Gig Companies Violate Workers Rights

In Colorado, a law went into effect at the beginning of 2025 that showed you how much of the actual fare the driver gets. I took an Uber ride to the airport last week and the total cost was ~$98 before tip, and the drivers share of that was reported as ~$41. I don't see how it makes sense that Uber for connecting me to a driver gets close to 60% of the fare, while the driver who does all the work, puts miles onto their car, etc, gets less than half of the fare.

Robber barrons rob people.<p>The issue with gig economy is that, the provider side is either doing it for some extra cash for as a short stint is fine, but people relying on it for survival do not want to shake the boat as they are desperate and have bills to pay and food to put on the table.<p>Consultants and contractors charge a fixed rate dictated by the work and contract. Gig economy pushes all liabilities on the consultants minus paying for that privilege. The bargaining power is heavily skewed in favor of then platform, hence nothing will change.

Gig companies violate a lot of things, though workers&#x27; rights may well be at the top of the list. They are profoundly unaccountable. Doordash driver screws up your order (or takes part of it)? They&#x27;ll credit you via an automated system. It is never, ever, ever the fault of Uber, Lyft, or the rest when something goes wrong, and there are no mechanisms for you, as a customer, to express anything other than transactional frustration other than not using the platform entirely. Given there is real value for me in having someone else do my shopping sometimes, it&#x27;s unfortunate it&#x27;s essentially my sole risk if something goes wrong.<p>There is some pushback happening. A significant US grocery chain has recently launched its in-house grocery delivery where I live, and they have been astonishingly good. They have actual customer service, employees driving liveried vehicles. It&#x27;s a weird throwback and it <i>works</i>.

&gt;Six of the seven companies use algorithms with opaque rules to assign jobs and determine wages, meaning that workers do not know how much they will be paid until after completing the job.<p>This seems like the low hanging fruit that should be resolved immediately.<p>Though Uber does show how much someone will make before taking a ride, I&#x27;m not sure how one would legislate forcing a user to only accept a ride if it&#x27;s profitable for them after taking gas+depreciation of the vehicle into account. And if someone wants to trade life of the vehicle for income now (pretty much no one takes their car to it&#x27;s manufactured limit, it&#x27;s usually age that kills it), shouldn&#x27;t we allow that?

My theory is that it is counterproductive to have a difference between employees and entrepreneurs. There should be a shall we say type A minimum wage for employees who have full time contracts for unlimited duration, healthcare, unemployment savings, paid sick leave, vacations, pension and are members of a union etc etc. This would be the lowest minimum wage available. Employers should be free to drop any of the above for a fee. You might for example want to hire someone for only 6 months or for the duration of a project. This would both require a considerably higher salary and payments into some unemployment fund. The difference should be such that it is financially exciting for an employer to replace the 6 month contract with one for unlimited time.<p>The main idea is that you need help right now and shouldn&#x27;t be obstructed with pensions and healthcare puzzles. I just want you to mow my lawn. Maybe mow it at all my 700 properties. What is the difference?

I thought the point of gig is that it&#x27;s not supposed to be like a full time job. Like that&#x27;s the entire point of it.

this whole episode is a proof that anything that is too good to be true, remains so though as has also been true forever, driving cab can be a great way to hustle any number of other side hustles, as all passengers are a self selecting group of people open to suggestions of other services.....which the drivers cousin just so happens to provide, which is essentialy a network, within the network.,......which then folds over into turf wars, and towtruck gangs operating in toronto that are proving to be ferociously tenatious even in the face of widespread outrage and police action...,so what will work and is implimentable?

I used to <i>gig</i> for a bay area startup which connected runners with task seekers (had recently added a bunny to its name...). This was a long time ago, well before they changed their matching system to be more algorythmic&#x2F;generic.<p>Honestly, my twentysomething brain thought I was making $bigtime$, when in reality I was whoring my life away underbidding even the least-sane of co-giggers. The company consistently sided against its 1099 contractors, often ending arrangements without justification nor input from its workers.<p>To this day, I do not use gig platforms, and despise when family rents in AirBNB neighborhoods (I think quite possibly <i>the worst for humanity</i> Y-Combinator-funded idea). After my couple years scrapping by the bayarea, I eventually completed an IBEW apprenticeship and became a full-time electrician (the antithesis of gig work).<p>Although I still hope things have improved for current gig-workers, I know they likely have not.

Would be nice if there was a not for profit version of some of these things.

To what extent is a &quot;gig&quot; considered employment?