Income volatility and economic insecurity among multi-platform gig workers in India: Evidence from Mumbai

Abstract

The rapid growth of platform-based work in India has created new employment opportunities but has also exposed gig workers to substantial economic uncertainty. The study investigates whether gig workers’ engagement across multiple platforms represents a strategy for income diversification and risk management, or if it reflects deeper economic vulnerability. This paper examines the relationship between income volatility, job insecurity, financial insecurity and multi-platform participation among location-based platform workers in Mumbai. The study used a quantitative, comparative and cross-sectional research design through primary data collected through a structured questionnaire from 140 gig workers, i.e. 70 single-platform and 70 multi-platform workers working in food delivery, ride-hailing, quick-commerce and logistics/delivery services. Descriptive statistics, cross tabulation, chi-square tests, Welch’s t-tests and Pearson correlation were used to explore differences and associations between the two groups. The results show that workers engaged in multiple platforms experience significantly higher income volatility than workers engaged in only one platform, with average income volatility of 31.60% compared with 23.13%. Multi-platform workers also experience more job and financial insecurity. Income volatility is significantly associated with multi-platform participation (χ2 = 14.49, p < 0.001) and combined job-financial insecurity is significantly associated with multi-platform participation (χ2 = 16.46, p < 0.001).