Workers who were fighting Proposition 22 kept comparing themselves to agricultural workers and domestic workers.

And I was like, ha, this is so interesting. I wonder what the history looked like. Hello and welcome to Tech Won't Save Us.

I'm your host, Paris Marks, and this week my guest is Vina DuBall.

Vena is a professor of law at UC Hastings, whose work looks at the historical context and

the legal structures that define the gig economy.

She was a vocal opponent of Proposition 22 in California, the ballot measure that was supported

by the gig companies that restricted their workers to contractor status and limited their access

to the rights, benefits, and protections that virtually any other worker in the economy

would have. Vena has been working on a new article called the new racial wage code that puts the

labor model and the legal structure around it of the gig economy in the historical context of the

differential racial wage codes that have existed in U.S. history that essentially

ensured that black workers and that industries that primarily employed black workers,

in particular agriculture and domestic service, were structurally paid less than other

industries and workers. She argues that Proposition 22 and, you know, the broader labor model of the gig economy

fits into this history because so many of the gig economy workers in the United States in particular

are people of color and immigrants. And by denying them employment status and relegating them

to a third kind of labor standard, they are effectively being subjected

to yet another form of this kind of racial wage code. This is a fascinating connection with history

that Vina is drawing here, and I was really happy to have her back on the show to discuss it and its

implications. Before we get to this week's episode, I also want to let you know

about a series that I'll be doing over the next three weeks where I'll be doing two episodes

a week looking at the gig economy around the world. I'll be speaking to guests in Canada, Australia,

...