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Uber CEO Urges 'Portable Benefits' for Gig Economy Workers (thehill.com)
An anonymous reader quotes The Hill:
Uber's chief executive is calling for Washington state to develop a "portable benefits system" to give contract workers in the so-called gig economy access to health care and retirement planning accounts. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi signed onto a letter with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 775 President David Rolf and Seattle investor and workers rights advocate Nick Hanauer urging the state to take action.
Uber does not hire drivers as actual employees meaning the company does not offer them benefits beyond compensation. Khosrowshahi said having the state change laws so that contract workers can carry benefits between jobs would be preferable to Uber hiring them as full employees.
Uber does not hire drivers as actual employees meaning the company does not offer them benefits beyond compensation. Khosrowshahi said having the state change laws so that contract workers can carry benefits between jobs would be preferable to Uber hiring them as full employees.
You do know that Uber is actually losing these case, because, as shocking as it may be, most taxation authorities have a set of tests to determine whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor.
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This is about the worst thing to come out of Uber yet. Rather than support a single payer system (that they're afraid they might have to chip in for) they want 'portable' benefits. e.g. completely paid for by the (underpaid) drivers. The best part is this makes it sound like he's doing it for the little guy when all he's really doing is trying to divert attention away from the fact that his company broke one of the fundamental social contracts in America (to wit: "Work for us and we'll take care of your healthcare).
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Create a company that provides benefits with several standard packages. Companies could buy into a package for their employees.
It already exists. It's called insurance. Uber simply doesn't want to pay for it for its employees. It wants the taxpayers to pay for it.
Most nations have it except for the USA.
The idea of "benefits" being attached to your job is a holdover from the wage & price controls enacted during World War II. Unable to increase wages, factories offered non-cash benefits like health care to attract skilled workers, and later the courts ruled that these health benefits were not taxable income. In the most extreme example, a shipyard started a medical clinic to provide medical care for shipyard workers and their families. Now the shipyard is long gone, but the medical clinic has grown into its own hospital chain; Kaiser.
Abolish all that! Allow fraternal organizations to offer medical insurance. Let everybody pay for their own insurance, and pensions, and other "fringe benefits", and you eliminate the problem of "pre-existing conditions". A young adult would choose his/her own fraternal organization such as the Kiwanis or Knights of Columbus or Masons or Odd Fellows. You could go from employer to employer, and NEVER lose your health insurance.
The US concept that health insurance is tied to your employer is simultaneously anti-capitalistic and anti-socialist. In this system, nobody wins. We don't do it with anything else in our society: Not your car insurance, homeowners insurance, flood insurance, liability insurance, internet, telephone, food, electricity, or anything else. "Portable" insurance isn't some crazy idea, it just means "treat insurance like every other thing in society."