Editing Freelancer (section)

==Drawbacks==
Freelancing, like other forms of [[Casual employment|casual labor]], can be [[precarious work]].<ref name=":1" /> Websites, books, portals and organizations for freelancers often feature advice on getting and keeping a steady work stream.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thesimpledollar.com/financial-wellness/ultimate-freelancers-guide/|title=The Ultimate Freelancer's Guide: Everything You Need to Know About Getting Jobs, Getting Paid, and Getting Ahead|last=Dollar|first=Staff|website=thesimpledollar|access-date=25 November 2019|archive-date=11 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811221045/https://www.thesimpledollar.com/financial-wellness/ultimate-freelancers-guide/|url-status=live}}</ref> Beside the lack of job security, many freelancers also report the ongoing hassle 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 hardship for freelancers residing in countries such as the US without [[universal health care]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Bornstein|first=David|title=Safety Nets for Freelancers (Opinionator)|url=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/safety-nets-for-freelancers/|access-date=17 May 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=6 December 2011|archive-date=1 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130401015318/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/safety-nets-for-freelancers/|url-status=live}}</ref>

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,<ref name="Freelance Industry Report 2012" /> 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 ~$10 per hour or less. Low-cost suppliers 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.<ref name="McKercher 2009 370-374" /> Given the gendered stratification of journalism, with more women working as freelancers than men, this disparity in income can be interpreted as a form of [[gender pay gap]]. The [[Professional Writers Association of Canada]] report showed no significant difference between the earnings of male and female freelancers, though part-time freelancers generally earned less than full-time freelancers.<ref>{{cite web|title=2005 Canadian Professional Writers Survey|url=http://www.pwac.ca/files/PDF/PWACsurvey.pdf|publisher=Professional Writers Association of Canada|access-date=17 May 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070716093907/http://www.pwac.ca/files/PDF/PWACsurvey.pdf|archive-date=16 July 2007}}</ref>

[[Remote work]] is often cited as an attractive feature of freelancing, yet research suggests that it introduces new sets of constraints for the process of doing work, particularly for married women with families, who continue to bear the brunt of household chores and childcare despite increases in their paid work time.<ref>{{cite web |editor-last=Fang |editor-first=Fang |title=Division of Household Labor |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/page/gas/collections/classroom/household-labor |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]] |access-date=8 February 2022 |archive-date=8 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220208204844/https://journals.sagepub.com/page/gas/collections/classroom/household-labor |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Wade |first=Lisa |title=Of Housework and Husbands |url=http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/07/11/of-housework-and-husbands/ |publisher=Sociological Images |access-date=17 May 2013 |archive-date=18 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518184939/http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/07/11/of-housework-and-husbands/ |url-status=live }}</ref> For instance, three years of ethnographic research about teleworkers in Australia conducted by Melissa Gregg, a Principal Engineer and Researcher in Residence for the Intel Science and Technology Center for Social Computing at [[UC Irvine]], raises concerns over how both physical isolation and continuous access enabled with networked digital media puts pressure on homeworkers to demonstrate their commitments through continual responses by email and to conceal their family or home life.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Work's intimacy|author=Gregg, Melissa|date=2011|publisher=Polity|isbn=9780745650289|location=Cambridge, UK|oclc=669262653}}</ref>