This is the second part of a two-part post on AB5. A concern that has been articulated about extending generally applicable labor regulation to the platform economy is that such regulation would benefit the big players while making it more difficult for smalle... More »
The battle for the gig economy’s future is underway in California. The fight is over a proposed bill – AB5 – that would classify many gig workers, including Uber and Lyft drivers, as employees for purposes of California employment law. Should AB5 be enacted, g... More »
Last week, a coalition of 75 professors from across the country sent a letter to California lawmakers in support of AB5. AB5, which will soon be voted on in the California Senate, codifies the legal standard articulated in Dynamex v. Superior Court (2018) and... More »
David Streitfeld has a great story in the NYT this morning about life as an Uber driver and the vast distance between what drivers earn and what investors will reap from the firm’s public offering. Drivers: $40,000 in a good year of full time work. Inves... More »
Last spring, the California Supreme Court sent shockwaves through the gig economy with its ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc., in which it held that the so-called ABC test is the appropriate one for determining whether a worker is an independent contracto... More »
The Fifth Circuit recently ruled that the fast-food chain In-N-Out Burger violated the National Labor Relations Act when it prohibited employees from wearing “fight for 15” buttons at work. Amanda Healey wore a quarter-sized button in April of 2015, and a co... More »
“Gig economy” or “online platform” companies that provide personal labor services—Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit, Handy, Instacart, Grubhub, and others—challenge American law’s system for classifying workers as “employees” or “independent contractors, As I explain in... More »
Starting tomorrow, no Costco employee will earn below $14 an hour. While some locations already saw a $13.50 an hour minimum wage, the new mark, which nearly doubles the federal minimum of $7.25, signals that the “fight for $15” is edging forward, and the nat... More »
Over the last couple decades, Amazon has built out an extensive shopping service, making it second nature to order an item and expect it on your doorstep in a couple days. But how many customers know that their deliveries are arriving courtesy of a controversi... More »
Some gig economy startups are eschewing the route Uber and Lyft have taken and are, instead, classifying their workers as employees, not independent contractors. What I’ve referred to in the past as the “poster child” of this strategy is Managed by Q, which be... More »
The New York Times opinion page profiles unemployment “in black and white,” examining the factors driving the phenomenon in which the overall unemployment rate for black Americans (7.4%) is almost twice the overall unemployment rate for white Ameri... More »
South Africa’s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), in an in limine ruling, has found that Uber drivers in South Africa are employees within the meaning of the law. The order is available here. The facts found relevant by the ... More »
June 10th, 2018