The most noticeable difference between Uber and other services in my city was the waiting time. 3-6 minutes versus 15-20 minutes.

This is achieved by having a lot of underpaid drivers idling or parked nearby.

Minimum wage kills that advantage.

I see the advantage of a lot of unpaid drivers, but they also aren't morons.

Most Uber drivers say they make good money (all that I've met, too), which imo means better than a minimum wage job like warehousing or w/e.

They wouldn't do the job if it meant idling without pay. They couldn't, as it would just burn money.

And how many of the uber drivers who said they were making good money were good at math? People think lots of things to convince themselves that they are doing ok, when a more objective look says 'maybe not'.

I recall one uber ride I had in Kentucky, driver was a retired accountant. He said he figured he was earning about $2/hr after costs. He said he liked it because it got him out of the house and gave him something to do.

Don't need math when you can't pay for fuel.

The people not making enough quit, as I said.

There seems to be this weird thinking that gig workers are all exploited.

Meanwhile many Deliveroo workers make 2000+/mo in the UK and immigrants in factories get wages withheld for PPE and "damage to equipment" in Germany. Not even speaking about the farm workers.

I don't even care about all this, I was wondering if Uber can make it work legally.

If you do such a thing, then you need to start worrying about local labor laws, vacation time, healthcare in the US, sick leave, etc. The gig economy works by circumventing these things.

Then Uber would have to decide who works when and for how long. Right now it’s controlled by supply and demand through pricing algorithms.

OK, bear with me here. Same system as now, but if you make less than minimum hourly wage (calculated every month), the company covers the difference.

I am pretty sure the drivers would nearly always make more than that.

Or is it illegal to just have employees set their own time/targets?

It gets expensive when drivers game the system. What happens when a driver just stops driving? You have to fire them. Which can take quite a bit of effort. What if a driver calls in sick? You have to check that.

If a driver is an employee, who provides the car?

And who provides the car insurance? And who verifies that that insurance allows commercial use of the vehicle?

oh, whoops, forgot that most uber drivers are on non-commercial car insurance...

Those don't seem like big problems to me, but Uber knows the game better. I just think it could work while being legal.

Okay, now, who pays for the difference?

It's more than just the wage: insurance, HR compliance, employee taxes... hiring is expensive.