I have a friend with health issues that mean that he’s only able to work some of the time, and can’t predict when. Gig economy jobs are the first time that he’s been able to earn any income beyond his disability check. I hope this bill that tries to enforce the “normal” full-time employment relationship doesn’t deprive him of that.
Its a lie - you can absolutely fix this situation. No law is gonna be perfect, but having a situation where the "main" job provides actual days off and health insurance is a good thing. If disability is the main job, and you get benefits through that, nothing should stop you from doing part time.
But, you shouldn't allow your friend who already gets a disability check to dictate that everyone being abused by a second class labor system shouldn't have rights too. I would RATHER your friend who is already taken care of lose their gig economy job if people who have to work 3 jobs instead only have to work 2. I'm sorry, thats better overall for society, to me. You can argue the tradeoffs, and maybe have people on disability be able to work 20 irregular hours without losing disability. But you're depriving people of time off to be sick, time to be with their families, and health insurance so your friend can get slightly more self-actualized while he's actively getting a check every month? I'm being somewhat trite here but, in my mind its not even a comparison.
I claim it’s good for society that Uber can pay otherwise idle workers to use their otherwise idle cars to drive drunk people home when the bars close, even if that activity is only profitable for 10 hours a week.
The right way for the government to provide benefits is for it to provide benefits, not to shoehorn those benefits into an unrelated labor market transaction.