Simply categorizing on-demand
workers as full-time employees is almost certainly too blunt an approach, and
wouldn’t accurately reflect how the government should regulate the
employer-employee relationship. For instance, a recent poll found that while most
on-demand workers (72 percent) believe companies should be doing more to
provide benefits, respondents were split on whether the government should regulate
the sector.[i] Forcing
businesses to treat all workers like full-time employees could severely impact
businesses as well. One estimate put the additional costs of awarding employee
benefits for Uber alone at $4.1 billion, an amount that could scuttle the
company.[ii] [YI1]
[i]
Ibid.
[ii] Stephen Gandel, “Uber-nomics: Here's
what it would cost Uber to pay its drivers as employees”, Fortune, September
17, 2015, http://fortune.com/2015/09/17/ubernomics/.