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Women in the Gig Economy Report Women in the gig economy Paid work, care and flexibility in Kenya and South Africa Abigail Hunt, Emma Samman, Sherry Tapfuma, Grace Mwaura and Rhoda Omenya with Kay Kim, Sara Stevano and Aida Roumer November 2019 DATA-POP ALLIANCE Readers are encouraged to reproduce material for their own publications, as long as they are not being sold commercially. ODI requests due acknowledgement and a copy of the publication. For online use, we ask readers to link to the original resource on the ODI website. The views presented in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of ODI or our partners. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Cover photo: Lucy Nyangasi, domestic worker, Kenya. Credit: Kate Holt/Solidarity Center, 2016 Acknowledgements This report was authored by Abigail Hunt (Overseas Development Institute, ODI), Emma Samman (Research Associate, ODI and Data-Pop Alliance), Sherry Tapfuma (Stellenbosch Business School), Grace Mwaura (independent consultant) and Rhoda Omenya (independent consultant). Kay Kim (independent consultant) provided the analysis of the quantitative data, and Sara Stevano (Research Associate, King’s College London) and Aida Roumer (Goethe University Frankfurt) provided a comprehensive literature review. We thank Aasha Jackson for additional research on maternity benefits in South Africa. We are grateful to the following peer reviewers for excellent feedback and incisive comments which improved the paper: Francesca Bastagli (ODI), Stephen Gelb (ODI), Mark Graham (Professor of Internet Geography, Oxford Internet Institute), Bitange Ndemo (Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Nairobi) and Stefan Thewissen (Economist, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD). We thank Natalie Brighty for coordinating the paper’s production, Joanna Fottrell for editing, Rick Jones for layout, and Emily Steadman for proofreading. We also extend sincere thanks to the workers who gave time to be part of this study, and the platform companies and others who supported our access to data and other information to make the project possible. These include Vera Belazelkoska (Ulula), Laura Castro (Ulula), Rebecca Furst-Nichols (KIPP DC, previously Data2X), Shikoh Gitau (Safaricom Limited), Antoine Heuty (Ulula), Luke Kannemeyer (SweepSouth), Emmanuel Letouzé (Data-Pop Alliance), Nuria Oliver (Vodafone Institute and Data-Pop Alliance) and Bapu Vaitla (Data2X). The survey of workers was taken forward with the survey company Ulula and Data-Pop Alliance contributed to the analysis of platform data. The report was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Data2X. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of either organisation. 3 Contents List of boxes, tables and figures 6 Acronyms and abbreviations 8 Executive summary 9 1 Introduction 11 2 Women and the gig economy: key concepts 14 2.1 Key concepts: work, care and flexibility 14 2.2 Focus countries: South Africa and Kenya 17 3 Methodology 22 4 Situating the study 25 4.1 Who are the gig workers? 25 4.2 Work before/alongside gig work 27 4.3 Why are workers engaging in the gig economy? 29 5 Gender, the gig economy and quality of work 31 5.1 Pay in gig work 31 5.2 Flexibility 36 5.3 Safety and security 42 5.4 Access to labour and social protections 43 5.5 Learning opportunities and professionalisation 47 5.6 Worker organisation and collective action 48 5.7 Discussion of key findings 50 6 The gig economy and unpaid care and domestic work 52 6.1 The unpaid care and domestic work in which gig workers are involved 52 6.2 Workers’ preferences around organising unpaid care and domestic work, paid work and other activities 55 6.3 Strategies used to manage paid work, care work and other activities 57 6.4 Challenges and trade-offs in balancing gig work and unpaid care and domestic work 61 6.5 Discussion of key findings 65 4 7 Implications and ways forward to improve gig work 66 7.1 Recommendations 68 8 Future research directions 75 References 77 Annex 1. Analysis of platform data and regressions 86 Utilisation 86 Wages and their variability 86 Distribution of work 87 Regression: determinants of life satisfaction 87 Regression: determinants of superstar status 88 Annex 2. Demographic characteristics of workforce 89 5 List of boxes, tables and figures Boxes Box 1 Gender and the gig economy: opportunity or challenge? 12 Box 2 Defining informal employment 14 Box 3 ‘Traditional’ domestic work in South Africa 19 Box 4 A profile of SweepSouth 22 Box 5 Who are platform superstars? 34 Box 6 The contribution of flexibility to life satisfaction 38 Box 7 Protection in name only: domestic worker access to maternity benefits in South Africa 45 Box 8 Social protection for gig workers 70 Box 9 US legislation of fair working hours and the gig economy 72 Box 10 Incremental improvement – steps taken by the platform to improve working conditions 73 Tables Table 1 Most important and second most important reasons workers reported working through platforms in South Africa and Kenya 30 Table 2 Cumulative share of hours worked by share of workers on the platform (%) 34 6 Figures Figure 1 The care diamond 16 Figure 2 Monthly household income of platform workers surveyed and of South African households 26 Figure 3 Perceptions of ease of living on current household income among platform workers surveyed in South Africa 26 Figure 4 Reports of financial insecurity among single and partnered platform workers in South Africa 27 Figure 5 Compared to other jobs you do, the platform . 28 Figure 6 Average and median weekly earnings of platform workers surveyed in South Africa 32 Figure 7 Share of South African platform workers’ income from the platform in the previous month 33 Figure 8 Most common means by which the platform’s workers interact on a regular basis in South Africa 48 Figure 9 Hours the platform workers spent on unpaid care and domestic work on previous day in South Africa 54 Figure 10 Hours the platform workers report that their partners spent caring for others or on household chores on previous day in South Africa 54 Figure 11 Whether and how childcare responsibilities limit platform workers’ economic opportunities in South Africa 59 Figure 12 Who looks after South African platform workers’ children while they engage in paid work and share of children left without adult supervision in a given week 60 7 Acronyms and abbreviations AVR automated voice response BPO business processes outsourcing COTU Central Organization of Trade Unions DTF Digital Taxi Forum FGD focus group discussion HICs high-income countries KII key informant interview KUDHEIHA Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers LICs low-income countries MICs middle-income countries NGOs non-profit organisations ODI Overseas Development Institute PPP purchasing power parity SADSAWU South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union SASSA South African Social Security Agency SDGs Sustainable Development Goals UIF Unemployment Insurance Fund (South Africa) US United States ZAR South African Rand 8 Executive summary The gig economy, in which digital platforms underscoring that improvements are needed if bring together workers and the purchasers of the gig economy is to provide high-quality jobs. their services, is expanding globally. Though More broadly, adverse economic conditions limit exponential growth is forecast in traditionally the availability and quality of work accessible to female-dominated sectors – notably on-demand marginalised women in both countries who face household services including cooking, cleaning widespread unemployment and informality. The and care work – little research to date has focused physical urban environment presents further on gendered experiences of gig work or on gig obstacles, distinguished by long distances, poor workers outside of North America and Europe. transport links and, notably in South Africa, This report presents findings from an in-depth extremely high levels of crime and insecurity. There study of women’s engagement in the gig economy may be little that gig platforms can contribute to in Kenya and South Africa, two middle-income alleviate these deeply rooted challenges at present, countries at the forefront of developments in given their current small scale. However, we argue digitally mediated work in sub-Saharan Africa. It that, at times, these challenges are experienced aims to understand the impact of this engagement in new ways during gig work and that platforms on workers’ lives, considering the quality of have a responsibility to respond to workers’ work on offer and its implications for workers’ concerns as well as to ensure the realisation of management of paid work and unpaid care and worker rights and social protections. domestic work. Our novel research methods in The picture in relation to gig workers’ unpaid South Africa include a longitudinal survey of work is mixed. In line with existing evidence, our gig workers combined with analysis of platform findings suggest that unpaid care and domestic data. In both countries, our findings are based on work responsibilities are strongly gendered – with interviews with workers and other key informants. women taking on the bulk of related tasks and We find that many gig workers face significant engaging in a range of strategies to manage unpaid financial precarity and engage in a patchwork of care. Many workers identified childcare as the income-generating activities to survive. This includes biggest challenge to their economic opportunities work on more than one platform and other types and work–life balance. We identified a strong of employment, largely in the informal economy. reliance on informal childcare, notably by family, Gig workers typically perceive that platform neighbours and friends, but when such support work offers better options than they would have was lacking, a sizeable share relied on high-risk otherwise, though many would prefer the stability strategies, such as leaving young children alone or afforded by a more regular engagement.
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