The federal government has taken another step to further incentivize highly skilled workers to join the gig economy: it has proposed rules that would permit publicly held gig companies to offer equity compensation to their...more
12/2/2020
/ Comment Period ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Equity Compensation ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Skilled Laborers ,
Stocks ,
Wage and Hour
The dust is beginning to settle after California voters overwhelmingly approved a new test for determining whether app-based rideshare and delivery drivers are considered employees or independent contractors, essentially...more
Now that all major media outlets have projected Joe Biden to be our next president, it is natural to begin to wonder what the next four years might look like for the gig economy. Our firm published a detailed assessment about...more
In one of the most closely watched (and most expensive) fronts in the ongoing battle over employment classification of gig workers, California voters appear to have approved Proposition 22, a ballot measure that confirms the...more
11/4/2020
/ Ballot Measures ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
New Legislation ,
Ridesharing ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Rideshare companies in California have now been ordered by an appeals court to reclassify their drivers as employees, threatening to upend the very foundation of the gig economy business model that offers flexibility and...more
The Department of Labor has turned down Congressional calls to extend the time period to receive public comments about the proposed independent contractor rule that would make it easier for gig economy businesses and other...more
Either incumbent Donald Trump or challenger Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president on January 20, 2021 – and the impact on workplace law will be significant. Each candidate has provided us with clues (some subtle, some...more
10/9/2020
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Gig Economy ,
Health Insurance ,
Independent Contractors ,
Joe Biden ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Regulations ,
Medical Leave ,
Misclassification ,
Paid Leave ,
Political Campaigns ,
Political Candidates ,
Presidential Elections ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour
Gig economy companies across the country had a whirlwind September, as legal developments impacting their business models continued to unfold. Here are the five most significant workplace law developments in the gig economy...more
10/7/2020
/ ABC Test ,
Ballot Measures ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Exceptions ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Minimum Wage ,
Misclassification ,
New Rules ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Proposed Rules ,
Ridesharing ,
Wage and Hour
What Happened? The Department of Labor just issued a new proposed rule that would make it easier for workers to be classified as independent contractors.
What Does It Mean? The proposed test – which would take effect...more
Just a few hours before they were subject to a court order forcing them to transform all of their drivers from independent contractors to employees, a California appeals court spared the nation’s two largest rideshare...more
Gig economy companies received bad news yesterday when yet another federal appeals court ruled that delivery drivers – even independent contractors – can escape otherwise valid arbitration agreements. This is now the third...more
8/20/2020
/ Amazon ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employment Litigation ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification
Last week’s successful effort by California’s Attorney General to obtain an injunction forcing two ride-sharing giants to reclassify their drivers as employees may be the beginning of a trend that threatens to create a new...more
A report by Ben Penn in Thursday’s Bloomberg Law casts serious doubt about whether the Department of Labor will proceed with a misclassification rule before the end of this presidential term. We reported last month that the...more
8/14/2020
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Joe Biden ,
Labor Regulations ,
Misclassification ,
Presidential Elections ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour
In an op-ed appearing in yesterday’s N.Y. Times, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi echoes what we have been saying on this blog for quite some time – that it is time for federal and state lawmakers to tear down the existing...more
A California state court judge just handed a potentially groundbreaking loss to gig economy companies across the state by granting an injunction forcing the two biggest ride-sharing companies in the nation to classify their...more
A federal appeals court just handed Grubhub – and gig economy companies in general – a pivotal victory by narrowly interpreting an exception allowing certain transportation workers (including independent contractors) to...more
8/10/2020
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employment Litigation ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
Independent Contractors ,
Interstate Commerce ,
Misclassification ,
New Prime v Oliveira
The formal regulatory notice released July 1st, 2020, is so short and sterile that the average gig economy business could be forgiven for ignoring it: “The Department of Labor is proposing a regulation for determining...more
In a budget deal finalized today and expected to be approved by state lawmakers in a matter of days, the California state legislature has reached an agreement that will see $17.5 million allocated toward enforcement of AB-5...more
San Francisco ratcheted up the pressure on California gig economy companies by not only filing a misclassification lawsuit against DoorDash, but promising that more such litigation was to come against other companies. Upon...more
6/18/2020
/ ABC Test ,
Corporate Counsel ,
DoorDash ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
San Francisco ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unfair Labor Practices
Gig economy workers performing food delivery services in Seattle will receive an extra $2.50 per delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to a first-in-the-nation hazard pay law unanimously passed by the City Council on...more
I was able to virtually attend a session of Albany Law School’s 2020 Warren M. Anderson Legislative Seminar Series last week on “The Gig Economy,” bringing together some of the nation’s foremost thought leaders on the subject...more
6/8/2020
/ ABC Test ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Regulations ,
Misclassification ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
A federal court judge in Massachusetts just rejected Lyft’s attempt to escape the reach of Prong B of the ABC Test, indicating it was “likely” that its rideshare drivers are employees and not independent contractors. The news...more
Not so long ago – 2019, to be exact – in a state not so far, far away – California – lawmakers passed the nation’s most controversial misclassification law to sweep as many independent contractors into employee status as...more
We wrote about this issue several times in 2018, and now we may be about to get answer to a question that could prove critical to the growth—or stagnation—of the gig work labor pool: does performing gig work in between...more
Last week we gave you a seven-step action plan for how gig economy companies can respond to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. A lot has changed in a week, so now it’s time to take a look around the industry to see how gig...more
3/16/2020
/ Compensation & Benefits ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Crisis Management ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Gig Economy ,
Health and Safety ,
Independent Contractors ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Paid Leave ,
Public Health ,
Quarantine ,
Sick Leave ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Safety