# Coronavirus, Sick Leave, and the Gig Economy

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-sick-leave-and-the-gig-economy/849169>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 10, 2020, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-sick-leave-and-the-gig-economy/849169 "2020-03-10T00:18:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 49

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**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-sick-leave-and-the-gig-economy/849169/49 "2020-03-12T21:03:19Z")

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> [@Banquet\_Bear](#):
>
> Why is that important? Because the argument that \*\*UltraVires \*\*is making is that employees should be taking responsibility for setting aside money for sick pay themselves and if they can’t do it then “its their own damn fault.”
> 
> I would suggest that in order for an employee to be able to do this at the very least they would have to be earning the Living Wage. Anything less than the living wage would be almost impossible by definition. The Federally mandated minimum wage in America [hasn’t changed in 10 years](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage_in_the_United_States). Gig economy workers **have it even worse** : often (worldwide) being paid **below the minimum wage**.
> 
> This, of course, is all by design. The entire premise of the gig economy is that it is part of the “tech industry” and that workers in the industry aren’t really “workers at all.” Its the worlds biggest boondoggle rivalling [the dot.com bubble in the 90’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble) and the entire industry (quite possibly because of this latest crisis) is at risk of a massive collapse.

I don’t consider “gig economy workers” to be employees, therefore I’m with **UltraVires** in saying it would be unfair to hold employers accountable. Contrast with the part-time employees I described before, where it’s totally on me if they aren’t making a minimum wage.

Let’s say I want to hire a cleaning service. I give them square footage, location, etc. They give me a quote. I take the cheapest reasonable quote. It’s not my fault if these contractors are selling themselves short. If they take home less than the minimum wage, guess what? I’m not the employer, and I’m not on the hook.

I do have a moral obligation to pay a minimum, but not every business will agree with me on that. And there’s nothing I can do if it never comes to my attention that a contractor can’t make ends meet.

Sure, you could try and implement a “minimum wage” for gig workers. But good luck designing a law that applies to the people who contract for their services. There are just too many different kinds of jobs to legislate for. What are you going to do, try and write a law based on the assumption that it takes someone one hour to clean five hundred square feet? Different people take different amounts of time to do their jobs. There’s a quality difference, too. What about the cost of supplies? You know, some things are harder to clean than others. You can’t make hard and fast rules with all of these variables.

My point is that if the worker is self-employed, as is the case with gig workers (unless I’m wrong here), there’s no use in trying to protect them with a minimum wage law.

~Max

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