Jennifer Rodriguez works two jobs to afford living in the Bay Area. After dropping off her three children at school, she spends most mornings shuttling Uber passengers.

Then the Hayward mother starts a shift delivering marijuana.

Unlike her Uber work, where she’s considered an independent contractor and has to pay all of her own costs, when it comes to slinging pot, she’s a full-time employee, earning $15 an hour plus reimbursement for miles driven and her cell phone use. She’s notched more than 3,000 deliveries in the Bay Area, according to her employer, Caliva, a San Jose marijuana grower and dispensary.

“People might think that the employees smoke weed or are potheads, which — there’s nothing wrong with that,” Rodriguez said. “But a lot of employees just work there for the money, and because it’s a great place to work.”

The gig economy, hailed for freeing workers to set their own hours but assailed for stripping them of benefits and legal protections, doesn’t play much of a role in the state’s burgeoning cannabis sector. That’s because marijuana delivery jobs, under state regulations that took effect in January, must be filled by regular employees, not contractors.

That cut Rodriguez’s take-home pay, but freed her from paying self-employment taxes and covering her own driving expenses. And instead of being a regulatory burden, the requirement has given some marijuana businesses like Caliva an edge in luring drivers away from the likes of DoorDash and Uber.

State and local minimum-wage rules apply to employees, who also are eligible for overtime pay and family and medical leave. And though it’s not required, some Bay Area dispensaries offer health insurance, vacation days and access to 401(k) plans to attract and keep drivers in the fleet. Even if gig businesses wanted to give such benefits to contractors, they legally can’t.

With more than 100 retailers licensed by the Bureau of Cannabis Control to sell and deliver pot in the Bay Area, many are enlisting gig drivers. There’s a huge pool of mobile labor to tap: Uber said it had 148,000 active drivers in California as of December, the last time it released figures.

Caliva, where Rodriguez works, said it has hired away more than 100 drivers from gig companies including Uber, Lyft and DoorDash, though some, like Rodriguez, work multiple jobs. Caliva holds frequent job fairs at its San Jose dispensary and in hotel lobbies as part of an effort to double the fleet by the end of the year.

“The choice for a lot of these people goes well beyond a pretty good product discount,” said Dennis O’Malley, CEO and president of Caliva. “People want to belong to something.”

When new regulations took effect requiring dispensaries to treat drivers as employees, Caliva adjusted by assigning workers fixed shifts and paying them at least minimum wage, while adding benefits like health insurance and 10 vacation days a year and paying employment taxes. Caliva drivers now earn $14 to $16 an hour, depending on their experience.

Rodriguez said she would like to be paid “a little bit more,” but she is grateful to get her family off Medi-Cal and onto better insurance. She’s saving for a home in Las Vegas that she wants to rent out.

Caliva opened a new hub in November that allows it to serve customers as far north as South San Francisco. It does not operate in San Francisco.

Some dispensaries in the city say they are struggling with the cost of delivery.

The Green Cross, which was seen as an innovator when it began delivery service in 2006, opened a storefront in 2013 in the Excelsior district. It stopped offering delivery after nonmedical sales began in January.

“To be frank, the delivery service was not a profitable business model,” Holli Bert, a spokeswoman, said in an email.

Urban Pharm in the South of Market has never delivered because the logistics involved are “beyond our capabilities,” a dispensary spokesman said in an email.

The delivery market is lucrative, said Veena Dubal, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law who focuses on employment and labor law. Labor costs aren’t necessarily the biggest hurdle, though, she noted. Insurance and dealing with lawsuits can be costly, too.

Each Caliva driver receives a dashboard camera, a GPS tracker and documentation that says they are licensed to carry up to $5,000 of marijuana products in their vehicles.

Nicholas Robbins, who gave up delivering food for DoorDash and now works as a Caliva driver, said he received a pamphlet during his training telling him to surrender the lockbox of marijuana in the car if ever confronted by an attacker.

“I feel totally safe,” Robbins said.

Even with benefits and defined shifts, Caliva is facing turnover. Most drivers leave because they prefer setting their own hours like contractors do, said Brandi Cervantes, head of wholesale logistics.

“We’re pretty up-front when we interview,” Cervantes said. “We’re not looking for a ... driver (who) says, ‘Today, I’m turning off the app because I don’t feel like it.’”

Caliva and other retailers use software created by San Francisco startup Eaze to accept orders and assign drivers to those deliveries. Eaze doesn’t employ drivers, but it helps dispensaries with recruiting in order to reduce delivery wait times.

Liliana Carrasco, a San Jose resident, was working as an Amazon delivery driver last year, while a dispensary could still hire independent contractors as drivers. She wanted a job with more flexible hours because she brings her mother to doctor’s appointments in the middle of the week.

For a few months, Carrasco worked as many hours as she liked and chose her schedule. But her favorite part of the job was handing off orders to customers.

“They’re happy to see you,” Carrasco said. “It’s hard to find a job where you don’t get complaints.”

Carrasco joined Caliva after the dispensary where she worked closed. There, she was promoted to driver captain — a role that came with a small pay increase. She accompanies new drivers on their first shifts to help them feel comfortable and answer any questions. On slow days, Carrasco asks to work in the marijuana packing center, where she sticks labels on products or boxes up vaporizers.

Being an independent contractor means “you’re just there when you’re needed,” Carrasco said.

As an employee, “you get to be part of the family.”

Melia Russell is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: melia.russell@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meliarobin