Many Americans (including my children) have been involved in what is called app-based gig work. John Stossel in his latest video says this would include jobs like Rover, DoorDash food delivery, and Uber and Lyft driving.

Unfortunately, progressive activists argue that gig workers don’t always get minimum wage and complain that they rarely join unions. Seattle’s city council had a solution: impose a $26 delivery driver minimum wage. Stossel reports that gig workers made no more money, but prices went up.

Apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats added an additional fee for consumers “to help cover the costs of these regulations.” Now Seattle residents complain about prices. One resident complained, “I ordered a $12 sandwich which grew to $32!” On the video she admitted, “I just deleted the app.”

He interviewed an economics professor who explained, “when you’re increasing cost to businesses, you’re going to increase costs to customers.” These are complicated markets. You must evaluate the costs of restaurants, delivery workers, and customers. The newly elected socialist mayor and the progressive city council cannot factor all those costs. But that doesn’t keep them from trying.

John Stossel interviewed a former Seattle City Council President who admitted this was a mistake but wasn’t ready to repeal the harmful law.  She confidently said they needed to adjust their numbers. A free market and competition are the best way to decide what people get paid.

His video reminded me of the warning economist Friedrich Hayek gave in The Road to Serfdom about politicians and bureaucrats. That road is paved with good intentions, but they make the economic problems worse.