I feel like both sides of the “are they contractors or employees” arguments feel like they are trying to jam puzzle pieces that don’t fit together to make an ar

I feel like both sides of the “are they contractors or employees” arguments feel like they are trying to jam puzzle pieces that don’t fit together to make an argument. Clearly drivers are not employees in that they pick their own hours, and they can drive for as long and for whomever they want - and these are all things that make Uber/Lyft a great option for people between jobs, substitute teachers, actors, etc. At the same time it is pretty clear that your inability set prices, control which requests/routes you accept/decline and lack of differentiated work makes you an employee, especially if you drive 40+ hours a week. The law needs a way of handling this type of job, without forcing it into one camp or another because there are downsides for everyone by doing so. Let’s call them semi-contractors for the sake of differentiation. There should ways of getting health insurance pro-rated by multiple companies if you work X hours a week. There should be requirements around the workers insurance provided to these semi-contractors while on and off the clock. There should be guaranteed minimum wages after expenses. There should be strict rules about building out complex and accurate payout reporting for both regulators and semi-contractors including complex bonus payouts. It should be 100% illegal to steal tips from an app. Semi-contractors should have the right to tell Uber they don’t want to drive to east bay without penalty if they’re contractors that can have autonomy over their work. But none of these issues get solved by calling driver employees