The plumber is free to set their own rates, an uber driver cannot.
No one can unilaterally fire the plumber from 50% of the plumbing market. Uber or Lyft can ban a driver at any time for any reason.
You probably didn’t order up your plumber through PlumbersRUs. If you did, they would almost certainly be an employee of that entity.
Actually, they can. They can refuse any trip if it doesn't pay enough. The difference is that the existence of Uber and Lyft makes the market more efficient and transparent to the customer than the plumber market.
> No one can unilaterally fire the plumber from 50% of the plumbing market.
The fact that the driving market is consolidated doesn't change the underlying economic dynamic. A lawyer can be "fired" from 100% of the lawyering market by the ABA. But if I hire a lawyer that still doesn't make her an employee.
> You probably didn’t order up your plumber through PlumbersRUs.
Not yet. But even before Lyft and Uber, many (perhaps most) taxi drivers were independent contractors, not employees.
The difference is the firm can assign a junior to do all of the work and keep the senior for trial or face-to-face meetings. If you hired a person they can't really do that.
Can I change the driver? If my wife uses my account is that allowed? Can I subcontract to my team? If not I'm an employee.
That’s not how that works. There is a reason they are called contractors. All kinds of stipulations about who will do the work can be loaded into a contract.
And refuse a few trips and you will be unable to get any trips at all.
Not setting your own rates pushes them towards employees.
The freedom to work for any platform at anytime pushes them to contractors.
But I think we are missing the bigger point. Regardless of their status they deserve protection. All contractors should have additional protection.
If you're 100% independent you're not a contractor, you're retired.