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Large format portraits of workers with jobs that provide no fixed salary, 2023. (see below)

‘The Cost of Convenience’ is a project about the people who work jobs without the traditional security of a salary or long term contract. While not exclusively gig economy and zero hour roles, these, as well as positions considered self employed make up the majority of this kind of work. The rise of the term ‘gig economy’ originated from the 2008 financial crisis and has been cemented into the public consciousness after the spread of Covid-19. It goes to show that events that sound unlikely really do happen. The people photographed as a part of this project are working jobs that would be affected more than most in these scenarios.

Gig economy platforms operate in a regulatory grey area, suggesting that ‘they simply provide a digital means for entrepreneurs to connect and do business’ when in reality they do much more. Despite this, because gig economy workers are considered ‘independent contractors’ to these apps, they are not entitled to sick pay, paid holidays or a minimum wage.

Casual employment and gig economy work can easily grind to a halt as it did over the multiple UK lockdowns. The Office of National Statistics found that at the start of the pandemic, 1,069,000 people in the UK were employed on a zero hours basis. During the first year of the pandemic, 23.1% of households consisting of a single self employed person reported that their income fell short of ‘barely adequate’. Workers face having severely reduced work hours each week or even just being let go for the convenience of the employer. The workers featured are ones who take the brunt of an economic slowdown like Covid or don’t enjoy the same job security as most of the workforce, even outside of these circumstances.