Study finds similar financial worries among both gig workers and corporate employees

American workers are worried about a possible recession, with many of them living paycheck to paycheck, a new survey finds. The study was released by Wonolo, an online job marketplace. The report, entitled “The State of Financial Health of Today’s Workforce” is based on surveys of 1,000 gig workers and 1,000 corporate workers across the U.S.

It finds that 55% of gig workers and 42% of workers in full-time corporate jobs say they are living paycheck to paycheck, with approximately 3 in 4 of both types of workers worried about their financial health if a recession were to happen next year.

Officials with Wonolo say the findings underline the need to provide more support for gig workers, since even workers with full-time jobs sometimes rely on that type of work to help pay the bills.

“Volatilities in our economy are impacting workers across the board. Our data shows corporate workers supplementing their income with additional gig work to be able to pay their bills,” says Yong Kim, CEO of Wonolo. “Gig workers are increasingly playing a key role in filling critical jobs for our economy to thrive. Yet, companies have not paid close attention to the needs of gig workers. Investing properly in all types of workers will help create a more agile labor force across the nation that can adapt to economic change.”

Workers share similar concerns

Although economic concerns have become much more prominent in media reports recently, the financial insecurity felt by American workers is not really new: a pre-pandemic study from Charles Schwab in 2019 finds that 59% of U.S. adults say they are living paycheck to paycheck.

Still, the Wonolo report outlines how gig workers and more traditional workers share many of the same financial concerns.

For example, with the pressures of inflation and economic uncertainty, both types of workers have similar worries about their financial health if a recession were to happen in the next year—75% of corporate workers and 78% of gig workers.

The vast majority of both corporate workers (92%) and gig workers (85%) say the cost of their bills have increased in the last six months, but just 41% corporate workers and 42% of gig workers say they have received an increase in pay in the last six months.

A couple of areas where the report has dissimilar findings are on the topics of paid time off (PTO) and retirement savings. Nearly twice as many gig workers (53%) say that they have fewer than 15 days of PTO compared to corporate workers (28%). In the area of retirement savings, almost double the number of gig workers (48%) report not having a 401(k), compared to corporate workers (27%).

Benefits and work flexibility are also on their minds

An interesting finding is that there isn’t a wide gap in how both types of workers feel about mental and physical health. The study finds that 29% of gig workers think their job negatively affects their mental and physical health, while 25% of corporate workers felt the same.

The same percentage, of both types of workers—76% — said the top thing that would help would be designated mental health days. Gig workers also list better financial benefits (73%) and better health benefits (69%) as things that would help their overall health. Corporate workers say if their overall health would be improved if their company hired more workers (72%), and more flexibility in their work hours (71%).

The lines blur between traditional corporate work and gig work for some Americans: the study finds that 28% of corporate workers have a part-time job or side gig in addition to their full-time job.

Read more: Women’s money worries have worsened over the last year

Despite their desire for more flexibility in work hours, noted above, more than half of corporate workers say they must be in-office and on site for every work shift. In addition, 19% of corporate workers say they can work remotely some days if they make a request in advance but are mainly on site. The survey finds that 15% of corporate employees work fully remotely, and 12% work part-time on site and part-time remote.

There are generational differences as well: Gen Zers (32%) are nearly twice as likely as Millennials (19%), Gen Xers (15%) or Baby Boomers (14%) to be able to work remotely some days if they make a request in advance, but are mainly on site, the survey finds.