Young women at risk: Harassment by gender, race, and age in the gig economy

Harassment at work is a serious issue, and gig workers often lack protections that shield conventional employees from mistreatment. Few studies, however, have examined harassment in gig work quantitatively. Guided by the intersectional perspective and the perpetrator-predation framework, we use 2021 data from Pew’s American Trends Panel to examine harassment among gig workers at the intersections of race, gender, and age. We find that Black and Hispanic workers report more harassment than White workers regardless of gender or age. Furthermore, although women do not report more harassment than men on average, the connection between gender and harassment is strong among young workers: young women report notably more harassment than young men and more harassment than any other gender-age group. Consequently, harassment is highest for young women, especially those who are Black or Hispanic. For young women, gig work is thus both economically precarious and associated with a heightened risk of harassment.