Since the 1980s, non-standard forms of employment have grown in the US, although detailed data documenting this trend have not always been consistently available. Drawing on earlier work, we show here how non-standard employment produces economic vulnerability in a variety of ways: low and irregular earnings, underemployment and frequent unemployment or unstable labour market participation. Non-standard arrangements particularly affect women workers as a whole. They also disproportionately touch racial/ethnic minorities, primarily African-American workers and Hispanics. Non-citizens, that is, mostly recent immigrants, are also disproportionately affected by non-standard work. All of these groups may thus be exposed to economic risk through non-standard employment to a greater extent than other workers.

The US experience shows how these vulnerabilities are compounded by a lack of social protection schemes. UK workers may be able to depend on a National Health Service and more generous in-work and unemployment benefits, but even with these protections in place, nonstandard employment leaves workers exposed to income instability and limited opportunities to save, which in turn makes household budgets and unexpected expenditures hard to manage. Significant cuts in tax credits and public services in the aftermath of the recent economic crisis in the UK are likely to exacerbate the vulnerabilities of workers in non-standard employment.

Of course, workers in standard employment arrangements may be vulnerable as well: heightened economic risk is not the exclusive province of workers in non-standard arrangements. This is particularly true in the UK and the US, whose employment protection frameworks (e.g. dismissal protection) are deemed weak when compared to other industrialised nations.

Nevertheless, non-standard arrangements do have a greater propensity to leave workers vulnerable, as this chapter shows. The US is an important cautionary tale, showing how recent labour market developments – particularly the growth of non-standard employment arrangements – can leave workers vulnerable and deeply exposed to economic risk. Our analysis underlines the importance to such workers of a rights-based approach to employment such as that pursued by UK governments over the last decade. This analysis shows the value of models of welfare provision that are linked to citizenship or residency rights rather than employment status alone – an approach followed by the UK system of social protection.