Posts tagged gig economy
Boeing Worker Side Hustles Could Drag Strike Out for Months
September 23, 2024 // But as workers stare down the embattled manufacturer for better pay and benefits, the 33,000 members of IAM District 751 have the full benefit of a tight labor market and gig economy that provides a quick transition into jobs that help make ends meet. That gives the union bargaining leverage, potentially frustrating Boeing’s effort to swiftly end a conflict that’s costing it an estimated $100 million each day. While the battle between one of the world’s largest exporters and its blue-collar workers may look like an uneven fight on its surface, Boeing finds itself in an increasingly untenable situation with its finances so dire that it can ill afford a drawn-out paralysis.
Sean Higgins: Inflation has ruined progress on wages
September 2, 2024 // A new Labor Department rule promises to crack down on this alleged “worker misclassification.” The Federal Trade Commission also promised to crack down on the practice, though it hasn’t issued a rule to date. The Labor Department’s rule will make companies wary of hiring contract workers. Never mind that many workers prize the flexibility this freelance work allows. So workers have fewer options in the traditional jobs they could apply for, and fewer opportunities to earn a living through non-traditional methods such as freelancing. Wage growth has been largely wiped out by inflation. In short, the current administration couldn’t stick the landing for the economy as it recovered from the lockdown.
Commentary: California’s Unions Lost Their Long Battle Against Uber and Lyft
August 13, 2024 // The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that ridesharing drivers can be exempted from California's crackdown on independent contracting.
Trey Price: PA worker classification bill would repeat California’s mistakes
August 10, 2024 // The best evidence to date suggests that government worker reclassification mandates do not help workers, but rather harm them. Taking a failed policy from one state and hoping it will work better in another is not a good use of time or money. Pennsylvania’s HB 2411 will almost certainly produce unintended consequences, such as introducing new barriers for firms to hire workers, just as it did in California.
COMMENTARY: Californians Can Still Be Their Own Boss in the ‘Gig Economy,’ Also Known as the Free Market
August 6, 2024 // “Furloughed Californians stand on the verge of being wiped out financially because the law prevents them from working part time in a variety of indispensable positions,” read a letter from more than 150 of California’s leading economists and political scientists. “Blocking work that is needed and impoverishing workers laid-off from other jobs are not the intentions of AB-5, but the law is having these unintended consequences and needs to be suspended. Gov. Gavin Newsom declined to suspend the measure, but went on to violate his own rules on masks and impose a rigid lockdown on the people.
Kamala Harris’s War on American Workers
July 29, 2024 // Harris’s labor policy platform is designed to force every American worker into a union. Big Labor is one of the Democratic Party’s fattest cash cows, spending at least $1.8 billion to elect the Biden-Harris ticket and down ballot Democrats in 2020. The more union dues-paying workers there are, the more money flows into Democratic campaign coffers. The centerpiece of Harris’s plan is banning right-to-work laws, which allow workers to earn a living without being forced into a union as a condition of employment. Right-to-work laws, which protect more than 166 million Americans in 27 states, promote economic growth and prosperity.
OPINION: Would Harris Be Better than Biden for Independent Contractors?
July 11, 2024 // It’s imperative for the tens of millions of Americans who earn some or all of their income as independent contractors to understand where she stands when it comes to money that is earned through self-employment. The record shows that Harris poses a real threat to independent contractors’ income, and for many of us, to our entire careers.
Fair pay for Uber drivers belongs on ballot, Massachusetts court suggests
May 7, 2024 // A group supported by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart is promoting ballot initiatives that would establish that the companies’ drivers are contractors who are exempt from the state’s employment laws — which means that they aren’t entitled to minimum wages, overtime, paid sick leave, unemployment insurance or health benefits. Meanwhile, an initiative promoted by drivers would allow them to form a union and engage in collective bargaining. Both sides claim the other is trying to confuse voters and “logrolling” by combining unrelated provisions into one petition. The state attorney general’s office approved all the initiatives and found itself in the odd position of defending both sides in court.
Opinion: Gambling With a Worker’s Job
May 1, 2024 // But the job losses go beyond anecdotal evidence. In our recent analysis of California’s AB5, which is the first empirical investigation of the law, my co-authors and I find that it is associated with a significant decline in overall employment and self-employment for affected occupations. Self-employment fell by 10.5 percent for non-exempt occupations. Overall employment fell by 4.4 percent in the same professions. Not only that, but AB5 didn’t appear to make up for these job losses by putting more employees on traditional payrolls with better stability, benefits or protections. Our study found no consistent evidence of more workers becoming W-2 employees.
Minneapolis Is About To Kill Ride-Sharing
April 18, 2024 // Just last month, Seattle's disastrous attempt to enact a minimum wage for app-based food delivery drivers was in the news. The result was $26 coffees, city residents deleting their delivery apps, and drivers themselves seeing their earnings drop by half. Now, the Minneapolis City Council has decided to join the fray in the multifront progressive war against the gig economy—and this time, the outcome could be even worse.