An advocacy non-profit in Seattle is pushing for a new regulation to guarantee that gig workers earn at least the city’s minimum wage as their base pay, along with other benefits.
Here are Five Fast Facts on the proposed gig worker protection law:
- 📱How Many? There are at least 40k app-based gig workers active in Seattle each year (excluding Uber and Lyft drivers). Lots of Starbucks to be delivered every day, you know?
- 🚙🐕Who Is Affected? If passed, the new law would apply to folks driving with apps like DoorDash, Instacart, and UberEats, as well as workers providing services through apps like TaskRabbit and Rover. This law wouldn’t apply to Uber and Lyft drivers, who are covered by a separate state law. #moreequal
- ⏱️🗺️Money! The law would require app companies to pay a per-minute and per-mile rate to drivers from the time they accept a job through when the job is done. The targets are Seattle’s $17.27 minimum wage and the standard mileage rate from the IRS.
- 📝💸Transparency! The law would also require companies to provide more information about jobs and costs before they accept them - things like a best estimate of a job’s time/mileage and how much the job will pay them. Customers would get info showing the split of their cost to the worker and the company. Now THAT’S an interesting twist!
- 👨⚖️🆓Fairness! Finally, the law would prohibit apps from rejecting or punishing workers for turning down jobs for cause (like incorrect job info or harassment by a customer). This will help preserve workers’ flexibility, one of the best parts of gig working! Um, YES. Why else do it??
🔥Bottom line: This regulation will obviously benefit workers’ Paychecks with higher pay rates, more transparency about work, and better protections for their flexibility. Seems like a trifecta of goodness to us!
What do you think about this potential new law?
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