Uber, Lyft, and Other Gigs: What’s Happened, and Where Are They Now?

I haven’t checked in on this section of work for a while, where news has been slow, but there has been some.  The last time we looked, ridesharers Uber and Lyft, along with lodging-provider Airbnb, were losing money, and owed their ability to do business at all to the failure of governments to regulate them as the hoteliers and taxi companies they are.  The other gigs, such as TaskRabbit work assignments running from minutes to months, were flourishing, especially since the pandemic messed up many jobs in particular and the ability to work physically with others in general.

A gaping hole was sealed in one place, as “California’s Gig Worker Law Is Unconstitutional, Judge Rules” (Kate Conger, The New York Times, August 20^th, 2021).  This, approved by voters in late 2020, “backed by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other gig economy platforms, carved out a third classification for workers, granting gig workers limited benefits while preventing them from being considered employees of the tech giants,” was overturned, as it “restricted the Legislature from making gig workers eligible for workers’ compensation.”  Unfortunately, the law’s “unusual provisions” may have prevented this decision from becoming a solid national precedent.

That, though, would have been unnecessary if all agreed that, per Greg Bensinger in the October 17^th New York Times, “For Uber and Lyft, the Rideshare Bubble Bursts.”  This piece focuses on representations these companies have made, that they would remove the need for vehicles to be privately owned, that they would cut traffic congestion, that they would reduce pollution, and that they would even increase city transit use.  None have materialized, and Lyft and Uber have neither been profitable nor consistently able to offer low fares. 

Another problem with ridesharers insisting that their workers are independent contractors was exposed in “Drivers’ Lawsuit Claims Uber and Lyft Violate Antitrust Laws” (Kellen Browning and Noam Scheiber, June 21^st, also in the Times).  This suit, which explored what conditions for rideshare drivers would be like if they were actually autonomous, would go away if the companies would admit their drivers were employees, which, as they are correspondingly controlled and restricted, is clearly true.  And such a case got one of these firms a clear loss, as “Uber Agrees to Pay N.J. $100 Million in Dispute Over Drivers’ Employment Status” (Cade Metz, The New York Times, September 12^th), in which Uber “owed four years of back taxes because they had classified drivers in the state as contractors rather than employees.”

As the differing above show, there has been no unified front against these abuses, so it is not surprising to read that “Gig Workers Tire of Waiting for Action From Biden’s White House” (Kellen Browning and Michael D. Shear, September 2^nd, once more in the Times).  The president, when campaigning, spoke out against “the refusal by ride-hailing companies to treat their drivers as employees,” but “a year and a half into Mr. Biden’s presidency, little has been done at the federal level to address independent contractors” and “enforcement of existing labor laws has not been notably beefed up,” concerns shared even by his “longtime allies.”  Perhaps, if cases such as the above keep popping up, we can get the national effort we need. 

Have you been wondering “If the Job Market Is So Good, Why Is Gig Work Thriving?”  Author Lydia DePillis told us on August 15^th in The New York Times that such propositions, with numbers of participants “rebounding steadily after a sharp decline,” are still popular for “the ability to work when and as much as you want” and that they can “supplement primary jobs that don’t provide enough to live on or are otherwise unsatisfying.”  These things mean that gig propositions in general will be here to stay.  But with stronger conventional employment, it should be expected that “Job Hunters Are Increasingly Searching for Gigs That Pay $20 (or More) an Hour” (Sarah Hansen, Money.com, August 30^th).  That is a rising cut-point, as, on Indeed’s Hiring Lab, “searches for jobs with $20-per-hour wages have spiked more than 35%, while searches for $15 wages have fallen more than 57%.”  So, if your gig proposition is going unfilled, the solution may be the same as for nonproductive conventional job ads – raise the pay.  And that is where they are now.