Is Gig Work or Remote Work the Solution for Parents?

In Pew’s survey, working parents were asked whether certain workplace benefits would be “extremely” or “very” helpful to them. Unsurprisingly, many of them said yes to these: 1

• Paid parental, family, or medical leave, separate from PTO (84%)
• Flexibility to choose when to work their required hours (71%)
• Flexibility to work at home when needed (71%)
• On-site childcare at their workplace (43%)

While the majority of working parents said most of these benefits would be helpful, few actually get them.

Just half of the respondents said that separate paid parental, family, or medical leave was available to them, while only 25% said they had the flexibility to choose their own working hours.

The other two benefits saw even worse results. Just 23% of respondents said they had the flexibility to work from home when needed, and 7% said they had access to on-site childcare at their workplaces. 1

Are there federal laws that mandate benefits for employees?

While thousands of working parents face challenges because of a lack of benefits, there’s very little support for them at the federal level. For example, there are no federal laws that guarantee access to paid sick leave or childcare.

Some states, such as California, Colorado, and New York, have their own versions of family and medical leave laws that are more robust than the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

This can include benefits like kin care laws that allow employees to use sick leave to care for family members or school activity leave. California and Georgia, for instance, have kin care laws in place for working parents. 2

However, these benefits are far from universal.

Pew’s survey focused on those who are traditionally employed by companies. For parents who work remotely or are gig workers, it’s a slightly different story.

Gig work

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 11.9 million Americans identified as independent contractors in 2023. 3 Data from the US Federal Reserve found that 26% of gig workers are parents of young children. 4

David Iglesias, Deputy Director of State Government Affairs at the Libertas Institute, a libertarian think-tank, told The Carolina Journal that Americans have been increasingly moving toward working independently since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I don’t think it’s a secret, America’s workforce is becoming increasingly independent,” he said. “Since COVID, we’ve seen more people working remotely, pursuing self-employment, and taking greater control over their schedules and work arrangements.”

It makes sense that many parents would turn to gig work, since it often offers more flexibility than traditional employment. Choosing your own working hours is a huge plus when you’ve got kids to care for.

The challenges parents who are gig workers face

While many full-time employees don’t have the same level of flexibility as gig workers, the latter generally don’t get any benefits from their jobs.

Gig workers usually aren’t afforded health insurance through their companies, for instance, meaning they need to rely on expensive private plans. Since gig workers’ earnings often fluctuate because of seasonal market conditions or oversaturation on popular platforms, committing to regular insurance payments can be difficult.

Nicole Magelssen, a former freelance virtual assistant who now runs her own business, shared her experience of freelancing as a mom with Parents.com.

“As a parent, I’ve got mixed feelings about the gig economy,” she said. “On the one hand, it’s amazing for flexibility. That freedom is huge, but unpredictability can be rough. Income isn’t always steady, and there is no safety net.”

Remote work

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many parents have turned to remote work. On paper, this seems like the obvious solution. In theory, not having to commute to the office makes it easier for moms and dads to handle childcare and spend more time with their kids.

There’s some truth to this. In another recent survey from Pew, about two-thirds of parents who work from home all or most of the time (67%) said they have a lot of flexibility to attend their children’s activities during regular work hours. 5

Elizabeth Terhune, who went remote during the pandemic, told The New York Times that she’s been able to balance family and work responsibilities much better as a result of working from home.

“It didn’t have to feel like I was choosing between spending time with my small child and working,” she said.

In the past, parents sometimes even had to hide their caregiving responsibilities in the workplace for fear of being seen as uncommitted or unreliable. Now, working from home makes it easier for working parents to look after their kids when they’re sick, attend meetings without having to commute, and step away from work to pick up their children from school without sacrificing their career advancement for it.

The challenges remote working parents face

Despite the perceived advantages, 52% of parents who work from home all or most of the time and 54% of those who “sometimes” do it said it’s difficult to balance work and family life.

For parents who think a remote job will make it easier to balance their work and family responsibilities, these findings directly contradict that expectation. The study found that those who rarely or never work from home experienced similar challenges juggling work and family life (54%).

It isn’t just their careers that are affected—their families also feel the strain. More than half of parents who work from home said they still find it harder to be a good parent as a result of their job. That’s almost the same as those who never work from home (an even 50%). 5

Brigid Schulte, director of New America’s Better Life Lab and an advisor on the Pew Research Center’s study, told Inc.com that “the expectation of being always on or always available has shifted from physical presence to digital presence.”

This expectation can cause parents to be unclear about how much they actually need to work. Schulte argued that working parents may try to demonstrate commitment through long hours and constant responsiveness, often to the detriment of their familial and personal lives.

Many workplaces frame benefits as nice-to-haves, but for a lot of parents, they’re essential. Without them, employees and employers both suffer.

Childcare

One of the biggest challenges working moms and dads face is dealing with childcare while needing to work. According to Pew’s survey, 30% of all working parents (excluding self-employed workers) said they’d be worried about losing pay if they had to take time off to care for a sick child. 1

For working parents, cost is the most challenging factor when looking for childcare. Almost half (48%) of working parents who need care for a child age 5 or younger say it’s difficult to find an arrangement they can afford. 6

Gig work may give parents more flexibility to not work when they need to look after their children. However, their earnings can often be unstable. Those days off won’t be compensated, and multiple days without work can cost parents thousands of dollars.

Parents’ well-being

Along with not spending enough time with their children, parents also struggle to find time for themselves. Around half of moms and dads say they don’t have enough time for things like hobbies, seeing friends, exercise, or relaxing. 6

This is especially true for working moms. For instance, 65% of moms say they don’t have enough time for exercise, compared with 52% of dads, and they’re also more likely to handle parenting tasks.

As one mom who participated in the study told the Pew Research Center, “I’m supposed to work like I don’t have kids and supposed to parent like I don’t have a job.”

The dangers for employers

The lack of benefits, particularly flexibility, in the workplace doesn’t just affect parents. It also causes problems for employers.

Side Hustles spoke with Edgar Ndjatou, Executive Director of Workplace Fairness, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to educating workers, employers, and policymakers about workplace rights. Ndjatou told us that the lack of workplace flexibility “creates significant risks for both employees and employers.”

“Parents who lack schedule flexibility, remote work options, predictable schedules, childcare support, or access to leave often experience increased stress, burnout, absenteeism, and workforce exit,” he said. “Employers, in turn, face higher turnover, lower engagement, reduced productivity, and greater difficulty recruiting and retaining talent.

“What is often viewed as a personal challenge for workers is increasingly a business challenge for employers.”

In another recent survey from Pew, both part-time and full-time workers (42% and 46%) said that juggling work and family responsibilities meant they hadn’t been able to give 100% at work in the past year. 6

As living costs continue to rise, having both parents working has become a necessity. However, many parents have to make difficult tradeoffs just to make ends meet: less time with their children, increased stress, and fewer chances to take care of their own well-being.

The rise of side hustles, gig work, and remote working shows that many parents are searching for greater control over their schedules, often at the cost of benefits and financial security.

For working parents, access to predictable schedules, paid leave, childcare support, and flexible work arrangements can mean the difference between simply staying employed and building a sustainable career.

According to Ndjatou, benefits for working parents are just as important for businesses as well as employees.

“The jurisdictions that have expanded paid leave, paid sick leave, pregnancy accommodation, and family leave protections increasingly recognize that supporting working families is not simply an employee benefit,” he said. “It’s an economic, workforce, and public policy issue that affects employee retention, labor force participation, child well-being, and long-term business success.”