The gig economy: workers on tap

零工经济：随取随用的劳动力

However, the fact that it is smaller than you might think is not the gig economy's strongest defence. That rests on how gigging brings important benefits to the economy. The advantages for consumers are clear. With a swipe or a click, almost anyone can get Rover walked in the park or a vital document copy-edited within hours.

swipe n.划屏

Crucially, benefits also accrue to workers. The algorithms that underpin gig-economy platforms improve the "matching" between giggers and jobs, leading to less dead time.

accrue to 累积增长
underpin v.支持;构成...的基础

The evidence that gig workers face a pay penalty compared with conventional employees is patchy; many say they value the extra autonomy they enjoy compared with salaried workers.

patchy adj.不完全的;片面的
salaried worker 领薪水的员工

Gig platforms are a useful way of topping up income or smoothing out earnings if other sources of work dry up. They can also break open closed industries. Research shows that the arrival of Uber in American cities leads on average to a 50% surge in the number of self-employed taxi-drivers.

top up 充值
dry up 枯竭
break open 强行打入
surge n.激增

But the gig economy is not perfect. Platforms argue they are no more than neutral marketplaces in which workers and customers meet. By this logic, workers ought to count as self-employed. But the standards to which some platforms hold workers tell a different story.

no more than 仅仅
count as 算作
standard n.标准

Food-delivery riders are often told to wear a uniform; drivers for ride-hailing apps need to maintain a good rating or can be kicked off the platform. Platforms have a legitimate interest in maintaining their quality of service. But it cannot be right that some firms specify how workers must submit to the duties of acting like employees even as they reject the responsibilities of acting like employers.

Food-delivery rider 外卖小哥
kick off 把某人赶走
legitimate adj.正当的，合乎逻辑的
submit to 屈服，服从

文章来源 经济学人/流利阅读