After hearing the report, Coalition to Protect Workers’ Rights is calling on big tech CEOs to testify before an upcoming legislative committee hearing on their tax-dodging legislation
An analysis by UC Berkeley recently revealed that, if passed, the Proposition 22-copycat ballot language proposed by big tech companies Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart would create a sub-minimum wage for app-based workers, as low as $4.82/hour. In the wake of the release of this report, the Coalition to Protect Workers’ Rights has called on the big tech CEOs funding the ballot question to testify at the hearing of the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Financial Services on the Uber/big tech bill HB1234, scheduled for Wednesday, October 6.
According to the report, which looked into the ballot question’s fine print and corporate loopholes, the measure would allow big tech companies to pay workers less than $5/hour. Some of the lookholes noted in the study are unpaid driver wait times, underpaid and unreimbursed expenses, and others, as written about by Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center, and Michael Reich, UC Berkeley professor of economics and co-chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics.
“Uber and other massive tech companies should contribute to Social Security, pay their taxes, and pay their workers fairly, like every other business in Massachusetts,” said Mike Firestone, director of the Coalition to Protect Workers’ Rights, in a press release. “We’re calling on the big tech CEOs behind this lobbying campaign to answer the serious questions in the UC Berkeley report and testify at the hearing next week on why $4.82/hour and no Social Security is the right choice for Massachusetts.”
“Workers can’t live on $4.82/hr. big tech companies should contribute to Social Security, not fund a lobbying campaign to eliminate the minimum wage,” said Beth Griffith, an Uber driver, and Coalition spokesperson. “Some of these CEOs took home $100 million last year. If they want to change our laws, and cheat our system, they should show up and testify on their bill.”
Shira Laucharoen is a reporter based in Boston. She currently serves as the assistant director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. In the past she has written for Sampan newspaper, The Somerville Times, Scout Magazine, Boston Magazine, and WBUR.