Really, firm's like Doordash are ushering in an age of economic feudalism which is contemptible and preditory.
5
The gig economy has simply created a servant class. They drive you around, do your shopping, deliver your food, clean your house. What would you call them?
8
Carry some $5 bills with you. Whenever you have a chance to interact with them personally, you should tip these workers in PAPER MONEY, not digital clicks.
11
The law now defines employees such that most gig workers ought to be considered employees. The problem is with enforcement of the law. Since at least the Reagan Administration, the will to force employers to treat their employees as employees largely has been missing. We now also have increasing numbers of judges who are likely to jump through hoops to make it possible to treat people whose every move is choreographed by their employers as "independent contractors". The aim, of course, is to get to federal and state judiciaries that will declare all labor law unconstitutional and return us to the Gilded Age. Any company that offers the argument that their employees prefer to be treated the way that they're being treated (as if ordinary working people were all a bunch of masochists) is being made in bad faith, and the company who makes the argument isn't to be trusted. Here's to beefed up laws and judges who think that workers have more rights than to agree to be abused.
5
This is what should be worrying our politicians and corporations: the increasing lack of older employees in the fields that they have worked in for 10-20 years. The increasing lack of economic opportunities for all who are not born rich or very lucky and well connected. The gig economy is not a good model for work. Why?
1. Almost every person of working age has monthly bills to pay. Those bills don't disappear because we're between jobs.
2. The gig economy doesn't provide any paid benefits to employees. It does encourage people to work sick, neglect their own health, and to burn out.
3. Most people are not above average workers and do not have the time or the money to get 6-8 certifications to work a job that is temporary and often offers less money than an entry level job when all is said and done.
4. Companies no longer invest in employees and don't want to hire anyone who might require the least amount of training even for a temp job or keep them for a permanent job.
5. The tech industry has created a vast underclass as have our other corporations. Decent paying jobs with benefits are now for the lucky few. If you are a minority, a woman, over the age of 45 or 50, or very experienced (usually equal to being in your late 40 and upward), chances are you've been "overlooked" multiple times, experienced long term unemployment, and cannot plan for the future.
In America workers are losing because no one speaks for them.
7/25/2019 2:21pm
6
Every Uber driver I have met, and I ask them all while conversing through traffic, tell me they love their job. They feel in control and make good money - at least they feel it's good money. Most use it to supplement another source of income where they do have benefits as an employee, a few use it for extra cash as they need flexible hours to care for their family.
The government should not provide free medical care to those that choose to be contractors vs. employees; we are not in an economy where jobs are lacking. It is choice, and frankly you will always find people that complain about the choice they made. Always.
But to force a change via government control over a business model that works for most is arrogant at best, and destructive at worst.
If we want a minimum wage for these folks, well, they have that now - it's called the guaranteed delivery. If we say $15 is the minimum, then that's it. But this article slams the fact that they do get the minimum, without tips. The far left wants to increase the minimum wage; okay, then they get only the guaranteed amount, nothing more. Is that what we really want?! This is socialism at it's worst! Everyone gets the same money regardless of effort, attitude, productivity, or efficiency. The Dems want to create a permanent class at the bottom (or middle, as they seem to think would be the result). Who took over this party?!!!!
3
Here's an idea: Use cash. Put it in the hands of the person who brought your food.
3
Does the thought of free peoples voluntarily engaging in mutually beneficial transactions scare the left that much?
2
Make your own food. Food delivery is never any good.
1
I believe the point of delivery is that you dont have time or energy to cook.
1
Idea. Tip in cash. Go to the ATM on occasion and make sure you always have 5’s and singles in your wallet.
Just STOP using these delivery services...!
2
We are simply prey. Almost defenseless. Unprotected. The time to have fought was the 1980's and 1990's when the Oligarch fascists rigged everything. It's too late now. Unions, the free press, constitutional protections, courts, laws, healthcare, decent jobs, wages, privacy, elections, voting - it's all been stolen, broken, or rigged. And here we are.
6
Or, the DoorDash policy change was a success.
The CA Supreme Court has ruled that Uber and Lyft drivers (On more than one appeal!) are not to be considered inde contractors but to be treated as employees. It is just a hop skip and jump to apply this reasoning to food delivery drivers.
I am surprised NYTimes has had several stories about the dasdardly Door Dash practices but have not mention what is happening to gig workers in CA. Report the full spectrum . . . or do you work for a corporation in bed with another delivery service?
Next column? Check out "adjunct faculty" in Universities. Perhaps the ultimate gig workers.
8
It's not just "gig" jobs. I haven't had a job that didn't exploit me sitting all day at a computer since 1998. You can't get up from your desk to go to the bathroom with out putting on the timer and you can accrue only so many minutes. The quotas of work you have to get done just keep ratcheting up every time you figure out how to make the last one.
The job before this I had to read and score high school standardized test essays 65/hr. That's a minute each for punctuation, grammar and syntax as well as how well their response answered the question asked.
Facebook uses workers similarly to screen out unacceptable material. Those workers are exposed to massive amounts of the worst there is every day and pays them like $12/hr and treats them like animals.
Right now I'm doing medical billing and am responsible for over 1000 patients in only my second month on the job. Deadlines are tight and mandatory and we're not given sufficient overtime while at any moment "special projects" always take up priority sucking up the spare half hour here or there to catch up a little. Did I mention there is no training just the ability to ask a question of someone more burdened by work than me?
Employers are using our minds like machines and we're not built for it. Our eyes aren't build for it. Our bodies aren't built for such sedentary sitting.
And for what? Minimum wage. Employers have found a way to label every job entry level.
4
As a very frequent user of Door Dash who tips 100% of the time I am disgusted that my tips (probably all of them) went to the company and not the delivery person. Of course I’m happy this is changing. I’m not happy that I cannot get that money back. And I’m even more unhappy that I didn’t know about this a long time ago. I would’ve tipped in cash (which I’m sure the company doesn’t allow but hey, I’m a persuasive person and who doesn’t want some extra cash?). I’d actually really like to put this company on my blacklist now but since they’ve finally caved to doing the right thing I guess I’m hurting the deliverers as much as the company if I do. From here on out, I will not start doing business w/ a company until I’ve done some basic research. PO’d I didn’t know about this until today!
1
We keep hearing that unemployment is so low, that there is a shortage of labor, etc., etc. (and that the economy is doing so great). So please explain why there are so many people desperate enough for work to take these jobs, or the jobs in Amazon’s “fulfillment centers”, and the like. Are the “jobs created” numbers misleading because so many of the jobs are like these?
4
The gig economy is a slippery slope that will exacerbate income inequality if it goes unchecked. As independent contractors, gig “employees” will be the underclass of the underclass, But, someone is making money, lots of money. At the turn of the 19th century you had the industrialist capitalists who exploited workers; today those new industrialist capitalists are in the Silicon Valley. But, they’re hipper, cooler, liberal, philanthropists and so right now, many look the other way and let’s face it, they’ve brought convenience. This article exposed the truth of what really was going on at Door Dash and the uncharted territories of this new type of “sub” gig economy.
The gig economy has value and can work, but it has to be fair. There is clearly enough money to go around.
3
Absolutely right. Silicon Valley is “woke to the Max” and big Dem donors so they get a pass on treating workers poorly.
2
I think that these workers are soon likely to be replaced by robots and driverless vehicles or drones, so I'm not sure that our immediate concern with tipping policies will be relevant in 10 years time. And that's a good point... Do you tip a robot or a driverless vehicle? On a more general level the practice of tipping is really such an anachronism nowadays - if it is a part of making sure labor gets an appropriate compensation then it should be included in the price and not left to the whims of the customer.
Terrific article. I concur with all that is said. I fear that we are headed for a dystopian future in which so few will be able to work full time. Our planetary population keeps growing and technology is taking more and more jobs away from a large swath of people. What are they to do? How will they feed and house themselves? From lost retail jobs, construction jobs that are not steady, the “independent contractor” workers who only make commission or minimum wage, etc. Every job is under threat. Education is no longer a guarantee of a great job. I despair that our government will not be able to solve this problem.
1
I fully expect Doordash to let workers keep the tips, but reduce the Doordash wage, so there will be no net difference. Unless there is no tip, and the worker loses out.
1
The reorganization of work into a gig economy allows corporate master schemers to manipulate all the existing rules to get really, really rich - while no doubt having in their business plans ways to neutralize hard-won reforms, once they finally happen. There is a different path that lies open: the route of co-operative organization. It perfectly matches fairness to workers - and beyond fairness, a way for workers to secure their own futures - with fairness and great service to customers. Because it's tech and not dependent on physical infrastructure, the workers in an area can form up a service coop of whatever type, incorporate - check out Colorado, no matter what state you're in, as it is set up to be the Delaware of coops -- and the workers would own the business. Given the reluctance and conflicts of interest of legislators to act to impart fairness to the labor market, Coops are the solution. Workplace democracy is the antidote to the sickness that is killing our economy, our communities and our families by enslaving gig workers.
2
I'm don't quite understand what exactly is the outrage about. US, along with a few other countries is one of the only ones that has a tipping tradition. This tradition encourages good service (in a way) but also encourages abuse.(Think about the systematic abuse of service workers under reporting incidents because their pay depends on it) It seems to me that door dash is trying to address the latter and also providing more stability to workers earnings. I don't think this model could be viable without the pooling of tips. Also the guaranteed payments will almost certainly go down as a result. It baffles me how much people are willing to sacrifice stability for an extra few dollars.
Another example of tech-true-believers deploying technology because they can (and/or because they want to move fast and break things) being fed by investors hoping to catch the next unicorn. Rather than attempt to stop this kind of thing, why not make sure that the techies are joined by people who reflect society’s diversty and arefrom the social sciences and the humanities? Maybe even throw in someone familiar with relevant regulations. That way we may - a stretch, true - get technology that disrupts in a way that is beneficial to everyone.
2
I don't want anyone I do not know or have not seen, touching my food or drink. For any reason. Period. End of discussion.
Some wordsmith found something he didn't like while supplementing his income via DoorDash. Many non wordsmith DoorDash workers are doing something with their own bodies by their own choice. No amount of scientific analysis will be able to prove that the particular aspect of this, the leveling of tip income, is not a helpful feature for either or both the company or its workers.
There is a lot of outrage against perceived injustices caused by perceived evil persons or institutions. It would be grand to do something to bring justice to the poor who are 'always with us'. That is a huge job. I expect we will just continue to see this kind of thing, a part of all the news that fit to print.
I care about worker's rights. I was raised by a single mother, who had a disability and no high school diploma. She worked as a waitress and 80% of her income was in tips. She had to share her tips with the bartender, but she was grateful that the restaurant didn't pool waitress' tips, and split them equally at the end of the shift. Her base pay was less than $2.00 p/h, because some classes of workers weren't guaranteed even the minimum wage, even though she had to pay income taxes on an hourly amount that, I believe, exceeded the minimum wage. Servers' were suspected of underestimating their tips when reporting their income the IRS, in the days when most tips were cash. My mother did just that because no adult, who wasn't living at home her parents, could ever live a decent life on the minimum wage when they had to provide food, clothing, and shelter for themselves, let alone for a family.
My mother's rights were never protected, and my main problem with Democrat in Congress is that they haven't used their political capital to protect and improve workers' rights. I joined the party because they promised to do that, and to protect reproductive rights for women. They're not the GOP, thank God, but they aren't they haven't done a good job on either issue for a very long time. I've heard Pelosi talk about the Dreamers scores of times, but I can't remember her ever mentioning workers' rights.
I know the GOP is a huge obstacle, but Dems are failing on these issues, too.
5
The concept of tipping is nothing but extortion and bribery. It is also highly discriminatory. If the masses knew what happens to their tip at restaurants they would never leave a tip. Often tips are shared, so Lazy Server gets part of Super Servers' tips along with the dishwasher and managers. It is also highway robbery that the IRS expects tip compensated workers to receive a minimum percent so some wait staff employees are likely getting taxed on money they didn't receive.
I know some wait staff like the tip system and do not want it changed. I would like to see the whole practice banned and pay reflect the employee's value add to the company. We no longer eat out at places that allow tipping, we do not get food delivered. We cannot march at the State Capital building demanding fair pay then go and support a major part of the system I am protesting as soon as the protest is over.
@skramsv
“the masses”? Those who use the phrase “the masses” never seem to include themselves as being a part of “the masses” now do they?
Several restaurants in San Francisco tried raising menu prices to cover raised wages to compensate for their no tip policy and it didn’t work out so well— the back house was happy but they kept losing servers.
1
This way of doing business has been going on for a while now...I worked for Terminix once upon a time. They also paid in this manner. If the client paid in full every month, the tech would get 25 percent of the total. it they wavered, the percentage would drop to a low 7 percent. If they finally paid their bill, say, in three months time, the tech would get only 25 percent of the last bill paid and we ate the rest although Terminix finally got ALL their money...it was just late...At times, I made less then minimum wage. It's a very underhanded and dirty way of NOT paying your workers a decent salary....They got sued at one point, I collected on a class action suit and Terminix still operates under this model. I tried to get the my colleagues unionized but some techs got paid in full for some lucky reason and thought the gamble was worth it...I never did...
8
@david wright are you saying you left employment when the arrangements were no longer beneficial to you? That’s exactly how it’s supposed to work!
We are turning into a new Confederacy, with robots and A.I. as the new slaves, the owners of the robots (stockholders in companies that make money by automating their production) as the new slaveholders, and most workers as poor whites who must compete with the slaves until replaced by slaves themselves.
The profits generated by these new slaves do not go to all humans, but rather only to those who own the slaves. Because of the slaves, most other humans are not needed (except as consumers, as Henry Ford figured out) and, as in the Confederacy, are pushed to the edges of the economy where they practice a subsistence or hardscrabble existence. Since people living a hardscrabble existence do not buy much, they do not give the economy much of a market for what the robots are producing, which is not a good thing for the slaveowners. It costs much less to maintain unneeded robots than unneeded slaves, but it still costs something.
In the new Confederacy, the poor whites cannot be bought off by telling them that they are better than the slaves. The danger they pose will have to be handled by distracting them with foreigners and illegal immigrants, or providing narcotics to dull their anger and perhaps kill them with overdoses.
A better solution is that all humans should become slaveowners by having a piece of the output from the robots that human ingenuity has created. This could be done by taxing the robot-owning corporations and distributing a modest human dividend.
8
@sdavidc9
In this country, they don't even need us as consumers much anymore. With a global economy, 95.5 % of the population is outside the US, and in places like China, the middle class is actually growing. We have outlived our usefulness, so we will only be getting the scraps from now on.
3
The problem is not the company so much as the tradition of tipping in the US. Pay people a decent wage, give them the benefits associated with that wage and arguments like this will become irrelevant. The employer should pay the employee as happens in most jobs and in most countries. Tipping demeans the workers. Simply pay them properly.
8
@Patrick: in principal, I agree. But my stepdaughter worked for 17 years as a waitress -- eventually landing in a very high end restaurant the last 9 years.
She got HUGE tips on expensive meals, plus free food -- and since the restaurant was part of a hotel chain, she even had health insurance and paid vacations.
She was clearing $30,000 a year (from roughly 2002-2011) TAX FREE....since she didn't report cash tips, she qualified for food stamps too! and got financial aid at college.
$30K tax free back then was very good money for the Rustbelt Midwest -- she had a nice car, a nice apartment, vacations, nice clothes, etc.
But the kicker is she only had to work about 23 hours a week for all this. She could sleep late every day, as work did not start until 5PM! four hours later, she would leave with wads of cash in her hands....tax free.
Had she been paid $15 an hour....a four hour shift would have gotten her $60 (MINUS TAXES). No way to evade taxes in that scenario! Instead, she typically had $300 in cash after one shift, and at holiday time, this could easily rise to $1000 or more. TAX FREE.
Seems to me if they stuck with a guaranteed minimum, and split all the tips across groups of workers proportional to hours worked then they could lower the risk to all of being stiffed as well as build team spirit and not be hated.
If the delivery companies paid for the vehicle and expenses, you'd bet the delivery fee would be much greater. A car rental might cost $30/day and it would be used maybe 6 hours/day (people only eat at certain times) - so the basic cost per hour is $5. Do the delivery companies reimburse the drivers for the true cost of their vehicles? Nope - the delivery person gets to deduct $0.56 per mile - but these are low wage types, so it's not much tax savings.
Now if Door Dash was required to actually pay these drivers for their mileage (they could), then it might be profitable for delivery people to pay for their vehicle's usage. Door Dash can take the deduction. Customers can pay more and tips will be less.
2
I knew from day 1 when Uber, Lyft and other entrants in the service industry started their offerings it was an updated for the 21st Century "indentured servitude" model. Unfortunately their own PR supported by a breathless gung-ho reporting by the tech press and then the mainstream press has kept them going so far.
Personally I'll never "Uber" anywhere or get food delivered by any of these companies. I would rather pick it up myself or ask the restaurant to deliver it if they have that option and tip well. We need a more "woke" millennial customer (like my neighbors) who think twice before they use these services.
10
@Gary Valan you do realize that every Uber driver voluntarily works for Uber, don’t you?
I'm glad Mr. Majoo has written about this. Creating a digital underclass never is an "accident" with this crowd.
The bosses and our rulers ought to enjoy this period of preeminence while it lasts, because I lived through the 1960's and saw the cities on fire. Economic hubris has a strange tendency to foment revolution.
I used to get eye rolls when I compared the tech industry to JP Morgan and Cornelius Vanderbilt. Now, the NYT is writing about it. I think that's real progress.
11
Restaurants have a habit of treating employees terribly. This is not all that new in "tech". Wage and tip theft by employers has been going in in that realm for a long time. Some other industries also have a history of hiring "off the books" or "illegal" labor and have little to do with tech.
In the bigger picture, the delivery driver rides a bike much of the day and stares at a smart phone. A lot of people they deliver to spend much of their free time on a bicycle, walking or jogging and much of the rest staring at their smart phones. Yes, many other aspects of their lives are different, but how they move around and how to communicate with others or consume media may be far more similar than it used to be when driving was more tolerable and a personal landline, car phone and cable television were state of the art and out of reach for many.
1
It's almost comical to remind ourselves that just a decade ago we still collectively regarded Silicon Valley as the builders of something approaching utopia. The phrase "making the world a better place" wasn't some cynical punchline; such pronouncements still carried a whiff of idealism.
All of it of course was a lie masking a deep amorality and greed.
What we have instead is an increasingly dystopian world of the sort foretold in countless sci-fi novels and movies.
- A surveillance state that encompasses all-seeing cameras, facial recognition, constant and pervasive monitoring of your internet browsing, and devices that have access to spy on you 24/7. It is not hyperbole to say that privacy is becoming a thing of the past.
- The complete commodification of a person's personal data, to be mined, sliced and diced, and sold (again and again) to commercial interests. YOU are now the product being sold.
- Advertising as the primary driver and motivation of pretty much any endeavor. All "innovations" are to get you to buy more stuff.
- And as Farhad's column suggests, we are inching back to serfdom. The gig economy is no longer food delivery people. Jobs in media, publishing, advertising and technology are increasingly "gigs" now. Is your job next? And now Facebook releasing with its own scrip currency. How long before Amazon or FB have their own 'company stores'?
And of course our handheld devices, the crack of the 21st century.
All courtesy of Silicon Valley.
13
There is nothing wrong with the gig economy IF they all had universal health care. And yes, a no brainer is tipping in cash. Not an earth-shattering concept.
3
@rm
What about pensions, retirement planning. What does universal health do for that. There is plenty wrong with the gig economy.
7
@rm. except that the high cost of universal healthcare will drive the employers out of business
2
@Larry
Ever been to Europe? Business thrive there even small ones. Every business is not entitled to survive. Not every idea for a business is going to survive. Businesses fail because of bad management, bad service, bad products, bad locations, or they just do not have a space in the market.
I will grant you that prices will need to go up and some businesses will no longer offer customers good value for the price and will close their doors. These business aren't going to make the changes needed to stay competitive. If demand and value is there the business will survive.
We are living in the best economy in living memory. It just is that the labor of many people today is worth less than it used to be.
2
@QED No. No. No. It is not that labor is worth less. Do you like ordering deliveries online and getting them like magic? That has a value. You, the cheap consumer, is part of the problem. Such a consumer doesn't always care if the big tech fat cats get rich off deliveries but they begrudge paying living wages to the persons who make the deliveries possible?
I don't get your seeming bias towards workers and also bias against paying the real cost. You are shoving the cost of your deliveries onto the shoulders of the underpaid delivery slaves.
12
@QED. Exactly. This is nothing new- the worth of a blacksmith, horse-shoer, Model T mechanic, sail-maker, etc isn’t what it was either
@Daffodil
Their seeming bias will hit reality when it is their, or their children's livelihood that becomes a gig commodity to be competed for by the lowest bidder. There is no end to what can be gigified.
We Americans seem incapable of seeing any further than the ends of our noses, all you have to do is chant USA USA, and talk of change to a fairer society is squashed like a bug.
Republicans don’t want worker protections, it will interfere with profits.
5
@Dorothy Wiese
Democrats don't want it either.
This is the problem with society. Everything is not the fault of the republicans, or Trump.
Who runs California?
Dems. This gig stuff started years ago, in California.
1
I think that this is the unfortunate (and yet in some ways completely predictable) response to millions of people deciding that working a regular job was too hard and required too much commitment. We've romanticized the independence of the "gig" economy as something that lets us set our own hours and pursue whatever hip creative project we see as our "real" work.
But it turns out that the tradeoff might not be worth it. No guarantee of wages means we never know how much money we're going to earn, and so tend to worry about it constantly. No employer to provide sick time means that we usually literally can't afford to the day off. And don't even think about paid holidays or vacations.
I tried to make it doing various gigs for awhile and while I loved having time to exercise and being able to do things like eat and sleep on the schedule that worked best for me, I realized after awhile that in effect, work was actually taking up MORE of my time, not less. If I wasn't actually working, I was either waiting for a job to pop up or I was worrying about money.
Now I've gone back to a regular job, and contrary to popular wisdom, it's now that my time has once again become my own. Work is contained to its own, set hours, and the rest of my time is mine. Oh, and I actually have enough money again to enjoy it.
I know not everyone has a choice about what they do, but if you do, you might want to consider that just maybe the gig economy isn't giving you what you hoped to get.
11
Good article. This issue has yet to fully elucidated.
How to change this production path?
We could vote, but we are outbid because the distribution of our money supply allows it.
Or, labor has influence over production decisions by having a stake in the production process. But when not everyone needs to work to provide the world with what it takes to survive, and when the distribution of money puts you in unrecoverable time-debt at the moment of birth, this mechanism of influence is lost for the masses.
Then there's consumer choice. CEO's like to talk about consumer choice as if it is some great lever of control over them but, as far as technology infrastructure and products are concerned, consumer choice is the weakest form of power we were ever supposed to have.
1
The author seems to be unbothered by his contribution to a market for low-paid workers, and for the environmental impact and general overhead of food-on-demand being hauled around in inefficient ways.
2
@Boomer
I think he was pointing out that even he was guilty of it. The bigger point is that the gig economy and lawless capitalism is making things worse, not better.
2
This is a really important discussion when it comes to the future of paid work. These new gigs are a new form of indentured servitude and have come up with new ways to exploit workers. From Amazon to Uber we see all these gig workers getting treated like robots, so maybe this is all a prelude to replacement of all such jobs by robots anyway.
For example: from a business perspective, the employment 'deal' for earnings being offered to an Uber driver would never be accepted by any for-profit business: you provide all the capital and all the operating expenses and depreciation; we set the price and control your every action under time pressure to decide; you can work when you want and say yes or no only to jobs (with a no being severely penalized) without knowing where you are going or what job you are going to get next; we force all kinds of compliance and unilateral changes in terms at anytime; we take arbitrary amounts of commission from your gross revenue to our customers. It is complete insanity to work under those terms, yet most folks believe it is a respectable form of work, while most who agree to work have not fully understood the financial constraints they are being subjected to.
88
@AgentG
It isn't even limited to these gig jobs. Just look at Amazon's fulfillment centers, where workers are on a treadmill of unsustainable production targets...and sure you can use the bathroom, but if you don't make up those lost minutes, they replace you, because they have an endless supply of desperate worker bees waiting in line for your job. All this in a GREAT(?) economy.
The rest of corporate America watches, learns and follows the lead of profitable corporations like Amazon. Remember Bezos is the world's richest man, and Amazon certainly can't afford to treat their employees like humans...can they.
11
@AgentG You wrote, *while most who agree to work have not fully understood the financial constraints they are being subjected to.* But a larger problem is that many gig workers do not have other options, as more and more employers choose to limit their full-time headcount in part to avoid paying employee benefits.
14
@AgentG I had a supervisor years ago when I was temping at a well known pharmaceutical company. She told me that temp work was better than a permanent job. When I asked her, point blank, if she'd give up her permanent job with its health insurance, paid vacation days, paid sick days, and other privileges the response was, you guessed it, silence.
Temp jobs and the gig economy are great for employers (or so they think) but not so good for employees. In fact, it's not good for the economy or employers. As a temp I had no rights at all even if I had a complaint. As a temp I wasn't protected if something happened to me. And as a temp I was treated as a third class employee but expected to do first class work. I don't wonder why so many companies have a hard time retaining employees permanent or otherwise.
As employees we're treated worse than animals. Corporations are free to do whatever they want and get away with it. I've been downsized for no reason and I've seen it happen to others. I've seen people hurt and let go. I've been told to work overtime and received no compensation for that timewise or moneywise.
American employers and corporations need to start treating employees better. They won't. And they won't invest in employees, pay them enough to live, or treat them like human beings. But they will continue to complain that they can't find anyone qualified to fill the jobs ignoring the fact that there are plenty of people if they would pay them.
6
DoorDash is equally arrogant when it comes to customers. It requires that one pick a tip amount (recommends 15%) when ordering, which means that there's no way to *not* tip the person when the delivery is subpar primarily because DoorDash throws multiple deliveries to the same person. Theres no concern about where those deliveries are taking place across a city, or how that impacts any of those customers. I watched my dinner get picked up some fifteen blocks from my home, then saw it driven to the NW corner of San Francisco before returning for a second delivery close to where my dinner had originally been picked up. My order finally arrived cold 75 minutes later much longer than the expectation set during the order process. When I'd asked the delivery guy about the delay he'd said he had no choice since he was delivering what DoorDash sent his way, in the order they asked him to. When I emailed DoorDash customer service to ask for a refund of the tip, I got form emails and eventually a survey about my experience. No wonder that had no interest in refunding the tip. I'd just helped pay the delivery person's commission. DoorDash is just another tech company behaving badly because it has venture capital-infused value on paper.
51
@ML - Try GrubHub. I don't order out a lot but I have used them a couple of times and they're amazing. My order always arrives within the 10-minute delivery window specified.
2
@ML LOL. A thoughtful column from Farhad about increasing worker exploitation by gig economy companies, followed by a comment about how my dinner arrived late. America in 2019.
17
@Vin
And the guy said Doordash picked the delivery order.
3
DoorDash is not in the tech industry any more than it is in the road industry.
It is in the food delivery convenience service industry.
Failing to understand that is key to failing to fix the specified issues.
25
@cbindc
However, tech enables even encourages these behaviors. And I might add, they make a huge profit at the same time. Look at Uber worth 100 billion, while the drivers struggle with subsistence wages.
The gigification of any job is possible with technology, and saying tech is not responsible for any of it is like saying faster computers and stock trading programs have nothing to do with volatility and abuses in the stock market.
3
@cbindc
By that logic, Uber and Lyft are not part of the tech industry either, but they really are.
What DoorDash, et al have in common are apps (tech industry), forced independent contracting (gig economy) and exploited, low-paid workers (capitalism).
3
@cbindc
Not sure what difference it makes what industry they are in, but here goes: DoorDash, Uber, and AirBNB are in the tech industry because they are all about running the platforms, a tech business. The "contractors" are in the food service, taxi, and hotel business, respectively.
4
This so-called gig economy is little more than an attempt to exploit labor by categorizing people as independent contractors, not employees. Yet in every respect, people who provide rides or deliver things are not really independent contractors offering a specialist service. Since they are paid by the company and not by the riders or people to whom they deliver things, they are —- and should be properly considered employees and the companies should be subject to appropriate labor laws. Anyone who uses Uber, Dashdoor etc. should consider themselves complicit in ripping off the people who work for these companies.
126
@Ron Bashford To me, the "gig economy" is a variation of "piece work," which was made illegal in many jurisdictions. And Uber et al. are glorified gypsy cabs.
12
@Ron Bashford
Unfortunately we have a perfect storm of thoughtless confusers combined with people dependant on exploitive jobs. The only solution here is government intervention combined with consumers being more responsible with what companies they spend their money on.
8
@Justaguy
"The only solution here is government intervention combined with consumers being more responsible with what companies they spend their money on."
I'm sorry, but both those options are outside the realm of our current reality.
Watch fox news or a trump rally or talk to most self absorbed people today. In the former, a nationalistic chant and fears of socialism rule reality, while in the latter, if it doesn't directly impact 'ME'...who cares.
2
Perhaps students pursuing a degree in computer science should take courses in Exploitation of Workers Through Digital Automation. I am joking here.
But if you want to understand monopolies produced by digital systems, there are some great books out there.
Take a look at Modern Monopolies: What It Takes to Dominate the 21st Century Economy by Moazed and Johnson. Excellent book.
But as excellent as this book is, we need analysts that understand modern digital systems that can suggest how these systems can be regulated without destroying them.
Not saying this will be easy.
19
Great article! Thank you for addressing this. You know one article isn't enough. Keep it up. I also want to know why the FTC or an state AGs didn't do anything about this. Did anyone ever try? Did Silicon Valley donations pay off leaders?
Seriously, though, very important column.
3
Consumers never get the blame.
History has shown us time and time again, If a company made a luxury product that hurts people or the environment when there is a competing luxury product that cost 5% more, consumers with this knowledge would still willingly still buy the cheaper but harmful product.
These companies are enabled SOLELY by consumers using them. While regulation of these industries is important, there is also a personal responsibility on consumers to buy from companies who support their values. These are luxuries, not necessities. That is, unless we want to put the onus on companies to prevent 'psychological addiction' to their products. Good luck with that fight.
65
@Justaguy
Using Uber is a luxury? When Uber and Lyft have wiped out an equivalent alternative, using them constitutes a luxury?
Market dominance and replacement followed by dirt poor wages for all but the techies running it. We need regulation now.
22
@Martin
When people walk 5-10 miles along busy highways to get to metro stations in Northern VA to go to work because they can't afford a car. Yes, an App-based personal transport is a luxury. But keep telling yourself that you are FORCED to use Uber if that makes you feel better.
18
@Martin
While I agree regulation is the answer, I must point out that yes they are indeed luxuries.
They may be cheaper for you and make your travel more affordable, however those costs are borne by the exploited drivers.
We created this monster...like Walmart, then after Walmart destroys all competition, are left with no alternatives.
American consumers are so stupid, that they will give away tomorrows survival, for a cheaper widget or convenience today.
1
The solution is to make these “gig” workers employees of the gig companies. It’s one thing to start up a “want ad” type service - but the Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash business model is to offer a service, and then pretend that the workers they hire to perform that service are “independent contractors.” This needs to be expressly outlawed.
What’s next - non-compete agreements where the “gig” workers are forbidden to seek other, similar work? Why not call it slavery?
146
Those non-compete agreements do just that...I’ve run into that exact problem in my career. Only California and a few other states outlaw them. It’s not slavery but it certainly isn’t fair. Eventually you learn to not sign them and just take another job if needed.
9
@John Huffer I disagree. Don't know about NYC; pretty over-priced dysfunctional city thanks to the new democrat party. However, most working as contractors like the flexibility, like the job, and like the money they make. Again, $7 or even $15 an hour is not enough to live in NYC, but there is more to the US economy and labor market than one sees in NYC. Do you really believe that it is a good idea for the goverment to control companies that clearly state working conditions up front?
Are you advocating for socialism or communism, because however well intention-ed you and Manjoo think their proposal is, that's where you are taking us all. Wake up! Life isn't fair, never was and never will be. There is always someone making more, getting a better deal. But in the US, you have control over your future, choice over your work, and flexibility as to what you want out of life (bar the consequences of your choice).
Just look at Bernie - he grew up in a good family, went to a good college, decided he didn't like corporate america or having to show up at work 8 hours, so decided to be a carpenter and wen't on welfare. Until... he joined the government and then became a multi-millionaire. Choices
Personally, I refuse to use DoorDash. period.
I'm fine ordering my food and picking it up for those times when I want take-out.
I also never used in house delivery service that was popular with food providers.. pre DoorDash either.
The core issue with the "gig economy" is that it is predatory by design upon those that provide the service. AND... it's not an economy, it's a currently popular business paradigm that is funded and enabled by thoughtless consumers.
92
@Chuck I appreciate the sentiment, and I personally don't use delivery for economic and health reasons, but do you really think those workers are better off getting nothing at all? If they had better career opportunities currently available to them, they'd probably jump at those, don't you think?
The issue is not that tech has created an underclass of workers. Rather tech is exploiting an already existing oversupply of unskilled labor. The solution is to provide pathways to job training to move these workers from the unskilled pool to the skilled pool improving their job prospects and also decreasing the supply of unskilled workers which would give them more potential bargaining power.
16
@JP
I appreciate the question.
I do not accept the premise that a bad job, or a job where one is exploited, is better than no job.
If gig economy jobs did not exist.. the people working them would be working elsewhere.
This is supported by the fact that so many gig economy workers feel they are not treated fairly... yet they continue to work as contractors under labor law. In many cases, these same workers are not fully aware of their actual costs to conduct such a job, even though it makes them eligible for business tax deductions.
I remain of the view that these types of jobs are really designed to fill gaps around other employment, not replace primary employment. It's a great way to, for example, pay the costs associated with owning a motor vehicle that is of higher cost and standards then you can afford absent access to gig economy contract work.
4
@Chuck...'If gig economy jobs did not exist.. the people working them would be working elsewhere.'--- not really. the choices are becoming very limited. we are overpopulated. everyone is downsizing and trying to squeeze every last nickel out for profit.
1
Well - DUH! The way around this is obvious, is it not? Tip the person who comes to your door and ONLY to your door, in person, and for good measure, tell that person to be sure NOT to turn the tip over to the boss man. Don't add a tip on line - it never gets to the intended recipient. Never.
32
@Jan N
Somewhere in the article or responses the point is made that Doordash requires customers to specify one of several offered tipping levels, 'no tip' is not an option.
If so, for now, specifying the lowest tip and supplementing it upon delivery seems an option.
2
@William you can choose “custom tip” and put a big fat zero in there. You are not forced to tip. They do auto suggest 15% but it takes all of 2 seconds to figure out how to change this. So, the original post wasn’t correct or complete.
4
@Jan N
Duh back at you. Good idea but when people order from an office building, the food is left at the receptionist or in the lobby of our building. There is no way to leave a tip for the delivery person. The receptionist is not going to remember which delivery person gets my tip. Unfortunately, we have to rely on the food delivery company to do the right thing.
They can always get a job somewhere else.
1
The year 2025 for a 15 dollar minimum wage when a 30 dollar minimum wage would have barely let people lead a ‘satisfied’ decent life ?
What a joke - politicians of all colours pandering to the Industry
5
@Matt - Yup.
I make about $28 an hour now and can just reasonably afford a one-bedroom apartment. In most decent-size cities, $15 an hour wouldn't even rent you a run-down studio.
2
"Even the symbolic victories are milquetoast."
Amen!!!!
I read a lot of a science fiction. The ideas of the wage slave, watched/controlled by a computer is not new to me. I just didn't think I would be living in it.
7
@sjs
I think it was either Ray Bradbury or Frank Herbert that said “The function of science fiction is not only to predict the future, but to prevent it.”
Worker protection laws, not in our future. This is a country that stood by and watched the Reagan Republicans destroy labor unions, pension plans and fringe benefits, overtime, a 40 hour work week and make everyone over 55 unemployable. The Democrats stood by and not only watched it happen but so called centrist like Clinton aided and abetted it.
Now the victims voted for trump. This is so ironic and funny we pushed our own self destruct button. America the stupid.
11
Billions for the VC class, and a bill for taxpayers in the form of food stamps or Medicaid. El-stink-o.
1
Here in San Francisco, DoorDash or their agents and possibly others exploited the summer work visa program and imported very young “scooter jockeys” - kids that grew up on scooters and are incredibly daring riders - mostly from Eastern Europe, crowding them dormitory style into short term rentals. It was mayhem on every level. These Companies are irresponsible, poor civic partners, awful neighbors and weak of business model. They need to fail, sooner the better.
4
Thank you Farhad for researching and posting this article. It is important.
This article lost me almost immediately - "Mr. Newman explained that on his first order. . . " Order? I believe the writer meant delivery, unless the delivery person is ordering for himself. And then ". . . His customer tipped $3, but Newman still got only $6.85, not $9.85, because DoorDash uses customers’ tips to pad its guaranteed payout. "
Would help navigating this article if the writer first defined what a guaranteed payout is. Sorry, but I can't read this kind of writing. The title was great though!
2
Shameless behaviour preying on poor young people .
1
Farhad
Guess who works for these delivery gigs?
The undocumented.
Allowing rampant immigration of uneducated folks will build a large and permanent underclass. Poverty and illiteracy beget each other more or less.
Its not left or right. Its the have and have-nots.
when we have millions of South American people delivering our food for next to nothing, we liberals will glow as we 'tip them with a dollar or two'.
1
I wonder what Tony Xu's salary is?
2
"I’ll slinkingly confess that it is also a provider of my lunch two or three or five times a month, depending on how lazily bougie and nihilistic I happen to be feeling about leaving the house."
You point out how badly delivery workers who do this are treated, but yet you use the service?
Go to the grocery store once a week, stock up, put down your phone for 15 minutes, and cook for yourself. Just try it, okay? It's not rocket science.
2
Andrew Yang is the only candidate willing to address our digital dystopia and the coming deluge. Not even Warren or Sanders will go there because it means fully questioning the basic tenets of capitalism and opens them up to savaging by America's corporate McCarthyites. Soon, even being a serf surviving on the minimum wage IV drip will seem a welcome refuge from the long-term unemployment caused by AI and automation. Just because self-driving cars are not so nearly imminent as they seemed, almost everything else is fair game.
The same people who now recoil at coddling workers with a $15 minimum wage, will be begging for a universal basic income, once they're pounding the pavement in a vain search for Thomas Friedman's "Jobs of Tomorrow". For every Elon Musk who actually builds things, there are now dozens of Tony Xu's who create nothing, but parasitically suck small profits off millions of transactions and fancy themselves tech visionaries. All they've done is taken functioning economies and reshuffled them in their favor. Starbuck's Howard Schultz did nothing more impressive than put thousands of beloved local coffee shops out of business and replace them with -- drum roll please -- coffee shops, selling an inferior product at a higher price in a setting of bland conformity.
I'm kind of taken with Mr. Manjoo's recent volte-face on tech; I always considered him too much of a fanboy, hooked up to the web like a Borg. Welcome back to the fight sir!
1
Trying to reach these new gilded age robber baron malefactors of great wealth by embarrassing or shaming them by some appeal to their humble humane moral empathy is a fool's errand.
Nicolo Machiavelli got it right in ' The Prince'. So did Maxmillian Robespierre during the French Revolution and Vito and Michael Corleone in ' The Godfather. Fear especially of physical harm up to and including death is a great human motivational tool.
Is it pitchfork and torches ' Good people on both sides' time? Or not?
4
Someone is bringing me a roast beef sandwich. I can't see how this is a real problem.
1
Mr. Manjoo's ideas are interesting and very controversial. Should be subjet to spirited debate. Yet reading through the comments so far, almost no one is taking issue with his article. Demonstrates how the media has become these vast echo chambers where mainly like mided people spend their time affirming each others opinions. Dissent is largely absent. It's the same whether one is reading the NY Times, Washington Post or the Fox News website.This is bad for ournation in the long run.
1
We only pay cash directly to the person at our door. We have stopped adding tips on line, as we don’t trust they will make it to the person doing all the actual work. Living in San Francisco, there are numerous charges that are added onto the final bill, and recently the “suggested “ tip for delivery has approached 20%. That’s what I tip at a full service restaurant, not for delivery........
4
Excellent piece. I enjoy reading you Farhad. Clear eyed analysis without ideological blinkers on. Keep up the good work.
Sounds like the basis of a class action, defrauding and deceiving tipping customers into thinking their tip goes to the delivery person.
4
Maybe Uber should acquire DoorDash, abandoning its own UberEats. The combination would yield one of the most worker-hostile companies in memory. Tony Xu would make a worthy replacement for Travis Kalanick as the face on a dartboard. It's really depressing that these evil companies have infested my once fair city by the Bay.
3
"Such is the state of workers’ rights — and workers’ political power — today."
Workers ceded all rights, and power, to employers by voting against their own best interests and drinking the racist infused Kool Aide beginning with Nixon followed by Reagan, Bush I and now Trump. In essence workers are reaping what they sowed.
Historians, economists and sociologists will point to the period from 1945 to 1980 as being the high water mark of the American middle and working classes as well as being an aberration in America’s social and economic history. Eventually, those workers will have died off, ending living memories of a “golden age”.
1
Uber, Airbnb, FoodDash, GrubHub are not tech companies., but scams with a web site.
The prey on weak and incompetent municipal politicians that will not enforce their own regulation. Too busy Grand Standing in Iowa to figure out why their $15 minimum wage has has so many holes for S. F. scammers to exploit.
Why do they not enforce the regulation? Maybe if newspapers hired more reporters and less opinion writers we would know.
2
I always urge people to tip with cash. Many servers are cheated out of their tips by management, and at the very least, many have to wait until their employer is paid by the credit card company before they get their tips. I don't use delivery services, but if I did I would always tip with cash.
Concerning the minimum wage, it is a disgrace. It should be far more than the $15 that is being asked for, but that will never happen. Why are Americans so resentful of people earning a living wage? Are we that selfish? Yes, we are.
36
I think we can just assume that ANYTHING coming from the tech world will include its own moral vacuum. All of these new "services" are actually completely unnecessary, for god's sake, just call the restaurant, use THEIR delivery people...and didn't your mother teach you to ALWAYS tip in cash (that way the people working actually get the money)?
21
@Alphonzo agree w/ always tip in cash but most restaurants I order from no longer have their own delivery service. Quite possibly all of them actually. I’ve tried.
I always tip cash to servers, including Door Dash and UberEats. They can decide what to do with it and how to pay their taxes. I also cash tip at restaurants whenever possible. Often it's a bit on top of a 15%"service charge" that I have no control over - and neither do the people that are actually out front serving.
13
Tipping in cash will be a moot issue when the banks succeed in eliminating cash money.
2
@trenton... never. at least not in our life time. there will always be an underground economy.
DoorDash's reliable piece-rate did have the advantage that it shielded its workers from the vagaries of tipping. The real problems are both the low piece-rate and tipping itself, which to me is the real master-slave arrangement, where compensation radiates from the lord's munificence.
These "contractors" need to form independent trade associations that will step up, organize and enforce contractor rights and demands that trade unions apparently can't provide anymore. If the corporate types try to block the formation of these independent trade associations then the contractors would not be truly independent. If that's the case then state's labor departments and attorneys general need to step in and reclassify the contractors as employees as a matter of law enforcement. The laws exist. Organize. Then enforce them. This is not socialism, it is capitalist to organize an association and it is fair and lawful for organizers to be allowed to do their thing.
If replacement workers try to bypass the associations then somebody needs to let the air out of their tires. Repeatedly.
Play old Woody Guthrie songs. He tells us all we need to know.
5
@Billy
Once you make the leap to unionizing, you might as well take the last step. Skip the "owners" entirely and hire some app developers to work for / with the union.
Writing software like this is indeed challenging work, but these aren't factories. Getting off the ground means a few programmers and a few computers. By the time you have a union, you can replicate everything else these companies offer by attending a few tech meetups.
1
Would it work to the delivery peoples's advantage to pay their tips in cash directly to them? Tip-theft is so easy when tips are added to credit cards.
7
@Juanita
I've been doing that for years, and not just to gig economy workers. Same goes for the pizza guy and the Thai food delivery lady. I tip in cash every time.
They tip me right back with their happy smiles.
4
How about all the millions of dollars they stole from their workers? How about arresting the guilty executives for conspiracy to steal wages and theft of wages?
6
Gig economy has never been what it is cracked up to be.
5
"Who is going to stop it?"
This is just one of many economic issue that can be boiled down to 'technology is rapidly exacerbating inequality'.
The inevitable solution is simple and urgently needed. There is only one candidate that isn't too scared to take it on and that candidate is Andrew Yang.
Despite the laughable assertions by this paper's opinion writers this week, Yang is the Dem's best chance of wining the 2020 election. The democratic establishment and whoever is driving the narrative behind this paper's opinions need to realize that the absurd game of virtue signal whack-a-mole has not worked, and will not work.
Right now, the democratic party has the opportunity to completely change the political narrative in this country. In fact, it is the only way that they can win in any meaningful way. The narrative needs to focus on the economic well being of what used to be the middle class, it needs to be novel, and it needs to be simple. The only candidate that is coming close to that message is Andrew Yang.
The Dem establishment needs to realize that people are smart (even those that voted for Daffy) and if given a, accurate, non-combative, reasonable analysis of a situation, they will listen and their minds will change.
3
If you’re an independent contractor and a customer chooses to tip you, how can it possibly be legal for your contractor to seize the funds?
13
@Paul
DoorDash and their CEO likes to think that your tip was for the company for developing such a great app and not for the delivery guy for his sweaty and often dangerous bicycle ride, thus they are entitled to keep it. ;-)
5
@Paul
Because it's part of the contract.
@Paul It isn't legal but where is there a District Attorney willing to arrest a Rich man for wage theft?
2
The hard working mostly another job to pay their rents. Use the app tip upon delivery or up front for a ride. Especially the ride which is the most important to me for safety also leads to wonderful conversation.
1
In a few year AI will mean that the economy won't be able to produce enough jobs for even the majority Americans so this issue will be moot.
3
@todji... true. welcome to the service economy instead of the manufacturing economy.. the handwriting was on the wall many many years ago.
This is a good example why the minimum wage issue is a much more complicated issue than meets the eye.
9
Tech Support workers belong in this "distortion of compensation" also. Some companies limit it; some charge
for it, and some only pretend to have it.
There's lots of ways to do the latter: phone trees that only switch you to another voice tree (no human agents are available). Then there is "type your question and will get back to you..."; which is never.
So how do we get tech support now? We google it and hope some generous person has left an answer on-line... introducing the "no wage economy".
14
Corporations with a certain number of employees (50+) should be required to disclose the percentage of employees who are W-2 salaried, 1099 contract, and foreign-based. It will allow the consumer to really understand which companies are exploiting their workers and which are not.
24
Great reporting on how tech companies allocate these workers’ gratuity. Our reliance on tapping out commands to make life easier, without nary a thought about those who answer to our beckoning apps, is embarrassing. I’ll tip in cash from now on.
16
@Chris N. I don't know why these companies are called tech companies. They are taxi services and food delivery services. Maybe people use apps to get their services, but that doesn't make them tech companies.
21
Good question. I do think there is a lot of tech that goes into the service. The app’s automatic payment mechanism and geolocation make it super easy for me to get what I what quickly. More importantly it allows me to go through the process so quickly and effortlessly that I barely think about my transaction and all the effort going on behind the scenes. Kind of different from calling a pizza joint, or hailing a taxi. Geez at least my kids could hear what it’s like for me to interact with someone at a pizzeria. Now I just tap away while I’m playing with them. Maybe that’s why it’s so easy to forget about these workers.
5
Look into the various tutoring companies that pay $14 an hour to experienced educators who have masters degrees plus.
14
@Retiree Lady... and licensed attorneys.
Speaking of self contractors, it should be clear to anyone walking around a supermarket in New York City, that supermarkets are going over to this model. Fewer and fewer shelf stockers employed by the supermarket to whom they would have to pay $15 an hour. More and more “self exploiting“ self contracting franchisees frantically stocking the shelves.
11
really thoughtful article. One big issue is that a lot of these start-ups are forced to compete for an ever-shrinking pie, because of the monopolistic practices of places like Google, Airbnb, Facebook etc. In order to compete against them, you have to sufficiently disadvantage an entire class of people enough to modestly convenience a certain type of customer--or a 'target market' as it is generally referred to.
For instance, I started a company that raised a bunch of money that essentially sought to wipe-out brokers, by enabling renters to perform the function of brokers and get paid before they move out and get some of the benefits of home-ownership. We were well on our way to making money, until they found out I was a socialist, but that's another story.
The point is that you in order to be an entrepeneur in technology you have to make it your mission to further metasticize inequality. If you do not, you will not be enabled to succeed, and monopolies will not trust you sufficiently to lend you the space required to start a business.
Google and these companies have destroyed entrepeneurship. They will only let you in if you are sufficiently willing to harm poor people. If you are not, they will give your spot to someone else. I think we are already at a point where we should nationalize FANG for the good of the economy. They are what are is dividing us, and creating an economy of uber-drivers with no upward mobility.
Their actions require revolution.
16
You mean they weren't simply diverting those tips to give the delivery staff a piece of the eventual IPO?
8
This is not a problem of technology but rather the maturation of two long term trends: a lack of good jobs for unskilled workers coupled with an increase in unskilled workers due to immigration.
To put it another way, if DoorDash and Uber (relatively new companies) were offering subpar opportunities to workers, no one would work for them. The fact that people are still taking and keeping these jobs tells us something about the laws of supply and demand. In other words, there are more workers available than good jobs that don't require a degree.
Certainly we need to close the whole "independent contractor" loophole, and in reality we should probably just get rid of tipping entirely to better protect workers and offer them a more certain guaranteed wage. However, this problem is bigger than tech.
We need to create more bootcamps and vocational schools and make them more affordable and accessible, but we also need to realize that mass immigration both legal and illegal without any sort of merit based system will inevitably create an underclass of people. We need more PHD students from China and India not farmers from rural Guatemala unfortunately. Our increasingly advanced, service based economy can't continue to absorb these workers without relegating them to lower tier status.
28
@JP - Why is it not ok to import blue collar jobs but ok to import white collar jobs? According to some career coaches I’ve spoken to, young people are not choosing stem careers because they know they are competing with imported low wage workers from India and China.
22
@JAB First of all we're importing workers not jobs - that's part of the problem. Learn the basics of supply and demand. When the supply exceeds the demand - the price drops. That's what's happening with unskilled labor.
Second, there are many, many skilled professions that aren't in STEM. In fact there are skilled professions that don't even involve a four-year college education. We need plumbers, electricians, etc.
11
@JP
So you support stealing the products of foreign educational systems? I think we need more change here than that.
One reason that digital underclass workers are treated so miserably is that they are simply data-gathering placeholders. In the future, Uber and Lyft drivers will be replaced by autonomous vehicles. Dashers and other food deliverers will be replaced by delivery robots. And so on. And so on. In the meantime, human workers are employed to generate the tracking, logistical, financial, and other data needed to assure future success for fully automated systems.
12
@Col Wagon I doubt it will be cheaper to use robots than minimum wage humans, not that the corporate oligarchy won't try.
5
@Col Wagon this fantasy that self driving cabs and delivery vehicles is right around the corner is far-fetched. We are at least 10 if not 20 years away. We can deal with this problem then
1
I am a capitalist. But I am convinced that the gig economy is very bad for America. It may have provided some with flexibility in terms of their hours, but beyond that, I can't see how it is benefitting those workers long-term. When the next recession hits, I guess we'll see how protected these workers really are, when the majority of Americans pull back on their discretionary spending.
32
Don’t trust or support companies that do the right thing ONLY when forced to.
47
Working people have been, are being, and will be shafted because philosophy and psychology are far more important to them than their own economic well-being. This was the case when Karl Marx was writing in the 1840s and very little has changed since then. The last generation was willing to forsake its standard of living in return for a beer with Ronald Reagan and the present one seems happy with what they hear from Donald Trump. The only people who are concerned about the economic plight of the working poor are liberal intellectuals like yourself.
20
What a wonderful article. If we continue the farce where "gig" workers get no protection, we will indeed have a permanent underclass with no rights, no money, no healthcare and no place to live.
All workers must have their employment rights protected. A minimum wage is just the first step. There is no reason why we cannot do it. If our pizza costs 5 cents or 25 cents more, then so be it.
The Tech Industry obviously isn't the cause of this, but it sure makes it easier to put in place. The "disruptors" earn millions, while their employees (yes, employees), earn minimum wage, if they are lucky. Why do employees accept this? Because they have no choice. Full time salaried jobs are often unavailable in many fields.
I am still baffled that trump supporters don't get this, but eventually, they will have to. Homelessness and starvation will do that to you.
Thank you for pointing out the issues so clearly.
52
@akamai While I largely agree with what you're saying you clearly haven't grappled with the logistics that seriously if you think a real minimum wage could be applied at the cost of 25 cents per pizza. Remember at least one person made that pizza before the delivery guy tried to take it to you, so any increase in minimum wage needs to account for both of them. And how many pizzas do you think a deliveryman is really doing? Even if we say the average order is two pizzas (which seems high) and he does one delivery every 15 minutes, that's an extra $2/hour which would still leave him or her well short of $15/hr.
The hard reality is that raising the cost of a pizza high enough to pay a living wage to the deliveryman would just result in making pizza a luxury good that relatively few people would order, so best case some workers would now make a living wage and another large contingent would simply be out of jobs as few delivery people and pizza makers are needed.
The only way out of this is to reduce the number of unskilled workers we have in the first place - which means a joint job training/apprenticeship/bootcamp approach but also reforming our immigration laws (around both legal and illegal) shift our influx of population from unskilled to skilled workers.
2
@JP True, but we should also note that the guys making the pizzas are probably also being exploited, probably being limited in hours/week of employment so that they don't qualify for the company's benefits. Beyond that, these companies juggle people's schedules from one week to the next, with little advance notice, making it difficult for the workers to plan their own lives. It's a feudal system.
2
@JP
But then, who would deliver the Pizzas?
In your senario a underclass of "uneducated" is still present, what do you do about them?
If someone wants to deliver Pizza for their life, they should be able to do so, and pay their rent, bills, and be able to eat. We aren't talking about letting a person who chooses to do an unskilled job be over-compensated for it, just be paid enough so that they can actually survive and save some, not paycheck to paycheck
4
Please, please, everyone, if you do use services such as Doordash, give your tips in the form of cash(if this is possible). I used a service such as this only once and was able to give cash as a tip. For I and my boyfriend, we get delivery from the restaurant itself, i.e. if they have their own delivery people or we pick it up. I realize though that most people have busier schedules than ours and use these services as a convenience and a time saver. So if you do use these services, give cash as a tip!
77
Are you having this epiphany just now because it’s been pretty obvious for far too long to many of us. A vexing question I have is why did our previous administration and all of its cohorts constantly sing the praises of these slick plutocrats”? Maybe because they contributed so much money to their election and re-election campaigns?
22
McKinsey, not Marx, projected on the front page of the Times a year and a half ago that tech would wipe out fully 47% of all American jobs by 2050. Anyone who thinks all those jobs will be replaced by neat new jobs "we can't even imagine yet" is nuts. Unless we radically change our political economy, we are heading for a Hunger Games world all the way, though if you put 20%, 30%, 40% permanently out of work, it's hard to see how the coming tech economy can sustain itself, even for the rich, since the fall in consumer demand would seem to imply permanent Depression. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans do not have the intellectual capacity to grasp what is happening, much less the capacity to usefully contribute to reform. I'm lucky to be 75. Too bad for my kids and grandkids. On the one hand, their climate will be noxious, and on the other, so will their economic lives. Maybe the Chinese can figure this out and tell us all what to do when they take over.
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@Fred White
You are equating the number of people working with output. In 2050 lots of people will just not have to work, that doesn't mean there wouldn't be enough food to go around. Not everyone has to work, everyone just needs a place to live and eat.
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@Fred White With all due respect, this fatalistic baloney. There is no robot coming your way to deliver your lunch to your apartment and even were the technology to exist it would be way, way, way more expensive than the exploited gig economy worker. Stop dissing the "vast majority of Americans," who, in actuality, know full well that things are not going well for them. Instead, become part of the solution by encouraging your friends and the readers of this newspaper to work on behalf of your grandkids' future (to get Trump out of the white house, flip the senate, restore labor and collective bargaining rights, raise mininum wage etc). If--and its a big if--that means that it becomes cost effective in the foreseeable future to build and safely run autonomous machines with the capacity (somehow) to cook your food, pack it up, drive to your home, and knock on your door, that will depend on a fairer distribution of the rewards of that more fully technologized way of life. Until that moment, it's unlikely that low-paid humans being will be put out of work by high-tech machines that require constant upkeep and servicing at multiple levels of the chain. Time to get out the vote, Fred!
1
@Fred White I wish you decades of good health - which may seem like a surreptitious insult, until I say: if nothing else, so I get to read more paragraphs like the above.
2
I always wondered how this was not tip theft, which at least in MA is a crime.
14
The term "digital underclass" is spot on.
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@Benjamin Gilbert
Traditional delivery jobs have always been low-wage because they are low-skilled and often flexible and part-time. These newer mobile-based services are digital only in the sense of how the orders are placed and scheduled. They are still low-end jobs that have little to do with digital at their core, whether it is the old days with a guy driving a car around with pizzas or some dressed up scheme in modern terms. It will never pay well, nor should it.
"As long as I'm not in the underclass, who cares?"
Every American, including those in the underclass.
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I don't use these services (a function of age, probably, more than some sort of moral correctness). However, when I eat out, I always tip (well) in cash. If I charge a meal, I will write the word "cash" in the tip line. This doesn't prevent unscrupulous managers from scooping up the tips before the staff get to them. But it does prevent tips put on a charge slip being discounted or "forgotten." The notion that laborers are worth their hire is not a new one--it's in the bible, after all--but it sure seems lost in today's world.
36
@BloomingtonDenizen: I've worried about that, so today I put CASH TIPS in the HAND of my server before I leave the restaurant.
I frankly don't trust anybody these days.
9
This is peak New York Times.
Instead of labor law reform and requiring work contracts, a minor neoliberal market fix is proposed.
Capitalism will never survive until 2050 with these petty make-do ideas. Once the 2nd term Trump austerity program hits the working class hard, look for a voice on the even farther right to show you that the left alternative was the only way to avoid total disaster.
19
I tuned out abruptly when the author brought up nipples (something Freudian going on there, I guess), but I’m not so sure it’s only the tech industry we have to blame for exploitation of workers.
People who work low-skilled jobs get low pay, low enough that in some cases they are vulnerable to replacement by robots, AI and such. For this reason many low-skilled workers have little or no bargaining power, a concept that meant something way back when unions held sway.
The key to the gig economy was getting workers categorized as independent contractors rather than employees; at this point only Congress can do anything to rectify this problem.
17
@Mon Ray: I agree. It's a giant scam, based on the idea these are "contractors" when they are obviously NOT CONTRACTORS but full or part time employees.
They should be subject to ALL the legislation for regular employees, including payrolls taxes, unemployment tax, minimum wage and hour laws.
That tech companies can pull the wool over everybody's eyes in this way is despicable and shameful.
5
This appalling practice by DoorDash was no accident, and it's pathetic that it took this article to get them to realize their "error." But the fact is, the entrepreneurs and VCs that drive the digital economy have no incentives to support the rights and interests of laborers whom they never even have to meet in person. Regulation would be helpful, but it is also important for consumers to "vote" with their pocketbooks to support those companies that support strong labor practices. I stopped using Uber in favor of Lyft when I realized that only the latter offered the option to give drivers tips. Rest assured, I will not be using DoorDash any time soon.
56
Asking consumers to “vote with their wallet” is a fool’s errand. The marginal (price-setting) consumer will not pay $1 extra for a food or service if they don’t have to. That is economics 101 (something for you to learn about perhaps prior to forming your economic opinions?). The only way to ensure fairness is through government regulation and/or collective action. This is not hard to conceptualisé. It has been done as an answer to runaway capitalism (which would price labor down to zero if allowed) many times in this country and others.
12
Gee, thanks for the economics lesson, but in fact there are countless examples of consumers being willing to pay more for products and services when they perceive they are getting higher value due to a company's attitudes and practices toward social issues (e.g. labor, sustainability, etc.).
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@KitK
the econ 101 model to which you refer are not an empirical description of how people actually behave. It's just a theory that involves convenient math. Actual observed behavior of consumers is much complex. Google behavioral economics which now dominates the leading edge of the profession.
5