Uber pitched itself as a solution — instead, it's 'a symptom of a very broken job market,' new book says

By Levi Sumagaysay

'Disrupting D.C.' makes a case for how racial inequality and failing policies in Washington, D.C., and other cities have helped the rise of Uber

A new book about how Uber made its way into Washington, D.C., about a dozen years ago analyzes how the ride-hailing company grew into the multibillion-dollar corporation it is today -- and why.

"Disrupting D.C.: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City," slated for publication Tuesday, focuses on the sixth city Uber (UBER) entered in the U.S. But it's about so much more: It's the story of urban decay and low expectations that can be found all over the country, and how those conditions helped Uber thrive as it has bent the will of the law, officials and legislators to suit its purposes, according to the book.

"[Uber] has been able to pitch itself as a way to fill gaps ... in the urban condition," Kafui Attoh, one of the book's three authors and an urban studies professor at the City University of New York, said in an interview with MarketWatch last week. "Or address holes in the social safety net and the public-transit infrastructure."

But though studies have shown the company isn't actually filling those gaps very well, the authors write that many of the dozens of Uber drivers they spoke with were willing to take whatever they could get.

Uber's business model relies on treating its millions of drivers as independent contractors, an arrangement the company says provides workers with flexibility. That means shifting costs and risks to those workers, many of whom don't have steady wages, healthcare benefits, paid sick leave and access to other employee protections like unemployment insurance.

Yet some of the drivers the authors mentioned defended Uber as a provider of income when they needed it, regardless of any other complaints they may have about it. They were resigned to poor wages and working conditions.

One Uber driver quoted in the book said, "It is what it is." Another driver suggested that wishing for a minimum wage was "greedy and kind of lazy."

"A lot of workers have very low expectations about what a good job is," Katie Wells, another author of the book and a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, told MarketWatch. "Uber is a symptom of a very broken job market -- a mirror."

Wells added: "I went into this thinking, 'How can anyone drive for this entity?' But afterward, I thought, if I had this situation, I would be driving for Uber."

The thinking behind Uber providing a low-barrier way for people to earn money is also intertwined with race and inequality, which figure prominently in the book's analysis of how and why millions of drivers are working for Uber.

See: As Uber drivers complain of deactivations and 'policies that keep us in poverty,' company issues its own civil-rights audit

In D.C. and in the rest of the U.S., the company touted itself as a solution to racial discrimination perpetrated by some taxi drivers. After initially resisting Uber in their city, D.C. officials were eventually influenced by residents who wrote them and told stories of being unable to hail taxis because of discrimination from cab drivers -- as well as by lobbyists and at least one Uber-backed opinion piece saying similar things.

Cities have taken steps to address the issue: In New York, the Taxi and Limousine Commission has an Office of Inclusion and encourages riders to file a complaint when they feel they have been discriminated against. Other cities, including D.C., have similar departments that handle such complaints.

"Uber's entrance into D.C. coincided with emerging concerns about gentrification, inequality, and the city's demographic transformation," the book's authors write.

But "on-demand racial justice," as a subheading in the book calls it, does not appear to have actually stamped out racial discrimination for those who use Uber, the authors say. In the book, they point to studies that suggest racial bias in passengers getting picked up, passenger waiting times and ride prices. The authors also write that some drivers told them they picked passengers up where they felt comfortable or where Uber was likely to pay them more.

In addition, Uber and other gig companies used race in their push to exempt themselves from existing labor law with their ballot measure in California, which voters approved in 2020, the authors write. As MarketWatch reported then, advertisements for Proposition 22 featured people of color who said the gig-economy model was an opportunity for those who for various reasons couldn't or didn't want to work as employees, and endorsements from organizations such as the state's NAACP.

The book uses D.C. as a case study, but the authors write in the book's second chapter that Uber's use of race in its messaging in the U.S. is superficial and problematic, and that it has widespread effects.

"We have to think about racial justice in broader terms," Attoh said. "Racial justice is more than just the ability to hail a cab. It's also about the ability to have a good job and not be exploited. In all those areas, Uber fails miserably."

Uber did not immediately return a request for comment about the book. The company has previously said it has no tolerance for racial discrimination, and that it provides anti-racism education for drivers, riders and its service agents.

Uber has also pushed back against studies showing low wages for drivers; a company spokesperson recently said its U.S. drivers earned a median of $34 an hour including tips in the second quarter, based on what the company calls utilized time, which counts the time starting from when a driver accepts a ride until the driver completes the ride.

Looking to the future, the book's authors discuss Uber's influence on transportation policy, and the promise and perils of other technological disruption, including autonomous vehicles.

Attoh and Wells both said Uber and other companies overpromise and underdeliver, or promise something and ignore the consequences. "It's always a shifting promise," Wells said. "Uber was going to address [traffic] congestion with UberPool. It was going to address unemployment."

Studies have shown that Uber and other ride-hailing services have worsened traffic congestion.

"They're promising the moon, flying cars, to solve 100 years of racial inequality," Attoh added. "What needs to be explained is why people take it up. We've got to explain why despite [road congestion, low wages for workers and a negative effect on mass transit], they've found success nevertheless."

-Levi Sumagaysay

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08-19-23 0947ET

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