JOB MARKET PAPER 


Forgoing Payment Immediacy for Job Security: Evidence from Dutch Digital Platform Workers


Job amenities, wages and fringes benefits are key mechanisms for firms to attract, motivate, remunerate, and retain valuable workers. However, the rise of on-location digital labour market platforms has enabled clients and freelancers to establish indirect, short-term employment relationships. These arrangements offer job flexibility and payment immediacy but lack benefits typically associated with traditional forms of employment. To examine which comparable job amenities platform workers value the most and whether they are willing to sacrifice payment immediacy for more stable employment, we conduct a discrete choice experiment in partnership with a major labour market digital platform in the Netherlands. Willingness-to-pay estimates show that platform workers prefer eight-hour shifts over shorter ones and favour recurring employment relationships over short-term engagements. In contrast, they require significant compensation to accept gigs with longer cancellation periods, and with payment delays exceeding two weeks. We also document substantial heterogeneity in preferences across gender, education, age, and primary occupation. The trade-off between payment immediacy and employment duration is non-linear, with freelancers preferring six-month over twelve-month engagements, as payment delay increases.

 

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