“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 »
The Supreme Court struck a major blow to public sector unions yesterday. The Janus ruling held that the First Amendment prohibits states from requiring non-union members to pay so-called “agency fees” to the union that represents them. Sharon Block and Ben Sac... More »
On Tuesday, Washington governor Jay Inslee signed an executive order intended to mitigate the fallout from the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Epic Systems. In the order, the governor instructs state agencies to contract only with businesses who can demonst... More »
Some of the hottest questions in labor policy over the past few years have been: how big is the “gig economy” or the “fissured workplace” or the “on-demand sector”? The Bureau of Labor Statistics gave its surprising answer to this question last week: smaller... More »
Tomato pickers and labor activists from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers will protest today outside of Wendy’s headquarters in Dublin, Ohio, during the company’s annual shareholder meeting to demand that the company join its Fair Food Program. The Fair Food ... More »
Professor Estlund argues that if gig firms have to classify their workers as employees (as I believe the law now requires, and as the Dynamex decision makes more likely), those firms will respond by “exercising greater control over hours and scheduling, ... More »
Over twenty-five years after the hit single “Supermodel (You Better Work)” launched RuPaul’s career, the drag queen and pop icon has found a second career as the host, lead judge, and executive producer of the VH1 reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race. Since the ser... More »
We’ll have more complete analysis in the days ahead, but, as Ross reports, the California Supreme Court has issued a decision with major implications for Uber, the gig economy, and the question of worker classification more broadly. In Dynamex Operations... More »
Over the last few weeks, Walmart announced plans to lean more heavily on automation and the gig economy, reports The Atlantic. The piece discusses two ways by which employers, like Walmart, keep wages down. First, by creating platforms for gig workers that all... More »
Last year’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act gave some gig workers — usually classified as independent contractors — a tax cut. But the most vexing tax challenges facing these workers are not high rates but convoluted rules and tremendous compliance obstacles that leave... More »
In advance of Monday’s oral argument in Janus, Bloomberg and the New York Times consider what might become of public sector unions if Abood is overruled. In These Times has a long feature on the advocacy groups who are funding not only Janus but also oth... More »
In Lawson v. GrubHub Inc., No. 15-cv-05128, the Northern District of California ruled that a driver for Grubhub a meal delivery service, was an independent contractor, not an employee. The Court’s used California Supreme Court’s multi-factor test as stat... More »