I find the paternalism of AB5 to be a little bit problematic. It really assumes that the drivers are too stupid to do their own accounting and figure out if they are making money or not.
Pretty sure most drivers wouldn't be driving for $9.21 if a job at the local ice cream parlor could get them almost double on the spot. Yet you still see folks driving 30 hrs per week for years.
> It really assumes that the drivers are too stupid to do their own accounting and figure out if they are making money or not.
This isn't as easy as it sounds. Much of their income will go towards paying vehicle maintenance costs, and those are not obvious from the start. Your accounting can show you making decent wages for six months and then suddenly you need new tires and recalculating your wage will show you aren't making a ton of money. At which point many of them do quit and work somewhere else.
It's no more paternalistic than any minimum wage law. Society has decided that jobs can't pay below a certain threshold, the law just makes that apply to gig workers now too.
Fair, but that's also not any more paternalistic than all the existing laws which define which kind of work can be classified as a contractor and which must be classified as an employee.
Pretty sure most drivers wouldn't be driving for $9.21 if a job at the local ice cream parlor could get them almost double on the spot. Yet you still see folks driving 30 hrs per week for years.