Gig Companies Are Taking Their War on Workers Beyond California
Just as it did in its campaign for California’s Prop 22, Big Tech is claiming rideshare drivers in Massachusetts will earn as much as $18 an hour if a new pro–gig company law is passed. But new analysis finds a majority will actually make less than $5 an hour.
A new report finds that a majority of Massachusetts rideshare drivers would likely earn as little as $4.82 an hour under a proposed law backed by Uber and Lyft. (Dan Gold / Unsplash)
In news that should surprise no one, Uber and Lyft are seeking to build on their recent offensive in California — which saw Proposition 22 override a series of legislative and judicial obstacles to enshrine a new labor model, pushed by large companies associated with the so-called “gig economy.” For tech companies themselves, Prop 22 was a massive coup: opening the door to an exploitative tier of work that is neither employment nor independent contracting. In effect, firms like Uber and Lyft are now freed from even basic employer responsibilities like having to pay the minimum wage, offer overtime, or provide compensation in the event of injury. Workers, meanwhile, are now expected to shoulder even more of the risk.
As has become the dystopian trademark of all Silicon Valley “innovation” schemes, the plan’s public-facing rhetoric sold it as progressive and even pro-worker — so much so that many Californians thought they were helping to pass a measure in support of rideshare employees and quickly regretted their “Yes” votes. In execution, it’s become all too clear how brazenly deceptive tech companies were in pushing their model. One study, for example, estimates that, thanks to various loopholes and carve-outs, some gig drivers will be paid as little as $5.64 an hour on net — roughly equivalent to the minimum wage during the Harry Truman presidency and far short of the guaranteed 120 percent of the minimum wage promised by Prop 22’s proponents.
As Jacobin’s Alex Press wrote this summer, gig companies have unsurprisingly delivered on their promise (or rather, threat) to pursue the Prop 22 model nationwide, with Massachusetts being the latest front in their war on workers. With a bill before the state legislature and an initiative which could make it onto the ballot next November, a similar alliance of corporate giants is looking to replicate their success on the West Coast — and is even making the same absurd promises that their model will yield big benefits for workers. In this case, the imagined figure is a guaranteed pay of $18 an hour should the proposition take effect ($18 being roughly 120 percent of the state’s current minimum wage).
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