The Gig Economy Is Broken, This Is How We Fix It
By: Jenny Montoya Tansey
Tags: Corporate Greed, Handy, Wage Theft, Workers Rights, Gig Economy

Time in Transit:

Most Handy jobs are cleaning and furniture assembly jobs that take only a few hours — in order to make enough money on the app, workers often schedule multiple jobs back to back. But the time traveling between jobs can add up to multiple hours in transit per day, time which workers should be paid for if they are actually employees.

In surveys, workers reported completing multiple Handy gigs 3 days per week with an average travel time of 41 minutes between each gig — that means that on average workers spend 126 minutes traveling between gigs per week for which they are not paid.

“I usually stack my jobs so I do 2 or 3 in a day. Depending on the time of day and the distance, I might drive an hour or more in between them. Handy doesn’t pay you until you are at the front door.” — Sara

Narciso in New York City echoed these frustrations. He says you can set the number of miles you are willing to travel, but if you are taking public transit, miles are not representative of how long it will take you to get to a job.

“I had to take the New Jersey PATH train, which is very slow sometimes, but if I had canceled the job, I would have been charged a fee. You don’t want to do it, but you have no choice just to make some extra money — the perfect example of, ‘I hate my job.’”

“The fact that compensation for driving time isn’t even included is ridiculous,” says Darlene. “I feel like you don’t break even with the wear and tear on your car.”

No Breaks and No Shows:

If a Handy worker shows up for a job and the customer is not there to let them into the residence, workers are expected to wait up to 30 minutes for the customer to arrive. And they can’t just leave; workers are tracked by GPS.

As Casey, a handyman in the Bay Area told us, “I spend a lot of time waiting on customers, and that can fill up a time slot that I could be doing something else.”

“I can’t just take a break because time is money,” David says. “I am given a time limit. They allocate certain hours for you to work. The main thing is for you to try to get it done in time.”

Sickness, Emergencies, and Unreimbursed Expenses:

Handy workers are expected to bring their own supplies and tools to every job; nothing is provided by Handy to aid in completing the work at hand. Those costs come directly out of the workers’ own pockets.

“I put aside eighty dollars a week for supplies, like wipes, rags, spray, Windex, and toilet cleaner. I’d have to work at least two houses to make back what I spent on supplies. Some customers have things like a vacuum or a broom, but they don’t let you use them. Only one customer ever let me use their things.”

— Patricia, San Jose “Right around when COVID was happening, I got sick, and my symptoms were in line with COVID. I got hit with a fee of $50 for canceling a gig! I was supposed to be helping someone move, and the customer had a truck they were renting. I understand it was an inconvenience to them, but Handy should have a backup line so they can get people in if someone gets sick.

I reached out to get the fee rescinded, but I couldn’t get a hold of anyone.

They sent me a bogus reply email to burn me out so I wouldn’t keep pursuing it. I had to move on with my life; I’m not a collections agency.”

— Scott B, Chicago “My wife went into labor and I had to take her to the hospital so I had to cancel a gig. I really was charged for that. I tried to talk to the management and they didn’t understand me and my situation.”

— David, Chicago

Fees for staying home sick or taking care of urgent family medical needs are not only bad for workers, but actively harm the public health of our communities and put the lie to the idea that being a gig worker with Handy is a “flexible job.”

Adding It All Up

Handy promises cleaners in California can earn between $15 to $25 an hour. Yet, when accounting for the costs cleaners must incur to work for Handy, cleaners often make an hourly wage in the single digits. Including other uncompensated time, such as additional time working a job, travel time between jobs, and uncompensated rest and meal breaks, a cleaner’s hourly wage can drop to $6 or $7 an hour.

Here’s the Good News

Together with Handy workers, Public Rights Project has been advocating for change, and this year we’ve gained significant momentum in our case against Handy. In March, the District Attorneys of San Francisco and Los Angeles filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in state court that would force Handy to reclassify its California workers as employees, which included powerful declarations from workers we have connected with as part of our outreach.

We’ll tell more of these workers’ stories in an amicus brief we’re filing in support of the governments’ enforcement action against the company.

We’ve also worked with Chicago, Seattle, and Philadelphia governments to launch investigations of Handy for misclassifying its workforce as independent contractors and violating local laws regarding paid sick leave, minimum wage, and domestic workers’ rights.

Taken together, these actions now mean that Handy is now being investigated or sued for workers’ rights violations in half of their top 10 largest U.S. markets.

Undermining the safety and well-being of low-income workers to pad the pockets of gig companies is one of the most dangerous manifestations of unchecked corporate power. But we believe that a coalition of workers, communities, and governments together can push back on these abuses and stop the erosion of workers’ rights before it spreads further.