Posts tagged Lyft
Commentary: JOHN STOSSEL: Unions Wanted To Help Freelance Workers. Now They Lost Their Jobs
April 17, 2024 // Vox called the law “a big win for workers everywhere.” Ha! A few months later, Vox media layed off hundreds of freelancers. “They expected that all these companies were going to reclassify independent contractors as employees,” freelance musician Ari Herstand told me. “In reality, they’re just letting them go!” Herstand was dismayed to learn that when he wants other musicians to join him, he could no longer just write them a check. “I have to put that drummer on payroll, W2 him, get workers’ comp insurance, unemployment insurance, payroll taxes!” he complains. “I have to hire a payroll company.”
Stalled Labor Pick Julie Su Lets Herself Off the Hook for California’s Missing Billions
April 2, 2024 // California’s auditor notes that the U.S. Department of Labor has issued helpful “guidance” for state finance officials in “Unemployment Insurance Program Letter 05-24.” Flip over to the U.S. Department of Labor’s DOL 05-24 letter and you learn what Julie Su is up to. The DOL memo says a Covid-era agreement between the feds and state unemployment departments “required states to use the CARES Act funds ‘for the purpose for which the money was paid to the state’ and to ‘take such action as reasonably may be necessary to recover for the account of the United States all benefit amounts erroneously paid and restore any lost or misapplied funds paid to the state for benefits or the administration of the Agreement.” But how will the federal DOL know whether states took “such action as reasonably necessary to recover” the billions stolen by fraudsters? Because the states will tell them so, or, as the DOL put it in inimitable Orwellian language: “Applying state finality laws to the CARES Act UC programs means that, in many instances, the state will not need to take retroactive action to resolve monitoring findings.”
RESEARCH: Minimum Wage Laws and App-Based Workers
March 30, 2024 // Rideshare apps are not too different. They generate revenue by taking a share of the total cost paid by riders to drivers. What is less clear is how large that fee is and how that fee has changed over time and across platforms. Rather than seeking out a rigid wage floor, a fee floor could stand in for the sense of fairness across platforms of different types. If workers on platforms are truly entrepreneurs, picking and choosing when, where, and how to allocate their labor across multiple platforms, doing more to ensure that markets offer a fair share of revenue can get the job done far more efficiently than attempting to mandate any particular amount.
Commentary: Melissa Melendez And Kevin Kiley: Learn From California’s Disastrous Contractor Rule
March 18, 2024 // According to a brand new study from the Mercatus Center, self-employment in affected industries has declined by a stunning 10.5% in California. Proponents had argued that these workers would simply be “reclassified” as full-time employees, but for many, that has not been the case. The same study found an overall 4.4% decline in employment in the industries that didn’t manage to get an exemption. Amidst these disastrous results, it is still unclear who has actually been helped by the new regime.
Uber, Lyft, DoorDash drivers to strike on Valentine’s Day for fair pay
February 14, 2024 // Thousands of drivers for ride-sharing platforms Uber (UBER.N), opens new tab, Lyft (LYFT.O), opens new tab and food delivery app DoorDash (DASH.O), opens new tab are expected to go on strike across the United States on Valentine's Day for fair pay, drivers' groups said on Monday. The demonstrations are set to take place about a week after Lyft said it would guarantee weekly earnings for drivers, a first in the U.S. ride-hailing industry as it looks to lure more drivers to its platform.
Let’s Address the Real Challenges for Independent Contractors and Gig Workers
February 5, 2024 // Self-employment fell by 10.5 percent on average for non-exempt occupations, while overall employment fell by 4.4 percent on average for non-exempt occupations Occupations with a greater prevalence of self-employed workers saw greater reductions in both self-employment and overall employment In other words, on average, 1 in 10 self-employed individuals may have lost self-employment opportunities in California among occupations not exempt from AB5, while there is no evidence of an accompanying increase in traditional employment opportunities among workers in non-exempt occupations.
Biden Takes a Destructive California Idea National
February 4, 2024 // The Biden administration appears undeterred by the lessons of recent history. The California law unleashed chaos in the state’s politics and courts. Politicians delegated to union leaders the power to hand out exemptions to politically favored groups. Lawyers, doctors, psychologists, dentists, podiatrists — almost anybody with an advanced degree was exempt. When newspapers editorialized against the new law — noting that they rely on freelance photographers, reporters, editors, designers, and delivery people — they, too, were excluded from the new regulations. Suddenly free from the dead hand of state regulators, the newspapers turned as one and editorialized in favor of the new law. A federal judge said the process was shot through with “corruption,” “backroom dealing,” “pure spite,” and “naked favoritism.” But more important, A.B. 5 crushed tens of thousands of California business owners — those who operate as independent contractors as well as those who employ or otherwise rely on them. Now Biden and Su plan to bring the crazy to every American state.
Opinion: Biden adds to his ‘Bidenomics’ flop: This new rule throws wrench in popular gig economy.
January 22, 2024 // Biden promised to be the “most pro-union president you’ve ever seen,” so he needs to reward all those campaign donations. And Biden’s doing it regardless of the impact on the economy. Independent contractors cannot be unionized, so the more companies lean on these workers, the less ability unions have to organize. It’s really that simple. The Biden administration is trying to sell its new rule as a way to protect workers and make it easier for them to qualify for benefits such as overtime pay and paid time off.
Opinion: Biden’s Labor Nominee ‘Embodies the Spirit of California,’ and That’s the Problem
January 18, 2024 // If approved, Su won’t be the only half-baked Californian in the Biden White House. Vice President Kamala Harris is (per National Review’s Charlie Cooke) “talented enough to make the inanities uttered by her rival Pete Buttigieg sound substantive, concise, and apprehensible.” Economist David Bahnsen calls California’s Janet Yellen “a career bureaucrat, albeit a hyper-intelligent one, who has spent an adult life devoid of accountability for poor decisions and even poorer ideas.” California’s Xavier Becerra knew nothing about health or human services until Biden made him head of Health and Human Services; during Covid, he did nothing, which, given his résumé, might have been for the best. Becerra’s fathomless ignorance is almost a prerequisite for this administration, where experience might mean owning your failures. The first White House gig of Californian Alejandro Mayorkas, now secretary of homeland security, as Obama’s director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services involved running interference for a scandal-plagued electric-car company run by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s brother Tony Rodham and Terry McAuliffe, cochairman of President Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign, chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005, and chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. I needn’t go on — or should I mention that Biden’s deputy secretary of education is a former San Diego teachers’-union official whose concern for union power exceeds any attachment to student performance? While she was Governor Gavin Newsom’s secretary of labor, Su oversaw the implementation of bad policy and the mismanagement of simple procedures. Any one of her major catastrophes would have been career-enders elsewhere; in California, where the failure of progressive policy is invariably a prompt for more progressive policy, she was instead excused — and then promoted into the Biden
Trucking groups slam DOL’s new worker classification rule as ‘un-American’
January 10, 2024 // The coordinated release of this rule with the renomination of Julie Su to lead the Department of Labor is proof positive that the Administration is doubling down on destructive policies that eliminate choice and opportunity for our workforce. Had Su actually taken the time to talk to independent contractors, she’d know firsthand what a misguided rule this really is. That is exactly why we opposed her nomination before and why we will continue to oppose it now. Radical California agendas have no place in federal policy.” Spear vowed that the ATA “will work with members of Congress and other stakeholders to defeat this ill-advised rule.” In a statement, the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) called the new requirements “burdensome,” adding that they “significantly limit the use of independent contractors in the trucking industry and threaten to force the reclassification of over 80 percent of intermodal drayage drivers that currently enjoy independent contractor status.”