As the “gig economy” expands, workers are trading their financial security for job flexibility, according to a report released on Wednesday by Newark, N.J.-based Prudential Financial.

Temporary or contract workers start out from behind the eight ball, making an average of $36,500 a year versus an average of $62,700 a year for full-time workers, according to the survey of more than 1,400 U.S. workers.

“While the gig model is cost efficient for employers, reduces their benefits costs and gives workers flexibility, these workers may in turn suffer from income volatility and lack of access to a benefits safety net,” Andy Sullivan, Prudential's president of group insurance, said in a prepared statement. “The money made by gig work may contribute to reducing the national income gap, but the decline in employer-sponsored savings and insurance plans is doing little to address the wealth gap. Without benefit protections, many gig workers are left financially vulnerable.”

The report split respondents into three categories: gig workers, or those who only do contract work; gig-plus workers, those who hold a traditional full- or part-time job and also do contract work; and those with traditional full-time jobs.

The report’s authors cite a recent economic study showing the percentage of the U.S. workforce engaged in temporary and/or contract employment has increased from 10 percent in 2005 to 16 percent in 2015. As a larger portion of American adults work jobs offering no access to benefits, the gig economy could result in unintended consequences, according to Prudential.

More than half of the gig workers in the survey, 54 percent, lack access to any employer-sponsored benefit package. Just 7 percent of gig and 21 percent of gig-plus workers have access to long-term disability insurance. Only 20 percent of gig workers have life insurance coverage.

According to the survey, just 16 percent of gig worker respondents and 25 percent of gig-plus workers had assets in employer-sponsored retirement plans. More than half of the full-time respondents, 52 percent, were participating in a workplace retirement plan.

Gig workers are more likely to be in the service and manual labor sectors, with the most common job categories including construction, installation and repair, personal care and sales. Gig-plus workers, on the other hand, were most likely to work in jobs dealing with computers and information technology.

The growth of gig work does not appear to be geographically limited in scope, as Prudential found gig workers roughly equally distributed between rural, urban and suburban areas.

Prudential sponsored a survey of 1,491 workers in January and February.