self-employed

Self-employed means earning one’s main income by getting paid directly for one’s work, such as by owning one’s own business, as opposed to being an employee and getting paid by an employer.

When people describe themselves as self-employed, it typically means that this is their primary way of earning income, and that they do it full-time—as opposed to working as an employee and doing freelance work on the side, for example.

The term self-employed is often used by and applied to people who consider themselves business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs.

Self-employed is sometimes used to collectively refer to self-employed people, as in This program is intended to help the self-employed. 

The state of being self-employed is self-employment.

Example: I love being self-employed—my boss is amazing.

The first records of the word self-employed come from the late 1700s. Its base word, employ, ultimately derives from the Latin implicāre, meaning “to engage” (the word engage is sometimes used to mean “to hire” or “to employ”). The self part of the word is used in the same way in other words like self-governed and the more recently coined self-partnered.

Most people who are self-employed will tell you that it has its pros and cons. On the positive side, you’re your own boss. But it’s often a lot of responsibility and risk. People who are self-employed don’t get many of the benefits associated with being a full-time employee of a company or organization. Being self-employed doesn’t necessarily mean you work alone—many self-employed business owners employ other people.

What are some other forms related to self-employed?

• employed (adjective)
• self-employment (noun)

What are some words that share a root or word element with self-employed? 

• unemployed
• underemployed
• employ
• employer
• employee
• self-governed
• self-partnered

What are some words that often get used in discussing self-employed?

• job
• business
• owner
• boss
• freelance
• worker
• gig economy

Self-employed is often used in the context of one’s status as a worker, such as for tax purposes.

The benefit of being self-employed is that I don't have a manager that expects linear productivity output and there's no quarterly perf reviews.

— Evan You (@youyuxi) May 11, 2020

We’ve extended the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, allowing self-employed workers whose livelihoods have been affected by #coronavirus to claim a second and final grant in August.https://t.co/CHa4b5PVxT pic.twitter.com/NjQxFEPVSo

— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) May 30, 2020

hoo boy just found out someone tried to get me 'fired' for posting bail fund links (I'm self-employed, suckas)

— Saladin Ahmed (@saladinahmed) June 2, 2020

Is self-employed used correctly in the following sentence?

Filing taxes when you’re self-employed is tricky—you don’t have an employer keeping track of anything for you.