Well sure, if you include time not working in the denominator, the pay rate is going to be low!
Seems like the title should read that gig workers would make more nominal dollars if they spent their time waiting for gig work working a minimum wage job…
There are jobs where you need warm bodies and you are paying for availability. If you hire a security guard, you're hoping you never need them to do their job, but you're paying them to be there in case they are needed. If a gig employer demanded your time regardless of whether or not you were doing a gig, of course they should be paying for your time. But a big part of gig work is that when you're not in the middle of a gig, you have no obligations - you can sit around waiting for the next job, or you can do something else.
But they didn’t sign up for an hourly wage - so either a) they value the flexibility to use their time in between assignments as they choose. Or b) they misjudged their economic earning ability in the gig economy
Work at McDonalds, and then walk out to go do an uber run?
It's often claimed that the flexibility of gig work benefits workers to 'top up' their wages...but the reality is that companies push this work, and it just ends up with workers earning less than minimum wage, because rather than companies paying you for the 'between time', you now end up earning nothing. Much like other commenters say, should you get paid for the Jira ticket, or just the coding work? Gig work suggests just the actual coding.
So dragging around tickets in Jira and taking the next one off the backlog isn't working either?
Usually, that's a full-time job, i.e not compensated hourly.
Alternatively, if you're not paid...I haven't heard of an employer only compensating for typing into Jira but not dragging tickets.
Is there another analogy familiar to us, where we're blocked on waiting for an employer to find us work, and we're not paid during it?
This is the subject being discussed. Appealing to current labor conventions doesn't make any sense when talking about the problems with current labor conventions. You might as well say that tipped employees shouldn't be paid minimum wage because the rules for tipped employment allow you to pay them less than minimum wage.
When I worked at Macy's I was still paid when I was not helping a customer or managing stock. I was also paid for simply being there if I were needed.
It’s only working to the extent you’ve contracted with your employer that you are trading your time and willingness to work for compensation e.g. salary or hourly wage.
There are plenty of jobs that have different labor arrangements: commission only (real estate agents), piecework (home cleaners), unit rate rate (truckers), to name a few… is a real estate agent who’s sitting in their backyard working because technically they’re available to go show a house if you call?
So... halfway through making a burger they drop what they're doing to go pick up their next Uber passenger?
Waiting for the next job is dead time if you have no idea how long you'll have to wait and limited or no choice about when it will start. Edit to clarify: the point is that in this case you're on the clock whether you are nominally 'working' or not - it's still work time.
Anything which an employer asks you to do is work. All work should be compensated for. This include travel required for work, training courses, time spent waiting for work where you are not completely free to engage in what you'd prefer to do.
Also aren’t gig workers free to do whatever they like while they are waiting for work?