How Uber Exploits Its Drivers

“Uber drivers paid below minimum wage while the CEO makes over $19 million every year.”

How do you get away with paying workers less than the federally mandated minimum wage?

“App based companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash classify their workers as independent contractors. This means that workers are not covered by employment standards and protections, including minimum wage, overtime, health and safety, or protections from workplace harassment and discrimination… App-based workers are responsible for paying for the cost of business expenses—from gas to car maintenance—and are not provided with standard benefits like workers’ compensation or health care.” – The Gig Gap

See how Uber exploits its drivers with this infographic. Hover your mouse or click on any image for details. Find out about the GIG GAP report and how groups like More Perfect Union and Colorado Independent Drivers United are organizing drivers to demand “fair compensation for work and should be treated with dignity and respect in the workplace”

App based worker exploitation

“Gig workers are disproportionately workers of color and immigrants, and gig companies rely on these workers to fill sub-minimum wage jobs with no benefits. By misclassifying drivers as independent contractors, app companies deny them the rights and protections of employees. It’s no surprise that these are similar tactics used to deny basic rights and benefits to workers of color just as the diverse population of agricultural and domestic workers.”

Fair compensation

“Workers deserve fair compensation for work and should be treated with dignity and respect in the workplace. While there has been significant discussion around policies and protections for app-based gig workers, there needs to be more transparency into who the workers are, their working conditions, what the work they do entails, how their wages are calculated, and how much workers are genuinely earning.

Drivers are majority workers of color who earn low wages with significant expenses, lack access to important benefits, and face severe safety and workplace concerns that other workers do not regularly face. These workers deserve fair wages, basic protections, transparency about what their job will entail, a safe working environment, and the ability to conduct their work with dignity and respect.” – The Gig Gap

COLORADO INDEPENDENT DRIVERS UNITED

“For too long now, Rideshare, Delivery, Taxi, and Limousine companies have used loopholes to keep drivers from earning a fair wage and receiving the benefits we deserve. As a Union, we’re joining together to change that… Colorado Independent Drivers Union is a union of Rideshare, Delivery, Taxi, and Limousine drivers organizing for just wages and better working conditions. As workers, we are joining together and taking collective action for a voice on the job.”

Colorado Independent Drivers United launched in 2019 and has been steadily building its membership. Late last month, it went public with its latest campaign: The group alleges the platforms are violating state law by withholding information about their pricing algorithms from drivers, and they want regulators to take action. “It is past time that the (state Public Utilities Commission) uses its legal authority to shine light on the ways these powerful companies set wages for their drivers, prices for their customers, and profits for themselves,” read a letter that the drivers’ group recently sent to the PUC asking for it to step in. – CPR

Media Economies Design Lab

The Media Economies Design Lab explores pathways for democratic ownership and governance in the online economy. It creates space for researchers and practitioners to challenge the conventional norms and explore possibilities offered by neglected histories and possible futures.

Samantha Dalal is a PhD student at the lab and co-author of Gig Gap which examines algorithmically mediated work—specifically, the impacts of this type of work on laborers’ identity formation processes, well-being, and ability to collectively organize. She uses mixed methods to identify how workers cope with algorithmic systems and how these systems can be better designed to support their work practices.

Uncontrolled corporate greed

The players at the top of the gig economy — like Uber and Doordash — are extraordinarily wealthy corporations. But for the industry’s core workforce — the gig workers themselves — it’s a notoriously grueling job. There’s no scarcity of stories about gig workers being underpaid, sometimes far below minimum wage. Or working inhumane hours. Or having their accounts (i.e. their livelihoods) randomly deactivated. Meanwhile, the inner workings of their industry are shrouded in mystery. The data that gig workers produce isn’t shared back with them in a comprehensive way. Workers struggle to determine how their pay, hours, and other information compare to their peers, or to gig workers on other platforms. – Mozilla Foundation

TakeAway: Stop worker exploitation. Vote for Democrats.

Deepak
DemLabs

This infographic can be freely shared with this link https://infogram.com/how-uber-exploits-its-drivers-1h0r6rpjlv71l2e

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