Beyond Drivers and Deliveries: All Platform Gig Workers Need Protection
New provincial legislation only protects visible, on-demand digital gig workers like DoorDashers and Uber drivers.
By Antoinette Steele
Female digital gig workers can face gender pay gaps almost three times larger than women in full-time jobs. This affects digital freelancers like Paloma, a New York designer who has experienced sexism at the hands of platform-facilitated clients. She also suspects that women charge less than men for their freelance services.
Paloma’s story embodies the struggles faced by female gig workers that have exploded alongside the digital gig economy, where a systematic lack of protection leaves marginalized workers without safeguards. This is compounded by emerging provincial legislation that only protects visible digital gig workers like Uber drivers and DoorDashers, leaving skilled workers like Paloma to fend for themselves. Canadian provincial governments need to step up and recognize the worth of all gig workers, immediately.
The digital gig economy has recently grown from 5.5 per cent of the Canadian labour force in 2005 to 10 per cent in 2020, accelerated by high unemployment rates since the global financial crisis and the emergence of on-demand (Uber, DoorDash) and marketplace (Care.com, Upwork) platforms. While both platform types present serious challenges to workers’ safety, well-being, and livelihoods, Canadian provinces’ nascent legislation only protects visible on-demand workers. This selective approach fundamentally devalues care and skilled freelance workers who rely on online marketplaces to connect them with clients.
We are at a pivotal moment to push for the comprehensive regulation of the digital gig economy, when governments are looking for answers and peoples’ lives and livelihoods are at stake. A 2023 Government of Canada public consultation outlines gig work’s benefits and challenges. While flexibility and low barriers attract some, this often masks the reality that workers turn to gig work as a last resort, at great cost.
The primary challenge is that gig workers are often classified as independent contractors rather than employees, meaning they are not protected by most labour standards. Gig workers also receive limited pay, especially because they are not compensated for their time waiting for or tendering gigs. Ultimately, they bear sole responsibility for workplace safety and lack access to employer dispute resolution mechanisms. For digital gig workers, opaque platform policies exacerbate this. Indeed, some have rightly labelled the digital gig economy the new servant economy.
Canadian digital gig economy regulation needs to address its disproportionate impacts on racialized minorities, who make up 67 per cent of gig workers earning more than 40% of their income from on-demand work. Racialized minorities face increased surveillance through digital platforms, where their success is heavily determined by customer ratings that perpetuate harmful racial stereotypes. Marginalized workers thus exert more emotional labour to compensate for bias and market themselves, while facing an increased risk of experiencing violence, harassment and discrimination without employer protection. Provincial legislation has yet to take this seriously, which is incredibly important as they regulate most areas of employment, including delivery, ridesharing, and professional services.
Western countries, including Canada, are moving to regulate the digital gig economy and provide worker protections. In Canada, the Federal Government, Ontario, and British Columbia (BC) have begun legislating in this area — with Ontario’s Digital Platform Workers' Rights Act coming into force this July. The 2024 changes to the Canadian Labour Code, applicable to federally-regulated workers like those in transportation, show one prominent approach to regulation grounded in workers’ fundamental rights, where all workers under federal jurisdiction are now considered employees unless proven otherwise by their employer. The federal approach echoes California’s 2020 AB5 law, which mandated employee classification unless specific criteria were met.
Backlash to AB5 via industry-backed Proposition 22 in California shows another dominant approach to regulating gig work, where workers are classified as independent contractors but are given special benefits like guaranteed earnings when engaged in gigs and health care stipends. A compromise for flexibility, this mirrors Ontario’s law, where workers are not classified as employees but are entitled to information on rating systems and pay, to minimum wage when engaging in work assignments, and to protections around reprisal. BC, on the other hand, extends employment benefits by granting gig workers the title of employees under certain legislation, giving them work-related injuries and illnesses coverage in addition to ‘engaged’ minimum wage, pay and termination transparency.
While these dominant approaches and their real-world application have both benefits and flaws, including no pay when not ‘engaged in work’ and potential reduced flexibility, they only apply to male-dominated ride hailing and delivery services in Canadian provinces (StatsCan data shows men make up 73.1 per cent of rideshare and delivery drivers). This glaring omission leaves marketplace-based gig work, including care workers who are predominantly racialized women, with no enhanced protections. This is not merely an oversight; it reifies the outdated and discriminatory notion that domestic care work is not "real" work in the same way that driving and delivery is.
Canadian provinces and territories must act to create an inclusive definition of ‘digital gig worker’ that guarantees access to necessary health, safety, and financial protections for every worker who powers these platforms. As they explore tailored options like classification schemes, portable benefits regimes, and algorithmic transparency, their goal must be simple: the dignity and prosperity of all workers, not just the most visible.
Disclaimer: Toni Steele is currently on education leave from her position at Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. All views expressed in this editorial are hers alone and do not represent any government agency or department.
Toni Steele is a 2023 graduate of Carleton University, where she received a Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management degree. With a goal to make public policy more accessible to other students, Toni became a Staff Writer with Kroeger Policy Review, a student-run policy publication, writing on issues such as environmental pollution and urban planning. Toni has varied policy interests, leading her to work and research in many different organizations. However, she currently works in the Federal Government at Crown-Indigenous Relations. Passionate about helping others and contributing to a more sustainable, equitable future, Toni is excited to learn, challenge herself, and connect with others at the Max Bell School.