SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the employee-rules-for-contractor-pay dept.
Uber remains unprofitable at the same time its drivers work 80-hour weeks for less than minimum wage and without health care packages. They must also cover vehicle costs including fuel, maintenance, and insurance.
The ride-hailing company Uber has made its long-awaited debut as a publicly traded stock, but investor demand for the May 10 initial public offering (IPO) fell short of the company's hopes. Part of the reason is a lingering question about its workforce: Does the still-unprofitable firm deliver low-cost rides for passengers at the expense of decent treatment for drivers, and could the resulting discontent undermine Uber's business model?
The issue over whether Uber drivers are employees (entitled to company benefits such as sick pay and retirement) or contractors (entitled to nothing) has been at the center of the labor controversy since the company launched a decade ago. It is still largely unresolved.
Earlier on SN:
New Research Confirms That Ride-Hailing Companies Are Causing a Ton of Traffic Congestion (2019)
Uber and Lyft Drivers to go on Strike (2019)
Uber Posts $1 Billion Loss in Quarter as Growth in Bookings Slows (2018)
and quite a few more...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 22 2019, @11:04PM (3 children)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by lentilla on Thursday May 23 2019, @05:45AM (2 children)
To me, that sounds like an argument for enforcing a minimum wage, and probably increasing it as well. You see, companies still want the job done even if they are required to pay more to have it done. The net effect is that minimum wage folks don't have to work ridiculous hours to survive. There is a secondary effect: it increases the amount of jobs available. Why? Because you can have one person working an eighty hour week or two people working forty hour weeks.
I have no problem with people working hard to get ahead but to me; if regular people are being required to work eighty-hour weeks just to survive; it says that something is very wrong.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 23 2019, @11:17AM
They still have three other choices: 1) not do the work even if they want it, 2) automate it, or 3) move the work to a cheaper place.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 23 2019, @11:53AM
The huge thing missed here is why aren't these people already working jobs that make more than minimum wage? Those companies that allegedly need workers and would be willing to pay more than minimum wage to get them are already not doing so.
What again is the point of making the labor market even more wrong?