Wall Street and Silicon Valley may be excited about the emergence of the so-called sharing economy, but freelance workers driving for Uber are getting ‘screwed over,’ said Steven Hill, author of Raw Deal. ‘The drivers who are driving it the most and trying to make a full time living at it, they are the least happy,’ said Hill. ‘Those who are doing it part time for a little bit of extra money, they don’t mind doing it until they have experienced a couple of Uber’s wage cuts which come on a regular basis.’ Hill is a Senior Fellow with the New America Foundation. He is also the author of five books including Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age. He said increasing numbers of U.S. workers are suddenly finding themselves on shaky ground, turned into freelancers, temps and contractors, with low wages and no job security of safety net support. Hill said the job reports Wall Street traders anxiously await each month are not capturing the true picture of employment in America. ‘What they are missing is that the number of 1099 forms, which is the form contractors file with the I.R.S., those are climbing very fast,’ said Hill. ‘The number of people filing Schedule C which is the self-employment form, those are climbing very fast so I don’t think we are capturing accurately what’s going on in this gig economy.’
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