Amazingly, markets even sort out these workers' rights things

We don't need to be paying all that much attention to the newspapers to see that there's something of a fight going on over workers' rights. Uber seems to be on one side of the contractual line where drivers are classified as workers and thus has certain costs it must carry as a result of employing people, Deliveroo on the other side of that same line where all are self-employed.

And, of course, all those costs of employment are going to come out of the workers' wages in the end, as is true of any division of compensation into wages and costs of employment. It isn't though necessary for all of this to be done through the law an the state's definitions:

Founded by Harry Franks, Sten Saar and Stuart Kelly in 2016, Zego has set out to re-invent commercial insurance for self-employed people, with a particular focus on contractors powering various parts of the gig economy. Its first product is pay-as-you-go scooter and car insurance for food delivery workers utilising platforms such as the Deliveroos of the world.

Unlike traditional insurance, which can work out prohibitively expensive as a proportion of income for food delivery drivers who may only work part time and even sporadically, Zego charges by the hour, with drivers only buying cover for when they are logged in to the various on-demand food ordering services they contract for.

We have no brief for this company, indeed know nothing about them other than what is in this source article. But here we do have that private sector, that market lubricated by that thirst for profit, coming in to solve one of these problems. And it's not that difficult to imagine such a service offering other forms of insurance - sickness, say - or a method of saving for holiday pay, pensions and so on. 

Do note again that all of the costs of those things offered by a more traditional employer will be incident upon the workers' wages. So their paying for them directly, if they should wish them, will not impact upon net wages at all over time.

Who would have thought it, eh? Markets unadorned manage what some insist can only be achieved through the heavy hand of the state?