Gig workers are meant to be independent contractors, but HR professionals’ responsibility for scheduling, productivity, and compensation complicates the picture.
Here’s a riddle: What’s a company that has created 3.5 million jobs worldwide but reports fewer than 23,000 total employees?
Uber, the poster child for the gig economy, drives its business through a network of roughly 1 million independent contractors (“gig workers”) nationwide each year. The company is quick to tell the media and the courts that these workers are contractors—not employees.