What is Freelancing?
Freelance (sometimes spelled free-lance or free lance), freelancer, and freelance worker are common terms for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a specific employer long-term. Freelance workers are sometimes represented by a company or a temporary agency that provides freelance labor to clients. Others work independently or use professional associations or websites to get work.
While the term independent contractor would be used in a different form of English to describe the tax and employment classes of this type of worker, the term "freelancing" is most common in culture and creative industries, and use of this term may indicate involvement in them.
Fields, professions, and industries where freelancing is common include: music, writing, acting, computer programming, web design, graphic design, translating and illustrating, film and video production, and other forms of piece work that some cultural experts consider central to the cognitive-cultural economy.
Freelance Practices
Types of Work
According to the 2012 Freelance Industry Report compiled mainly about North America freelancing, nearly half of freelancers do writing work, with 18% of freelancers listing writing as a main skill, 10% editing/copy-editing, and 10% as copywriting. 20% of freelancers listed their main skills as design. Next on the list was translating (8%), web development (5.5%), and marketing (4%).
In 2018, freelancing was expected to grow to $20–$30 billion in the next 5–7 years in India, and freelancers in the US were expected to make up 40% (approx.) of the workforce at the projected growth rate from the same time.
Compensation
Depending on the industry, freelance work practices differ and have changed over time. In some industries such as consulting, freelancers may require clients to sign written contracts. While in journalism or writing, freelancers may work for free or do work "on spec" to build their reputation or a connection with a publication. Some freelancers may provide written estimates of work and request deposits from clients.
Payment for freelance work also depends on industry, skills, experience and location. Freelancers may charge by the day, hour, per piece, or on a per-project basis. Instead of a fixed rate or fee, some freelancers have adopted a value-based pricing method based on the perceived value of the results to the client. By practice, payment arrangements may be upfront, percentage upfront, or upon completion. For more complex projects, a contract may set a payment schedule based on milestones or results. One of the drawbacks of freelancing is that there is no guaranteed payment, and the work can be highly uncertain. In order to ensure payment, many freelancers use online payment platforms to protect themselves or work with local clients that can be held responsible.
Copyright
The question of ownership of a work's copyright arises when its author creates it on behalf of a client. The matter is controlled by copyright law, which varies by country. The default ownership lies with the client in some countries and with the freelancing author in others. The level to which either moral or financial ownership of a work for hire may be modified contractually varies by country.
Demographics
Globe icon.
The examples and perspective in this article mainly deal with Western culture and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (July 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
A 2018 McKinsey study found that up to 162 million people in Europe and the United States take part in some form of independent work. It represents 20–30 percent of the entire working age population.
The total number of freelancers in USA is not exact, as of 2013, the most recent government report on independent contractors was published in 2005 by the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. At that time, there were approximately 10.3 million United States workers (7.4% of the workforce) working as independent contractors of all kinds. In 2011, Jeffrey Eisenach, an economist at George Mason University, estimated that number of freelancers had increased by one million. While in 2012, the Aberdeen Group, a private research company, estimated that 26% (approx. 81 million) of the United States population was a part of the contingent workforce, a category of casual labor that includes freelancing.
In 2013, the Freelancers Union estimated that 1 in 3 workers in the United States was self-employed (approximately 42 million), with more than four million (43%) of those self-employed workers as members of the creative class, a group of work specifically linked with freelance industries, such as knowledge workers, technologists, professional writers, artists, entertainers, and media workers.
In 2016, the Freelancers Union estimated that 35% of the workforce in the United States was self-employed (approximately 55 million). This workforce earned an estimated $1 trillion from freelancing in 2016—a significant part of the U.S. economy. In 2017, a study by MBO Partners estimated the total number of self-employed Americans aged 21 and above to be 40.9 million.
The total number of freelancers in UK is also not exact; however, figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the proportion of remote workers rose from 9.2% in 2001 to 10.7% in 2011. It has been estimated, however, that there are approximately 1.7 million freelancers in the UK.
Freelancing is a gendered form of work. The 2012 Freelance Industry Report estimated that more than 71% of freelancers are women between the ages of 30 and 50. Surveys of other specific areas of freelancing have similar trends. Demographic research on Amazon Mechanical Turk showed that the majority of its North American workers are women. Catherine McKercher's research on journalism as a profession has shown that while media organizations are still male-dominated, the opposite is true for freelance journalists and editors, whose numbers are mainly women.
Benefits
Freelancers have a variety of reasons for freelancing, the perceived benefits differ by gender, industry, and lifestyle. For instance, the 2012 Freelance Industry Report reported that men and women freelance for different reasons. Female survey respondents indicated that they prefer the scheduling freedom and flexibility that freelancing offers, while male survey respondents indicated they freelance to follow or pursue personal interests. Freelancing also enables people to obtain higher levels of employment in remote communities. The ability to pick and choose who the freelancer works with is another benefit. The freelancer interviews a potential client and they get to decide whether or not to work with that individual or company.
Freelancing is also taken up by workers who have been laid-off, who cannot find full-time employment, or for those industries such as journalism which are relying increasingly on temporary labor rather than full-time staff. Freelancers also consist of students trying to make ends meet during the semester. In interviews, and on blogs about freelancing, freelancers list choice and flexibility as a benefit.
Drawbacks
Freelancing, like other forms of casual labor, can be unstable work. Websites, books, portals and organizations for freelancers often feature advice on getting and keeping a steady work flow. Beside the lack of job security, many freelancers also report the ongoing issue of dealing with employers who don't pay on time and the possibility of long periods without work. Additionally, freelancers do not receive employment benefits such as a pension, sick leave, paid holidays, bonuses or health insurance, which can be a serious difficulty for freelancers residing in countries such as the US without universal health care.
Freelancers often earn less than their employed counterparts, although sometimes the opposite is true. While most freelancers have at least ten years of experience prior to working independently, experienced freelancers do not always earn an income equal to that of full-time employment. Feedback from members suggests that web portals such as Freelancer.com tend to attract low-paying clients that, although demanding very high standards, pay around $10 per hour or less. Low-cost providers frequently offer to work at rates as low as $1–$2 per hour. Because most projects require bidding, professionals will not bid because they refuse to work at such rates. This has the effect of reducing the overall quality of the services provided.
According to research conducted in 2005 by the Professional Writers Association of Canada on Canadian journalists and editors, there is a wage gap between staff and freelance journalists. While the typical Canadian full-time freelancer is female, between 35 and 55, holding a college diploma and often a graduate degree, she typically earns about $29,999 Canadian dollars before taxes. Meanwhile, a staff journalist of similar age and experience level working full-time at outlets such as the Ottawa Citizen or Montreal Gazette newspapers, earned at least $63,500 Canadian dollars that year, the top scale rate negotiated by the union, The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America. Given the gendered structure of journalism, with more women working as freelancers than men, this difference in income can be seen as a form of gender pay gap. The Professional Writers Association of Canada report showed no major difference between the earnings of male and female freelancers, though part-time freelancers generally earned less than full-time freelancers.
Remote work is often mentioned as an attractive feature of freelancing, yet research suggests that it introduces new types of limitations for the process of doing work, particularly for married women with families, who continue to carry the burden of household chores and childcare despite increases in their paid work time. For instance, three years of research about teleworkers in Australia conducted by Melissa Gregg raises concerns over how both physical isolation and continuous access enabled with digital media puts pressure on homeworkers to show their commitment through constant responses by email and to hide their family or home life.
Internet and Online Marketplaces
The Internet has opened up many freelance opportunities, expanded available markets, and has contributed to service sector growth in many economies. Offshore outsourcing, online outsourcing and crowdsourcing are heavily dependent on the Internet to provide affordable access to remote workers, and often use technology to manage workflow to and from the employer. Much computer freelance work is being outsourced to developing countries outside the United States and Europe. International freelancers use their skills in English to gain better pay and flexibility in their work.
Freelance marketplaces provide a platform for freelancers and buyers. Service providers or sellers create a profile where they include a description of the services they offer, examples of their work, and sometimes information about their rates. Buyers register and complete a basic profile, and then post projects describing their requirements. Buyers will then place bids for these projects on a fixed price or hourly basis. Many of these websites have user review sections that affect the reputation of freelancers who list there, and which may sometimes be manipulated.
Freelance marketplaces have created global competition for some jobs, allowing workers in high- and low-income countries to compete with one another. According to a 2016 study by the McKinsey Global Institute, 15% of independent workers used online marketplaces to find work.
These marketplaces, including Fiverr and Lyft, have been criticized as exploiting workers.
Legal Aspects
Many periodicals and newspapers offer the option of ghost signing, when a freelance writer signs with an editor but their name is not listed on the byline of their articles. This allows the writer to receive benefits while still being classified as a freelancer, and independent of any organization. In some countries this can lead to taxation issues. Ghost signing has little effect on whether a writer is a freelancer or employee in the US.
Freelancers often must handle contracts, legal issues, accounting, marketing, and other business tasks by themselves. If they choose to pay for professional services, it can sometimes become a significant expense. Working hours can extend beyond the standard working day and working week.
The European Commission does not define "freelancers" in any legislative text. However, it defines a self-employed person as someone pursuing a paid activity for their own account, under the conditions set by national law. In such work, personal involvement is important and it includes a high level of independence in completing professional tasks.
The European Forum of Independent Professionals defines freelancers as highly skilled self-employed workers, without employers or employees, offering specialized services based on knowledge and expertise. Independent professionals work flexibly in different creative, managerial, scientific and technical fields; they are not a single group and cannot be studied as one. They are usually known for independence, productivity, knowledge-based performance, social contribution, and strong entrepreneurship.
In the U.S. in 2009, federal and state agencies began increasing their monitoring of freelancers and other workers classified as independent contractors. The U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended that the Secretary of Labor focus on misclassification of employees as independent contractors during investigations. The increased regulation aims to ensure workers are treated fairly and that companies do not misclassify workers to avoid taxes and benefits.
At the same time, this increased enforcement is affecting companies whose business models depend on non-employee workers, as well as independent professionals who choose to work this way. For example, publishing companies have traditionally outsourced tasks like indexing and proofreading to independent workers. Self-employed accountants and lawyers have also offered their services to firms needing support. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service provides guidance on self-employment, but some states have introduced stricter rules to define independent contractors.
United States
In the United States, where the constitution automatically gives ownership of copyright to the author, the contract must clearly state that the work is "work for hire" and that copyright is transferred to the client. Otherwise, the freelancer keeps the right to reproduce the work. Registration of copyright is not required for ownership, but legal action against infringement may require registration.
Copyright is only transferred when a freelancer signs a contract stating they are working for hire, or if they are hired as an employee. These rights are further explained in U.S. copyright law.
Etymology
The term freelancer is commonly linked to Sir Walter Scott in Ivanhoe to describe a medieval soldier or "free-lance" who was not bound to any lord’s service. Over time, the word changed into a general noun and was later recognized as a verb. In modern usage, it is used as a noun, adjective, verb, and adverb, as well as in the form "freelancer".
0 Comments