"Female Gig Workers Face 32% Average Pay Gap"

Female gig workers in the U.S. make less than males, wear more hats, and are more worried about their futures, according to Legal & General Group research...

Per the study report, 64% of top-earning gig workers who make more than $100,000 are male. At the same time, 58% of female gig workers occupy the lowest income bracket – earning less than $50,000 a year from gig work. And among gig workers who earn between $50,000 and $99,000 a year, 40% are women and 60% are men...

“I think it’s here to stay,” John Godfrey, director of levelling up at L&G, said of the growing U.S. gig economy. “Which probably means that we have to think much harder about the big worry that women particularly have in the gig economy, which is about future financial security.”

L&G’s findings determined the biggest concern for 71% of female gig workers is their long-term financial futures...

Godfrey said the U.S. gig economy gender pay gap can partly be attributed to the sectors that women tend to work in. While the entire study cohort showcased a broad range of industries and fields, women gig workers “largely inhabit the Beauty & Heath, Media/Writing and Online/App Services sectors, and are less likely to be in IT, the highest paid sector among the freelancers we interviewed,” reads the L&G report.

According to that report, 18% of women surveyed chose to start gig work because they had a child, as opposed to 8% of men who began working independently because of having children. For female gig workers who are already mothers, this number leaps to 43%...