I'm not sure I'd call it "evolution" so much as a race to the bottom. The drivers in this article are now forced to pay an intermediary in order to secure work that was previously available for free. It's basically a form of scalping.
This is why labor laws are important and why classifying employees as contractors can be so detrimental.
But yes, I agree with your second paragraph.
Using California's onerous law that has caused so much trouble in this area, did you know that taxi services are not affected unless the city or county regulation body says so? isn't that interesting? they typically are in rental agreements with cars and medallions. However the government has a vested interest in medallions and these companies donate to local politicians all the time. Their workers are getting the shaft but it does not make news because it does not involve an internet company with billions.
The situations I do not like were stories surrounding instacart shoppers being able to cancel tips after delivery, now that is fraud and the company should be liable. I believe uber eats did something similar. T
There is something. Automation. With automation, Amazon is able to squeeze every inch of performance out of a single worker, which means less workers needed, salaries down, people more hungry for work.
It is well past time to regulate profits from automation and redistribute those profits to the population. Taxes.
This is leaving out the lack of the normal jobs which would be created if the employer couldn’t avoid it this way. People are desperate enough to take gig economy jobs because there’s been a steady erosion of other options.
It's an important distinction to make. Although Uber et co may be predatory on underutilized workers, I don't think banning them is going to bring back the better jobs that used to exist.
The best way to make Uber pay better would be to have compelling other options for these workers; easier said than done though