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 »
Yesterday, a New York Assembly Member and the Independent Drivers Guild (IDG) called for an investigation into ride-hailing company Lyft for allegedly cheating drivers out of certain wages. They claim the company is deducting New York State sales taxes and a “... More »
June 10th, 2018