little that they could do about it.
Trade union movement
Contributing factors and trends
Benefits to organizations
By engaging contract workers, organizations are able to be agile and save costs. The contingent workforce acts as a variable workforce for companies to select from to perform specific projects or complete specialized projects.[8]
Also as organizations make efforts to be more agile and to quickly respond to change in order to be more competitive, they turn to the contingent workforce to have on-demand access to professionals and experts.[9] Organizations also see the opportunity to reduce benefits and retirement costs by engaging the contingent workforce.[8] However, there is risk involved in avoiding these costs if an employee is improperly classified as a contingent worker. Using the contingent workforce is also cost-effective in that using contingent labor allows for adjustments to employment levels and employment costs depending on what kind of expertise and labor is need and at what time it is needed.
Economy
See also
- Adjunct professor
- Contract attorney
- Day labor
- Dispatched labor
- Ghost Work
- Human capital
- Independent contractor-employee distinction
- National Safety Council
- Permatemp
- Precariat
- Precarious work
- Precarity
- Psychological contract
- Temporary work
Further reading
- Contingent Work: American Employment Relations in Transition, edited by Kathleen Barker and Kathleen Christensen, ISBN 0801484057
References
- Futurework Occupational Outlook Quarterly, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 1999^
- Workforce Planning and Employment InformIT, Pearson, 2005-12-19, retrieved 2016-11-30^
- Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements, February 2005 US Bureau of Labor Statistics, July 2005, retrieved 2016-11-30