Gig workers handed lifeline by $2 trillion stimulus plan

Enlarge / The Uber ride-sharing app is seen on a mobile phone. (credit: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Washington has answered the increasingly desperate pleas of gig-economy executives by agreeing to include hard-up workers among the beneficiaries of the $2 trillion stimulus bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday.

If, as expected, the bill is passed by the House of Representatives on Friday and signed into law by US President Donald Trump, it will mean rideshare drivers, as well as Airbnb hosts, stand to receive unemployment compensation for the first time.

But, by successfully lobbying for gig workers to receive the same protections as other unemployed people during the coronavirus crisis, the companies risk unravelling their own arguments for not providing any kind of safety net themselves.

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