Amid the Virus Crack-Up, Gig Workers Face Cruel Re-Classification
What do today’s workers value most in a job? Apart from wages, flexibility and autonomy often top the list.
From single moms juggling life’s challenges for herself and her kids, to retired veterans seeking extra money or social interaction a few hours per week, or recent college graduates with daytime desk jobs hoping to save for a first home, flexibility, autonomy and freedom to craft their own working conditions maintain increasing significance for today’s American workers.
Until recently, that degree of job flexibility and autonomy was considered an uncommon perk. Increasingly, however, it represents the societal norm.
And no type of work illustrates that dynamic better than “gig jobs” like rideshare services, food delivery and other engagements that help keep families afloat. As Americans struggle to balance their children’s unexpected school changes, job modifications and other pandemic exigencies, many manage to make their “new normal” work by picking up gig work. They’re working hard and finding ways to help their families thrive in this uncertain time.
That is, unless various state lawmakers jeopardize those opportunities. At this very moment, efforts are afoot in some states to limit those options for worried Americans and their families.
Specifically, gig workers like Lyft and DoorDash drivers are rightfully classified currently as independent contractors rather than traditional employees, because they remain free to choose their hours and working conditions rather than have them dictated by employers. They also perform functions outside the contracting parties’ typical course of business and they operate free from the hiring companies’ micromanagement of their work performance.
Some state lawmakers, however, seek to extend government control by targeting those companies and legislating reclassification as formal “employees.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, the flourishing gig economy also presented a lucrative target for predatory plaintiff attorneys who filed recent legal challenges against companies like Lyft, Uber and DoorDash, alleging worker misclassification and threatening to curb worker opportunities.
As overactive lawyers and state lawmakers target these companies, a crucial voice in this fight is being forgotten: the voice of the gig economy workers themselves.
To wit, a new Uber-commissioned study offers compelling data that gig workers prefer the benefits of independent contractor classification because of the flexibility and autonomy it confers. The study confirms that drivers resist a typical “9-to-5” job, as the tractability of driving on their own schedules outweighs the rigid structure that formal employee status entails. Indeed, fully 86% of drivers say one reason they chose app-based driving was to enjoy greater flexibility in their schedule, and those same drivers agree that they would no longer be able to drive if platforms did not offer flexible scheduling.
What holds true for Uber drivers applies more broadly to the millions of Americans who rely on their gig work to maintain financial stability. Across the industry, companies also cooperate despite their competitor status to safeguard driver flexibility, since many drivers utilize more than one platform to earn money. Only 34% of Uber drivers work exclusively with Uber or Uber Eats, whereas 66% also drive for companies like Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, or Amazon Flex.
Moreover, these companies continuously roll out new proposals to provide benefits and protections to gig workers to help improve the quality of independent work. Such benefits range from accident insurance to protecting workers from harassment and discrimination. All of that occurs without disastrously reclassifying drivers as full-time employees, which ultimately harms both drivers and consumers alike. To illustrate, 75% of drivers actually prefer a policy where drivers can pick and choose which benefits they get, even if the total dollar amount provided is slightly lower, versus a government-dictated one-size-fits-all policy where all drivers receive the same benefits and cannot choose.
It’s worth highlighting that according to a recent Uber report, only a quarter of current drivers would be able to secure a full-time role, and would be unable to pick and choose when and where they work. It’s also likely that those workers would no longer be permitted to work on multiple platforms simultaneously, which would force drivers to move to shift-based work, a format that most drivers have determined contravenes their preferred lifestyle and current needs.
As for consumers, reclassifying drivers would cause rider fares to rise between 25% and 111%, and decrease overall trips by 23% to 59%.
Amid the chaos caused elsewhere across our economy by the coronavirus pandemic, platforms like DoorDash, Ship and Amazon Flex continue to assist our economic recovery by fulfilling new consumer needs and providing badly needed income for drivers. As we continue to adapt to our “new normal,” we must allow gig workers in this sector to flourish rather than introduce even more new chaos to our economy and society.
