There is room for something between the traditional 1099 and W2 categories.
Yes. Though I would prefer it's not designed by people who have a history of exploiting people who perform the services they sell.
Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back
41–50 of 162 posts
Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back
#42There are 2 big problems with on-demand/ gig employment. #1 Our current system of coupling healthcare and other life essential benefits with employment is broken. It makes it difficult for people to work small jobs or switch jobs. In order for gig jobs to be viable, people need to be able to get survive a broken foot without going bankrupt. #2 Gig-style businesses tend to vastly underpay employees. The early claims t…
>If those things are fixed, then suddenly gig work is amazing, but that's a pretty big ask.
There is no fixing these things. They are a feature, not a bug. The entire viability of these businesses exists within the margin created by stripping away any vestige of traditional employment stability, allowing desperate people to exchange their long term wellbeing for short term cash.
Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back
#43There are 2 big problems with on-demand/ gig employment. #1 Our current system of coupling healthcare and other life essential benefits with employment is broken. It makes it difficult for people to work small jobs or switch jobs. In order for gig jobs to be viable, people need to be able to get survive a broken foot without going bankrupt. #2 Gig-style businesses tend to vastly underpay employees. The early claims t…
> Our current system of coupling healthcare and other life essential benefits with employment is broken.
Is it not possible to purchase your own healthcare independently of an employer? And opt-out of employer healthcare? Or are only employers allowed to insure you?
If it's a matter of scale could a buyer's union buy it bulk like an employer but not linked to your employment?
Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back
#44Governments have created the arbitrary bipartite distinction between employees and contractors. They need to create a third category for gig workers that accommodates the flexibility that these workers desire while also giving them the labor protections they need in the asymmetric power relationship with their employer.
I don't understand the downvotes. Perhaps there's added complexity in having these two distinct contracts anyways? I think there's an argument to be make for salary augmentation via commissions. This is at least more secure and rewards demand.
Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back
#45There are 2 big problems with on-demand/ gig employment. #1 Our current system of coupling healthcare and other life essential benefits with employment is broken. It makes it difficult for people to work small jobs or switch jobs. In order for gig jobs to be viable, people need to be able to get survive a broken foot without going bankrupt. #2 Gig-style businesses tend to vastly underpay employees. The early claims t…
>If those things are fixed, then suddenly gig work is amazing, but that's a pretty big ask. There is no fixing these things. They are a feature, not a bug. The entire viability of these businesses exists within the margin created by stripping away any vestige of traditional employment stability, allowing desperate people to exchange their long term wellbeing for short term cash.
Eh, a significant portion of the first problem is solved by simply having single payer healthcare like most developed countries (except the States) has.
Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back
#46I like gig work. I like the freedom. We need fewer restrictions not more. Forcing businesses to hire only full-time workers reduces the number of jobs. They won't hire someone unless there's 2000 hours of work to fill up a year.
Labor groups tend to thrive on restrictions. They benefit from many and often successfully lobby for exceptions to the others. They're natural opponents to a free market for labor. Larger corporations tend to be as well, since smaller competitors have more trouble complying, they get an advantage. So they cooperate with labor groups to oppose trends like the gig work. I was surprised that the gig economy grew so far…
How has the average American worker benefited from free market labor over the last 40 years?
Free market labor has given us, among many other things:
- binding arbitration in labor disputes that heavily tip the scales in favor of the company
- stagnating wages while the pace of income inequality continues to grow
- large corporations that are deemed too important to fail by the Fed and therefore not fully held accountable for egregious mismanagement and worse
- unequal access to benefits like insurance, which corporations lobby heavily to restrict access to
- restrictive non-compete clauses that subject workers to completely unnecessary legal liability and influence over their careers
We’ve also seen huge companies in the tech industry collude to suppress wages (Pixar), insert themselves as middlemen to capture and intentionally maintain a fundamentally obsolete tax collection infrastructure (TurboTax), catalyze genocide in Myanmar (Facebook, internet.org), and spread misinformation throughout the globe in order to interfere in elections.
How exactly does one overcome these kinds of challenges if not through grassroots organized movements?
Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
>If those things are fixed, then suddenly gig work is amazing, but that's a pretty big ask. There is no fixing these things. They are a feature, not a bug. The entire viability of these businesses exists within the margin created by stripping away any vestige of traditional employment stability, allowing desperate people to exchange their long term wellbeing for short term cash.
Eh, a significant portion of the first problem is solved by simply having single payer healthcare like most developed countries (except the States) has.
Or we could simply remove the tax break for employer based healthcare and let the market readjust.
Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Downvoted because this is true of any job. You cannot have a five day 9-5 work week if your salary income doesn't cover your rent, food, and healthcare and you have no other income. Gig work is no more or less special than that.
Full time employment comes with benefits and protections gig work does not ( the entire point of this article ).
That’s not completely true though. A person could be a full time W2 employee and not get health insurance or benefits if the employer falls under a certain FTE count and depending on the state. In such case, FTE and gig workers would both be stuck getting their own insurance.
Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back
#49There are 2 big problems with on-demand/ gig employment. #1 Our current system of coupling healthcare and other life essential benefits with employment is broken. It makes it difficult for people to work small jobs or switch jobs. In order for gig jobs to be viable, people need to be able to get survive a broken foot without going bankrupt. #2 Gig-style businesses tend to vastly underpay employees. The early claims t…
> Our current system of coupling healthcare and other life essential benefits with employment is broken. Is it not possible to purchase your own healthcare independently of an employer? And opt-out of employer healthcare? Or are only employers allowed to insure you? If it's a matter of scale could a buyer's union buy it bulk like an employer but not linked to your employment?
You can opt out of employer healthcare but it's not going to be in your interest to do so - they're not going to offer to give you cash in lieu.
Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back
#50There is room for something between the traditional 1099 and W2 categories.
Maybe - let's not discount the cost of addition regulatory complexity.