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If we assume this is correct what does it mean for the company and it’s employees? They are going public which means there will be pressure to make a profit. How does it bode for their recruitment and in general well being of the company? Also I cannot imagine Uber to be in any different situation.
Anyone else see these and think about how maybe there should be some other type of worker other than employee or contractor? Those are hard definitions, and creating laws to reflect this type of worker is incredibly difficult considering people and companies figure out loopholes, but really feels like there should be another category to go with this type of work that's going to become more and more common.
I'm kind of torn on this. My father has been truck driver his entire life and for the last 20 years worked as a contractor, while driving his own truck and trailer, since it gives him more $$$ than average driver who works as employee. However, he has non-existent social net. No health insurance, no pension benefits. If he out of work or has serious health issues that ground him for months, he has to dig into savings…
Anyone else see these and think about how maybe there should be some other type of worker other than employee or contractor? Those are hard definitions, and creating laws to reflect this type of worker is incredibly difficult considering people and companies figure out loopholes, but really feels like there should be another category to go with this type of work that's going to become more and more common.
Any alternative to employees is even more inhumane and enables explicit exploitation, as uber and lyft do (aka the gig economy). What would you suggest as a meaning for this third type of workin class?
I'm kind of torn on this. My father has been truck driver his entire life and for the last 20 years worked as a contractor, while driving his own truck and trailer, since it gives him more $$$ than average driver who works as employee. However, he has non-existent social net. No health insurance, no pension benefits. If he out of work or has serious health issues that ground him for months, he has to dig into savings…
How much help did he earn? How much does he deserve? The money a driver gets paid is the help. There is a market for non-fulltime jobs that would not exist at all if it was forced to be full time. Forcing Lyft to hire employees instead of contractors won't mean there will be more workers with a safety-net; it means there won't be any Lyft. That would be bad for both drivers and the people being driven.
Honestly. This market is not a problem in European country where you get free health care. Why would uber/lyft make an exception for the US? If they can get away with it of course they will.
I'm kind of torn on this. My father has been truck driver his entire life and for the last 20 years worked as a contractor, while driving his own truck and trailer, since it gives him more $$$ than average driver who works as employee. However, he has non-existent social net. No health insurance, no pension benefits. If he out of work or has serious health issues that ground him for months, he has to dig into savings…
How much help did he earn? How much does he deserve? The money a driver gets paid is the help. There is a market for non-fulltime jobs that would not exist at all if it was forced to be full time. Forcing Lyft to hire employees instead of contractors won't mean there will be more workers with a safety-net; it means there won't be any Lyft. That would be bad for both drivers and the people being driven.
Anyone else see these and think about how maybe there should be some other type of worker other than employee or contractor? Those are hard definitions, and creating laws to reflect this type of worker is incredibly difficult considering people and companies figure out loopholes, but really feels like there should be another category to go with this type of work that's going to become more and more common.
We don’t want to remove the ability for a true contractor to work on spec, or for non-cash remuneration, when they can negotiate with a human counterparty. But if you’re being given orders by an inhuman system, you deserve at least some of the protections employees receive against inhumane employers.
Unfortunately, this wipes out e.g. U.S. based Mechanical Turkers, some of whom have health or other restrictions preventing them from getting minimum wage jobs. Haven’t figured out a solve for that yet. But hopefully the actual drafters of legislation would!
(Also, this really makes me want an IDE to crowdsource lawmaking, linting to make the legalese exact, with verified lawyers reviewing PRs. Give the crowd the same ability that lobbyists have to spoon-feed legislation to lawmakers.)
I'm kind of torn on this. My father has been truck driver his entire life and for the last 20 years worked as a contractor, while driving his own truck and trailer, since it gives him more $$$ than average driver who works as employee. However, he has non-existent social net. No health insurance, no pension benefits. If he out of work or has serious health issues that ground him for months, he has to dig into savings…
I'm kind of torn on this. My father has been truck driver his entire life and for the last 20 years worked as a contractor, while driving his own truck and trailer, since it gives him more $$$ than average driver who works as employee. However, he has non-existent social net. No health insurance, no pension benefits. If he out of work or has serious health issues that ground him for months, he has to dig into savings…
If he's earning more than average, and professional truck drivers are pretty well paid, then can't be purchase that social net himself? He can buy health insurance, pension, group income protection, everything you mentioned. I know poor people can't do that, and that's the issue, but why can't a well-paid truck driver do it?
Here's some data.
I've been contracting for 4 years, and paying for my own insurance. Mediocre medical for a family of three:
Year 1 & 2: $970/mo.
Year 3: $1167/mo.
Year 4: $1410/mo.
$BIG_CLIENT just told me after 4 years, to fish or cut bait. I took a full-time position with them.
My cost for health insurance on the group plan? $560/mo. for the same family of three. The coverage? AMAZING by comparison.
Insurance options for self-employed people aren't the best, in my opinon. Costs are very high, coverage is crappy.
I'm kind of torn on this. My father has been truck driver his entire life and for the last 20 years worked as a contractor, while driving his own truck and trailer, since it gives him more $$$ than average driver who works as employee. However, he has non-existent social net. No health insurance, no pension benefits. If he out of work or has serious health issues that ground him for months, he has to dig into savings…
Honestly, the same is probably true for most full-time and part-time employees in the US.