Workers turn to 'polyworking' to combat frozen salaries and inflation
[November 14, 2025] By
CATHY BUSSEWITZ
NEW YORK (AP) — As workers face frozen salaries, inflation and fear of
layoffs, some have decided to branch out from their traditional careers.
They're taking on side jobs to bring in additional income and provide a
backup plan should they find themselves out of work, or adding second,
third and sometimes fourth jobs — what some call “polyworking” — to the
mix.
Take Katelyn Cusick, 29. She beautifies displays as a visual
merchandiser for Patagonia at her full-time job. Then she works a side
gig managing social media influencers for a German shoe brand for 10 to
15 hours per week. She also has an Etsy shop where she sells paintings.
If that wasn’t enough, she ushers at concerts in the San Francisco Bay
Area — a way to see live shows for free.
“Every day is different and every day feels like a new day," Cusick
said. "That is ultimately why I started doing all these side hustles,
just because I wanted to switch it up. I don’t want to just do the same
thing every day.”
The extra income also helps her pay her student loans and manage the
high cost of living, a welcome assist since wages at her full-time job
have stayed flat for several years, she said.
Some are drawn to side jobs because of instability in their workplace,
or the perception that they may lose their income. Still others,
reluctant to trust one employer to provide a steady job that lasts, are
supplementing their main roles with gig work on apps such as Uber and
Grubhub.
“We have seen stagnant salaries, we’ve seen inflation, we’ve seen the
cost of living overall increasing, even beyond our inflation measures,”
said Alexandrea Ravenelle, sociologist and gig economy researcher at
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “So people are looking for
ways to supplement and to build themselves a little bit of a safety
net.”
Some are creating “portfolio careers” where they work a variety of jobs,
each building different valuable skills. In Cusick's case, side work
keeps her social media marketing skills current.
“Rather than having one job that you can have for many, many years and
thinking about your career progression as a linear pathway, some people
are putting together multiple side hustles based on their skills and
interests and making the money work by having multiple revenue streams,”
said Elaine Chen, director of the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts
University.
Career experts and those with side jobs share tips on how to get started
and what to avoid if you’re considering branching out from your 9-to-5.
Follow a passion
If you're embarking on a side business on top of a full-time job,
consider picking something you're naturally interested in, since you'll
spend a lot of free time on the venture.
“You have to love it,” Chen said. “Usually it is something that the
person is really passionate about.”
For Josie White, 31, that passion was mental health. After struggling
with schizoaffective disorder and finding effective treatment, she
wanted to help others who have mental health challenges feel less alone.
While working full-time as a fundraiser for Shelter the Homeless, a
nonprofit organization in Salt Lake City, White decided to pursue public
speaking on the side and began looking for opportunities to address
groups and conferences where she could share her own experiences with
mental illness "to reassure people that there is hope and a light at the
end of the tunnel.”
Be realistic about money
Launching a side hustle may require initial investment, and it can take
a considerable amount of time before it generates income.
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(AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin)
 When White started her side
business, she began by offering her speaking services as an unpaid
volunteer. She landed some gigs training nonprofit staff and
speaking about fundraising, which wasn’t her original goal, but
those opportunities helped her gain experience.
Over the past year she’s booked 10 speaking
engagements, and four of those will be paid, she said. She's taken
the money she earned so far and re-invested it into developing her
public speaking skills.
“The goal is ultimately to get paid, but right now I’m putting in
the legwork to reach that,” White said. “It's starting to snowball.”
Know the risks of gig work
Some side jobs, such as gig work delivering groceries or driving
passengers, may generate income right away.
Tom Ritter of Syracuse, New York, was supplementing his income as a
workforce management specialist at a nonprofit by making deliveries
for Instacart and Spark, Walmart's delivery platform, on top of his
full-time job. The side work helped him pay his bills, especially
when he recently lost his day job.
"For me, even that extra couple hundred dollars a month went a long
way, and it still does," Ritter, 39, said.
Ravenelle cautioned against relying too heavily on gig work for
income. It can be hard to transition back to full-time, permanent
jobs, where workers typically wait two weeks or more for a first
paycheck, and gig work carries a stigma among some employers, she
said.
Plus, if gig workers are earning good wages, the platforms will
typically change the algorithms so they earn less money, Ravenelle
said. “The house always wins when it comes to the gig platforms,”
she said.
Be skeptical
Once people are looking for side jobs, they should be cautious if an
opportunity found online seems too good to be true. Some online
influencers promote business ideas that are more akin to scams.
In Ravanelle’s research she’s spoken with people who saw online
videos about making money selling microgreens.
“They thought they could make thousands of dollars a month, working
from home, growing microgreens in their kitchen, and then selling
them to high-end restaurants,” Ravenelle said. “No. The person who
sells you the grow lights and gives you the classes is the person
who’s making the money.”
Finding the time
Starting a second job or career can dig into personal time, reducing
opportunities to exercise or be with family and friends.
White works Monday through Thursday at Shelter the Homeless,
clocking 40 to 45 hours per week. With Fridays off, she spends that
day practicing speaking skills or generating new business.
“I wouldn’t describe my life as balanced," she said. “But am I
enjoying it? Yes. And I think that matters.”
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