gig economy

Ride-sharing giants Uber and Lyft have agreed to pay $328 million to settle charges that they withheld wages due to drivers in New York. The Silicon Valley gig economy darlings also agreed to change their pay practices for drivers moving forward.

Ride-sharing company Lyft is introducing a new feature that will let women and so-called “non-binary” riders request their driver’s sex. The same feature will allow female drivers to request to only drive for women and “non-binary” people, although the company hasn’t indicated if drivers can specify only biological women riders.

A decline in the self-employed gig economy could be pulling more workers into payroll jobs while also increasing the unemployment rate, Breitbart Economics Editor John Carney explained.

Forty-four percent of Americans work a second job, a 13 percent increase relative to the Trump administration, a LendingClub report revealed Tuesday.

Food delivery service and gig economy darling DoorDash is laying off 1,250 of its employees in what the CEO says is part of a broader cost-cutting initiative.

Ride-sharing giant Uber is continuing to have a rough time turning a profit, with the company’s third-quarter earnings revealing a net loss of $1.2 billion for the last three months despite revenues that continue to grow.

The Port of Oakland was shut down for the third day in a row on Thursday as truckers continued to protest a California gig worker labor law that could impact an estimated 70,000 truckers.

Amazon Flex drivers and other gig economy drivers have staged a protest outside an Amazon warehouse calling for an increase in pay to deal with surging gas prices during the unprecedented inflation under President Joe Biden.

New York City has become the first city in the U.S. to take steps to improve the working conditions of delivery drivers and other gig economy workers by approving a package of legislation mandating minimum pay and addressing many of the issues that workers for app-based delivery services like Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats regularly face.

Gig economy giant Uber is pledging $1 million to help Afghan refugees in the wake of President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Kabul, which resulted in 13 U.S. service members killed, American citizens left behind, the bombing and killing of citizens, as well as other forms of chaos that ensued as the president bungled the end of America’s costly 20-year war in Afghanistan.

A California judge Friday overturned Proposition 22, a 2020 ballot initiative that freed workers in the “gig” economy to continue to operate as independent contractors, rather than forcing them to be classified as employees under AB 5 of 2019.

Weil will leave a legacy of “of forcing students to study racist and hateful authors under the guise of equality,” according to AAF.

Ridesharing giants Uber and Lyft have begun improving the perks that drivers receive amid a shortage of drivers across the United States. One Uber executive made clear the extent of the problems ridesharing companies are having in finding drivers: “This is a moment of deep introspection and reflection for a company like ours to pause and say, ‘How do we make the proposition for drivers more attractive longer term? It is absolutely a reckoning.”

Some of the largest delivery companies in the United States, including Amazon, Uber, and various food delivery firms, reportedly fell victim to a basic “fake driver” scam, according to a recent Justice Department complaint. The scam involved selling driver identities to others, meaning criminals could deliver customer’s food or drive them to the airport.

Ride-sharing giant Uber has lost its final appeal in a long UK legal battle over whether its drivers are self-employed contractors or legally-recognized workers. The ruling draws an end to a five-year-long legal fight and is a major setback for Uber that could affect all gig workers in the United Kingdom.

Uber drivers are reportedly suing the ride-sharing firm for allegedly pressuring them to support Prop 22, a ballot initiative to make gig workers independent contractors instead of employees as mandated by a recent state law. 

In a recent article, Uber software engineer Kurt Nelson explained why he would be voting against California Prop 22 despite being employed by the company pushing it. Prop 22 seeks to classify gig economy drivers as independent contractors, a cause Uber has spent many millions of dollars supporting. It would in effect reverse the recently passed AB 5 law that forces gig economy companies like Uber and Lyft to classify their drivers as employees instead of contractors.

This week, Seattle’s city council passed an ordinance that will require Uber and Lyft to pay their drivers a minimum hourly wage of $16. Lyft has already pushed back at the new policy, claiming that it may force them to lay off 4,000 drivers in Seattle alone.

A new startup is paying freelance workers to help landlords around the country evict tenants that are behind on their rent. The company has faced criticism from media outlets and social media users this week, many of which have suggested that the company’s operations are unethical.

Uber and Lyft narrowly avoided shutting down their California rideshare services late Thursday after an appeals court granted the companies a last-minute extension in their legal battle against the state over a new law that requires them to reclassify their gig economy drivers as employees.

Uber claims it may have to temporarily shut down in California after a judge ruled earlier this week that Uber and Lyft must classify their gig drivers as employees.

Lyft executives told customers in an email this week that they should be “part of the solution” to the issue of “systemic racism” in the United States. Lyft also announced that it will offer $500,000 in free rides to civil rights organizations that are providing transportation to protest events.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s pay package has come under fire from a group of shareholders who are questioning why his sign-on deal potentially entitles him to $100 million while employees are facing layoffs in the wake of the Chinese virus pandemic.

Retail giant Walmart is reportedly testing a new ‘express’ grocery delivery service promising two-hour deliveries as record usage of third-party delivery services during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has led to delayed orders, fewer open delivery windows, and more stress for customers not willing to visit brick and mortar shops. The service will be rolled out to nearly 2,000 stores in May.

Ride-sharing giant Uber has announced that it will be laying off 3,700 employees, or around 14 percent of its workforce, due to the drop in its business suffered during the Chinese virus pandemic.

In days past, if you were risking your life for low pay, that likely meant you were a soldier. The upside: survival skills, high status, a free college degree, and good benefits. These days, though, you can risk your life for low pay and get none of those benefits, as a member of the pandemic “Gig Economy.”

Grocery shopping service Instacart reportedly plans to hire 250,000 new gig economy workers after hiring 300,000 workers in the past month to meet the growing demand for home grocery deliveries during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

Workers for the grocery delivery startup Instacart have reportedly still not received the safety supplies they were promised by the company during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

Some Americans have been exploiting a loophole within the Instacart grocery delivery service app that allows them to lure delivery people in with promises of a large tip only to then cancel the tip shortly after their order has been delivered. One delivery person told reporters that a $55 tip was changed to $0 shortly after she delivered a large grocery order.

In a surprising turn of events, it seems that online meal delivery services are having a hard time dealing with the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Analysts at Deutsche Bank commented, “Whilst the COVID-19 outbreak could intuitively be seen as beneficial to online food delivery players, with millions of people under lockdown, we conclude that this is not the case.”

In a recent interview, billionaire short-seller Jim Chanos stated that gig economy companies such as Uber will be “harmed, not enhanced” by the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

GrubHub is facing accusations that it is using a promotional discount to take financial advantage of restaurants at a time when many food establishments are relying heavily on delivery services to stay afloat due to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

Workers for the grocery delivery service Instacart are reportedly considering a strike as they worry about their safety as they try to meet online demand for grocery deliveries during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

Unemployment benefits will reportedly be extended to groups including gig economy workers like Uber drivers based on a bipartisan deal struck this week.

According to Uber’s fourth-quarter earnings released on Thursday, the company lost $1.1 billion for the three-month period but expects to be profitable by the end of 2020. Overall, the ridesharing company lost $8.5 billion in 2019.

Ride-sharing giant Uber and courier service Postmates have filed a lawsuit aimed at putting the brakes on California’s new law that will reclassify gig workers as employees, potentially burdening tech companies with millions of dollars in new personnel costs.