California passes bill that classifies gig economy workers as employees
They&#x27;re calling <i>that</i> &quot;Remaking the Gig Economy&quot;? Making Uber and Lyft drivers into employees? What a sham.<p>For 10 years I ran my own consultancy. Every new engagement was a new &quot;job&quot; where I could negotiate the rules of engagement however I deemed fit. Usually lasting no more than 5 days each. Every new month for 10 years I&#x27;d think: &quot;this is it, it&#x27;s over; I have no work scheduled for next month, I&#x27;m going to have to give up and get a real job.&quot; But somehow the work always rolled in, and I did really well. By the end I was billing over $300&#x2F;hr, and I worked when and where I saw fit. As far as &quot;gig workers&quot; go, I was about as successful as you can possibly be.<p>And yet my wife had to work a Real Job at a Real Company because I couldn&#x27;t buy reasonable health insurance for any price. Any price at all. So I spun down my company and got a real job. The Gig Economy is an utter poopshow; not even at the very top is it sustainable.<p>Making Uber&#x27;s bottom-of-the-barrel jobs slightly less abysmal doesn&#x27;t do crap for the Gig Economy. Driving for Uber isn&#x27;t a Gig. You&#x27;re not negotiating your rate on each pickup. It&#x27;s a carefully managed relationship with the same company each time, who pays for your service on a recurring and predictable fee-for-work basis. It&#x27;s a job.<p>Fixing the Gig Economy means making it possible for people to make a living without the shelter of an employer. And making Uber and Lift into real employers doesn&#x27;t fix it. It&#x27;s not even related.