The article is about subjecting workers to discriminated pay rates for reasons: that are not clear to the workers; that may not be within the power of the workers to control; that cannot be predicted in advance; and that may vary per worker rather than being offered the same to all workers at once; with that last also based on factors unknown to the workers—including, potentially, personal information about the worker or about their compensation history.
The paper is explicitly not (as in: the intro outright states this is not what it’s about) traditional forms of variable pay.
> that are not clear to the workers; that may not be within the power of the workers to control; that cannot be predicted in advance; and that may vary per worker rather than being offered the same to all workers at once;
You’re literally describing tipping. When a worker starts their shift, they do not know how much they will earn. Tips vary per worker for sexism, racism, ageism reasons, or just plain luck.
But usually these things come down to patterns that people will learn. E.g. they will learn certain location at certain hours will pay more, because there's more demand vs supply, so they will adapt. It allows them the power to decide when and for what money it is worth it for them to work those hours or this location.
Will you know they’re offing you and Bill the exact same job at the same time, and are willing to pay whichever of you takes it first, but Bill’s offer is 20% higher? Or when they’ve made you a lower-than-usual offer to test if they can start offering you lower rates in the future (but you did just get a past-due notice on your kid’s hospital bill…)?
> Will you know they’re offing you and Bill the exact same job at the same time, and are willing to pay whichever of you takes it first, but Bill’s offer is 20% higher?
Is this any different from than any job ever? More experience airline pilots are paid more than the less experienced for the exact same route.
Two new grads from the same school may get different offers depending on how well they interviewed for the same role.
Wait staff paid directly by customers is different from payments processed opaquely by the employer. Consider if a server got paid tips based only on the number of customer smiles detected by the restaurant security cameras.
Tip amounts have always been about how much the customer enjoyed the service, hence the 10-25% tip ranges.
Customers have opaque expectations for service and pay their server based on the server’s gender, race, and age as well as quality of service that the server doesn’t even have control over (like if the kitchen was backed up).
A system counting smiles is basically what we currently have: instead of signaling with a smile, they signal with a tip amount.
I feel like these articles are just "tech company = bad" without recognizing that there are thousands of really smart people trying to create an equitable system that supports the needs of the drivers, passengers, and company.
1. Good wages for drivers means more drivers.
2. More drivers means better quality of service at lower cost for passengers.
3. Low cost and high quality service for passengers means more passengers.
4. More passengers means more rides and more money spent on platform.
More drivers and more passengers means more money for company. The argument that Uber/DD whatever is not incentivized to have high wages for drivers is ridiculous.
Now there is pre-tipping, tipping for no discernible service, fake tip jars in places that aren't licensed for it, etc.
More people are becoming aware that, in the US anyway, the wage is reduced commensurate with expected tips, and so customers are more or less obligated to supplement wages, and avoid offending servers, unless we don't want to be served at all.
