Poll after poll has shown why millions of people choose app-based work: flexibility. Earners on these platforms don’t want a job where they need to clock in and out on a rigid schedule; they simply want to sign in to work whenever best fits their schedule. This week, new research by Global Strategy Group, which surveyed Colorado-based rideshare and delivery drivers from all walks of life, reaffirms that app-based workers prioritize flexibility above almost every other consideration.
Whether they are a busy parent who needs to be home with their kids, a person living with disabilities who needs to be able to work around their doctor’s appointments, or someone looking to supplement earnings from their full-time job, app-based workers from all backgrounds value flexibility. The polling explains why that flexibility is so important and what losing it could mean:
● 91 percent of all drivers said that if flexibility was taken away, they would have to stop driving or delivering entirely
● Similarly, 77 percent said they preferred to maintain a flexible independent contractor status over being classified as an employee.
● 87 percent said they prefer an approach that maintains their independence while also receiving some benefits like access to health insurance or retirement savings.
● Portable benefits were an especially popular solution: 92 percent said that portable benefits, which are tied to a driver instead of a company, would be better than forcing drivers to become employees.
Listening to what workers want should come first. And the data made clear that, most of all, they want flexibility.
That flexibility that workers value so highly is under serious threat if the PRO Act becomes law, however. Under the PRO Act, which has already passed the House of Representatives, many workers would be reclassified employees instead of independent contractors under federal labor law, confining them to rigid schedules and removing the flexibility they love.
Put simply, the PRO Act ignores what workers want, and actually takes away what they value most. If lawmakers’ goals truly are to put workers first, then they must reject the PRO Act and other policies that take away workers’ flexibility.