Summary: The Gig Economy After 65

She drives for Uber three days a week. She retired from teaching four years ago. The pension covers most of what she needs, but not quite all. She likes the flexibility, the conversations, that no one asks her age or checks her resume. She does not like the way her back feels after six hours, the way the pay structure changes without warning, the way she has no idea what she will earn next month. She is not an employee. She is not exactly an entrepreneur. Nobody has figured out what that means.

The gig economy offers something traditional employment often does not: control over time. For someone managing chronic conditions, the ability to work around appointments matters. For someone caring for a spouse, flexible hours matter. Barriers to entry are low in ways that favor older workers: no resume screening, no interviews where age becomes visible. Supplemental income fills gaps Social Security leaves. And gig work allows a gradual transition that full retirement does not.

The flexibility comes at a price paid in protections. No benefits. No health insurance. No retirement contributions. No paid sick leave. No workers’ compensation. Income fluctuates with demand and algorithmic adjustments no individual worker controls. The physical toll is real: driving for six hours, delivering packages up stairs, standing for TaskRabbit gigs. Employment protections do not apply to independent contractors: the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, unemployment insurance, and the ADA all stop at the edge of contractor status.

Who benefits depends entirely on what else they have. The retired teacher with Medicare, a pension, and a spouse with income is choosing supplemental work. The 58-year-old with inadequate savings, no pension, and no healthcare is surviving. For one, flexibility is genuine. For the other, the language of flexibility obscures the absence of choice.

The gig economy did not create the retirement crisis. It is a symptom. When traditional employment excludes older workers through discrimination, when pensions disappear and savings prove insufficient, gig work fills the gap. Calling it freedom without examining the conditions is dishonest. Calling it exploitation without acknowledging what it provides is equally so. It is both, depending on who is holding the smartphone.