In recent years, the gig economy has grown enough that over half of its freelancers earn an annual income of $50,000 or less (Nadia, 2023). The statistics seem fantastic for an unwatchful eye, with satisfied workers and more job mobility (Cprw, 2023). However, such data only covers the rising market partially. Because the independent, short-term, unregistered employment it promotes is hard to track and, consecutively, hard to regulate (Ro, 2022). Further, 55% of gig workers continue with full-time or regular jobs, which connects the point of many people being unable to gain financial independence purely from such an economy (Cprw, 2023). Expanding gig economy and sustainable economic growth are two terms that cannot come together, because the first ignores the environmental and social worries that the latter entails.

With the pandemic, the gig economy blew up by 30% as companies compiled strategies to deal with labor shortages, inflation, and the future of work (Gibbons, 2022). Such an economy allows to make jobs cheaper by establishing time periods and specific roles or projects for the contract of gig workers, without needing to hire them formally.

Given this contextualization, there is another crucial concept to understand the arguments developed in this essay. Sustainable economic growth puts together a wide variety of topics to guarantee long-term welfare. At the same time, most scientists agree that it entails two main focus points: supporting economic growth without depleting resources (Indeed Editorial Team, 2022) and taking care of human life with decent employment (Martin, 2023). Those are the environmental and social worries referred to above and, therefore, metrics to be used through this analysis.

Firstly, legislative policy has even higher obstacles to be correctly supervised, opening more liability to environmental damage. Considering recent international agreements and COPs, it is reasonable to assume that governments are giving more attention to the global harm caused by how production is shaped (COP28 Agreement Signals "Beginning of the End" of the Fossil Fuel Era, n.d.). Nonetheless, that does not mean firms have shifted their interests, especially when profit maximization is the main incentive inside a capitalist market. Because the gig economy comes with less strict steps for employment and fewer records on specific agreements, the risk of a firm getting caught under environmental damage when gig workers are involved is much lower. More than that, it is also more accessible for the firm to pass on the blame without firing essential parts of its corporate structure. The logical meaning of this is that the risk of a climate infraction significantly damaging a company is smaller as the gig economy expands. Given that green practices continue to be more expensive, such a lower risk of getting caught is a more attractive trade-off for the company because it can bring more profit.

In illustration, there is the real-life case of Volkswagen. In late 2015, the International Council on Clean Transportation found discrepancies in emissions of VW's diesel vehicles in controlled and on-road testing, finding a "defeat device" that manipulated results (Wendler, 2015). After that, it was time for governments to open investigations, and one of their first moves was to speak to those responsible for the projects of those cars (Learn About Volkswagen Violations | US EPA, 2023). Imagine a world where the gig economy had already infiltrated VW significantly, and gig workers had been responsible for the project. The information on responsibility would be increasingly more complex to find with the lack of appropriate registers, unlike what happens with traditional workers. In most scenarios, only the top engineer responsible would be identified and invited to testify - and one person holds a one-sided view, with more probable roles in between facts, and is more prone to a big corporation's manipulation. In VW, since it was a software modification (Hotten, 2015), investigations could have more trouble identifying the exact cause of the problem. Inevitably, because this specific example caught international attention (Atiyeh, 2019), VW would have taken fault for their polluting cars either way. However, the near bankruptcy observed might have been less severe if they had immediately fired the top engineer and the possible board member accompanying the project, arguing that responsibility was dealt with and all workers involved were gone. After all, the biggest portion of the labor force would have come from temporary workers' contracts that VW could argue did not understand the values of their enterprise. Whereas in real life, big heads had to roll with a time-consuming internal inquiry (Kell, 2022), which caused additional instability inside the firm.

Notice, then, that the increased probability of firms harming the environment comes from the shift of fault from employer to employee that the expanding gig economy promotes. Apart from VW's example, this way of exploring loopholes in environmental law can materialize in a firm telling contracted freelancers to jump or manipulate certain legal requirements, and they might do it either because they weren't sure what that would result in or because they were desperate for the money the gig would give them. Accountability is poor because gig workers, additionally, don't have access to other activities of the firm and little to no access to HR. At the same time, legislation is unlikely to close and solve these roles of regulation soon, once various steps need to be fulfilled for the legislation to be put into practice (Ro, 2022). Moreover, if it decreases worker surplus by making gig jobs too strict for companies (and, consequently, less attractive), the gig economy will likely not continue expanding.

This argumentation is especially harmful in developing countries, whose governments already struggle with policing specific environmental legislations (Issues, 2022). In view that multinationals already move industries to those countries in order to bring costs down (one factor of that being the allowed use of more oil-based machines) (Why The MNEs Move Their Production to Developing Countries? | 5 Answers From Research Papers, n.d.), the lack of appropriate regulation would result in even more significant carbon emissions and more harm to the environment. Here, the consequences of the expanding gig economy could contribute negatively to sustainability.

Another relevant setback comes in the social sphere. Gig workers lack access to traditional employee benefits, such as health security and transportation, of which the burden is transferred to spending with the salary earned. A salary that is, on average, already reduced in comparison to traditional employment. In fact, research published in EPI has shown that 1 in 7 gig workers earn less than the federal minimum wage on an hourly basis (National Survey of Gig Workers Paints a Picture of Poor Working Conditions, Low Pay, n.d.). To the company, this is incredible. The gig economy allows them cost-effectiveness, no headache of dealing with a mediator in the hiring process (often HR), and volatility to hire and fire (Why Businesses Need to Consider Hiring Gig Workers in the Post-Pandemic Economy | Monroe Consulting Group, n.d.). On the other hand, workers, aligned with the absence of paid vacations or childcare, have their budget constraint shrink and open space for poorer working conditions.

To some workers, this situation is said to pay off because of the flexibility. Especially after spending over a year with the threat of COVID and lockdown determinations, people want to regain more control over their lives and pass this on to their work (Americans Are Embracing Flexible Work; and They Want More of It, 2022). However, the trade-off between stability and flexibility is much more nuanced. The extent of the flexibility offered seems more of a feeling than anything else. As the gig economy becomes more participative and popular, workers must make themselves available at any time (Gig Economy, n.d.). This is because of competitiveness with other workers, which might lead to overwork and burnout, or also because of algorithms. 

In Uber, for example, many say that the algorithm doesn't punish drivers for rejecting too many rides. At the same time, Wired observed that Uber began sending fewer requests to those who rejected or canceled many ride requests (Marshall, 2020). Additionally, Uber drivers and gig workers generally don't get to have full leisure days or vacations, because the opportunity cost of doing so is maybe being unable to pay the bills at the end of the month (especially for those who are sole gig workers).

It's also important to note that there are some benefits to the gig economy. To those with less access to employment, considering immigrants in most countries around the world, it gives them a chance to secure some payback to their household. In the short term, it covers such roles that unemployment rates create. Its expansion, however, creates more harm than good. The mentioned benefit is not even maintained in the long term, opening more space to work exploration and less possibility for those immigrants to fully integrate into the new country, with insecure work and limited career development (Abkhezr & McMahon, 2022). Such damage to welfare makes the gig economy something close to one giant sweatshop, with the additional harm of offering only a mirage of flexibility. 

Ultimately, the gig economy incentivizes the economy, making cheaper labor for companies. Nevertheless, in 2023, GDP growth is not enough. The world asks for lasting sustainable economic growth, to which traditional employment comes with more environmental security and better social conditions. Alternatives like infrastructural projects that generate employment, more quotas and legislation to guarantee the private market is operating as it should, and investments in education to meet the necessity of specialized work with the rising technological capacity come with more advantages in the long run. After all, the benefits of the gig economy, as exposed here, clearly have an expiration date.