Women working in the US gig economy are being paid much less than their male counterparts, according to new research this week finding that the gender pay gap for self-employed women is almost three times more than professionals who are employed in full-time jobs.
Conducted by Austin-based business formation services provider, ZenBusiness, the research finds that male freelancers charge on average 48 per cent more than women for the same work.
The study looked at the combined hourly rates of around 6000 freelance workers who had charged for 100 hours of work on Upwork, a freelancing website. After accounting for the specialities and job categories, men were found to charge an average of $22.28 per hour more than women.
Male dev-ops engineers working on software development and IT were charging £100.90 per hour (AUD173.29) more than women doing similar work.
Male freelancers working in accounting and consulting had the widest gender pay gap, earning on average 33 per cent more an hour than females.
The only jobs where women outlearned men was in HR administrators and instructional designers, though the gap in small by comparison — $3.26 for HR administrators and $6.44 per hour for instructional designers.
Generally, male and female freelancers tended to be paid more equally in the creative industries, including copywriting and translation.
Though disparities remained within these creative fields. The average male business writer charged an average of $23.62 more per hour than female business writers working on similar content.
“It’s deeply troubling that women working independently experience such stark wage disparities,” executive director of the Freelancers Union, Rafael Espinal, told Bloomberg last month.
The study is cause for concern, after another study released by Upwork showed that 59 million Americans performed freelance work in the past year, representing more than one-third of the entire U.S. workforce. American freelancers are believed to have contributed $1.3 trillion in annual earnings to the US economy last year.
Another recent study from Mastercard predicts the sector’s global value will reach $455 billion by 2023, while one research forecasts up to half of the total US workforce will be freelancing by 2027.
The global gender pay gap appears does not appear to be shrinking, despite decades of work to highlight the issue. According to World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2022, if the current rate of improvement persists, it will take another 132 years to reach full gender pay parity.
World Economic Forum’s Managing Director Saadia Zahidi said: “… this halt in progress towards parity is a catastrophe for the future of our economies, societies and communities. Accelerating parity must be a core part of the public and private agenda”.
Many women have turned to freelance work due to barriers faced in corporate organisations.
A recent survey found that 70 per cent of women who were thinking about joining the gig economy were doing so because they had experienced workplace discrimination or felt restricted by factors relating to the corporate glass ceiling. More than half of women also said they could not reach their full career potential as employees within a company.
When Fleur Madden started Freelancing Gems in 2020, she knew that more women were being pushed towards the gig economy, but also that there was a startling pay gap between the sexes.
“Due to the current state of our economy, we know that for many employers their next hire will be a consultant,” she told Women’s Agenda.
“There will be women that have never consulted before that will be joining the gig – economy and we are also here for them to guide them.”
Her platform champions women freelancers, consultants, sole-traders and side hustlers across all industries, providing a central place for employers to find who they are looking for, while also offering female members a range of business tools and templates, business coaching, learning opportunities and access to a high profile Entrepreneur in Residence.
“We look forward to being part of the solution that sees more women get back to work sooner by providing further connections between employers and female freelancers.”