Taxpayers across the country will be covering the cost of Uber/Lyft jobless benefits

[ffr]

Uber, Lyft would owe California $413 million in unemployment funds if drivers were considered employees: report

As drivers for Uber and Lyft are set to receive jobless benefits because the coronavirus pandemic has thrown so many out of work, a new UC Berkeley report says the two companies would owe California $413 million in unemployment insurance contributions if they had treated drivers as employees rather than contractors.

With workers in the so-called “gig economy” approved to receive federal Pandemic Unemployment Insurance benefits, taxpayers across the country will be covering the cost.
<snip>

Lyft and Uber have been battling California over the state’s new AB-5 gig-worker law that came into effect Jan. 1 and requires many workers considered contractors by their employers to be reclassified as employees and receive employment benefits and protections. Each company has put at least $30 million toward a ballot measure that would overturn the law, and Uber has sued the state, arguing that AB-5 is unconstitutional. Last week, the state filed its own suit, arguing that Uber and Lyft have been misclassifying drivers as contractors and pushing a financial burden onto taxpayers as their drivers collect unemployment benefits from funds the companies have not paid into. - San Jose Mercury News

[Calculating]

1. Sigh

Typical corporate capitalism, socialize the losses and privatize the benefits.

[MichMan]

2. Self employed people don't pay in either, do they?

Aren't taxpayers also shouldering their unemployment payments ?