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Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back

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Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back

#121
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, in some states like CA and NY, Uber drivers earn closer to $15/hour. Anecdotal Source: I've driven Uber too. Actual Source: https://www.ridester.com/how-much-do-uber-drivers-make/

Note that the $15/hr figure from the source includes tips, but does not count gas, insurance, nor vehicle wear and tear

It includes gas, maintenance, and insurance.

Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Protections? Tell that to all of the "full-time" workers that were laid off within days of the economic crash. Full time employees get benefits like unemployment, health insurance, COBRA, FICA contributions etc. And tons of other legal protections that contractors do not normally get.

> Full time employees get benefits like unemployment, health insurance, COBRA, FICA contributions etc. And tons of other legal protections that contractors do not normally get. They do not if the employer has fewer than 50 employees. Which is a huge portion of low paying jobs. FICA contributions have nothing to do with full time employment, nor are they benefits people are eligible for before retirement age.

72% of workers are covered by the employer mandate. And it was merely one example out of a list of differentiators.

>FICA contributions have nothing to do with full time employment

Employers have to pay part of the FICA contributions for the W2 employees. 1099 employees have to pay all of this out of their own pocket via the SE tax.

Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back

#123
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every Uber/Lyft driver earns well in excess of that. If you don't account for travel time between gigs, expenses, or additional taxes, they might, but you can't Uber if you don't fill up your gas tank and change the oil in your car.

> Travel time between gigs No gig in the world covers that. > Expenses On average, after vehicle expenses, Uber drivers make as low as $15/hour[1], and as high as $20/hour. And this is also assuming that one concedes the argument that gigs ought to reimburse expenses, which isn't true for most contract work. https://www.ridester.com/how-much-do-uber-drivers-make

In most contract work, expenses incurred by the contractor to fulfill the contract are almost always included in the contractor's invoice.

Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back

#124
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every Uber/Lyft driver earns well in excess of that. If you don't account for travel time between gigs, expenses, or additional taxes, they might, but you can't Uber if you don't fill up your gas tank and change the oil in your car.

> Travel time between gigs No gig in the world covers that. > Expenses On average, after vehicle expenses, Uber drivers make as low as $15/hour[1], and as high as $20/hour. And this is also assuming that one concedes the argument that gigs ought to reimburse expenses, which isn't true for most contract work. https://www.ridester.com/how-much-do-uber-drivers-make

There is plenty of contracting work that both pays for travel and reimburses expenses, including all white-collar contracting and most blue-collar pay-for-hire. You're right that very little "gig" work does but that's the entire point; they push all these anicillary expenses onto someone else, either the individual or public/state systems.

Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back

#125
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Buying healthcare as an individual is very expensive, since you're not buying in bulk This is a common refrain, but it's actually not true. Individual plans operate as a giant "group" with other individuals, and the size of that group is often larger than most employer groups. There are a host of reasons why healthcare is expensive in the US, and the "bulk purchasing" is not really one of them. Source: I work in he…

What we really need now to level is to make individual health insurance effectively a pre-income-tax item like it is when you get it via employment.

> What we really need now to level is to make individual health insurance effectively a pre-income-tax item like it is when you get it via employment.

The ICHRA[1], which came into effect on January 2020 is an interesting step in this direction. It allows employers to provide a pre-tax cash monthly allowance to buy health insurance on the individual market in lieu of the monthly premiums they would pay anyway as part of the employer mandate to provide group health insurance directly.

There's even a YC company that offers ICHRA functionality for employers[2].

[1] https://ichra.com/

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22527102

Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Full time employees get benefits like unemployment, health insurance, COBRA, FICA contributions etc. And tons of other legal protections that contractors do not normally get. They do not if the employer has fewer than 50 employees. Which is a huge portion of low paying jobs. FICA contributions have nothing to do with full time employment, nor are they benefits people are eligible for before retirement age.

72% of workers are covered by the employer mandate. And it was merely one example out of a list of differentiators. >FICA contributions have nothing to do with full time employment Employers have to pay part of the FICA contributions for the W2 employees. 1099 employees have to pay all of this out of their own pocket via the SE tax.

I assumed by specifying full time employment you were referring to differences between full time and part time employment, not full time and independent contractor.

Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back

#127
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We don't really talk about employees receiving car insurance benefits, or food benefits, or housing benefits. I don't know why we don't talk about them, but it's not because they don't exist. These benefits aren't even really uncommon. They're just more frequently called: 'company cars', 'employee meals', and 'corporate housing'.

> They're just more frequently called: 'company cars', 'employee meals', and 'corporate housing'. Sure, and we are fortunate that such perks are in-frequent, and unexpected. In a world where that's not the case, cars, food, and housing would be prohibitively expensive to those that are unemployed, and we would call for nationalization of the auto, food, and real estate industries.

It depends on the industry, but in some, they are expected and often needed: i.e. food service.

I don't think we should have employer provided health insurance. But if the topic of discussion is a comparison of W2 and 1099 work, that is an obvious point of differentiation.

Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back

#128
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're just more frequently called: 'company cars', 'employee meals', and 'corporate housing'. Sure, and we are fortunate that such perks are in-frequent, and unexpected. In a world where that's not the case, cars, food, and housing would be prohibitively expensive to those that are unemployed, and we would call for nationalization of the auto, food, and real estate industries.

It depends on the industry, but in some, they are expected and often needed: i.e. food service. I don't think we should have employer provided health insurance. But if the topic of discussion is a comparison of W2 and 1099 work, that is an obvious point of differentiation.

It is an obvious point of differentiation, and the 2 major camps of this debate are “1099’s should get the same benefits as W2’s” vs “the differentiation between 1099’s and W2’s should not matter because W2’s should not be expected to receive those benefits from their employers in the first place”

Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back

#129
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on the industry, but in some, they are expected and often needed: i.e. food service. I don't think we should have employer provided health insurance. But if the topic of discussion is a comparison of W2 and 1099 work, that is an obvious point of differentiation.

It is an obvious point of differentiation, and the 2 major camps of this debate are “1099’s should get the same benefits as W2’s” vs “the differentiation between 1099’s and W2’s should not matter because W2’s should not be expected to receive those benefits from their employers in the first place”

I always thought the largest camp was neither of those, but: "independent contractors are a real thing, but Uber drivers are not that"

Uber's rules do not stack up too well against these guidelines unless you have some creative interpretation:

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employe...

Re: Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back

#130
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is an obvious point of differentiation, and the 2 major camps of this debate are “1099’s should get the same benefits as W2’s” vs “the differentiation between 1099’s and W2’s should not matter because W2’s should not be expected to receive those benefits from their employers in the first place”

I always thought the largest camp was neither of those, but: "independent contractors are a real thing, but Uber drivers are not that" Uber's rules do not stack up too well against these guidelines unless you have some creative interpretation: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employe...

Sure, I think the “Uber drivers should be W2’s” an extension of “1099’s should receive the same benefits as W2’s” camp.

If you don’t agree with that framing, then I would argue that the 2 camps are: “Uber drivers are not independent contractors and should receive W2’s”

Vs

“Even if Uber drivers Are not independent contractors, they should be treated like employees AND employees should be functionally indistinguishable from contractors for the purposes of benefits”

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