New Jersey Hit Uber with a $650 Million Tax Bill for Misclassifying Workers (UBER)
And the California law and proposed repeal referendum:
Can This Be Right? Uber, Lyft To Spend $90 Million Fighting Califonia Gig Worker Law
It's almost as if raising driver pay threatens the very existence of the companies....
We read that the New Jersey state legislature is considering legislating legislation.
From the hard core Libertarians (and really good high-speed rail analysts) at Reason Mag. November 21:
Critics warn the state is threatening the flexible work arrangements preferred by many workers.
New Jersey has been cracking down hard on the gig economy, with state regulators and lawmakers both trying to put an end to businesses classifying their workers as independent contractors.
App-based businesses like Uber, Lyft, and Doordash make heavy use of contract workers to perform rides or drop off meals. These companies argue their business model helps them keep costs down, while offering people work opportunities that are far more flexible than traditional employment.
Critics contend that these companies are misclassifying their employees as independent contractors to avoid paying standard benefits like unemployment insurance, overtime, and minimum wage.
Those critics include the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, which issued Uber a $649 million fine for unpaid unemployment and disability insurance taxes.
Uber, for its part, argues its drivers are properly considered independent contractors, and that it doesn't owe the state any back taxes.
"We are challenging this preliminary but incorrect determination, because drivers are independent contractors in New Jersey and elsewhere," an Uber spokesperson told The New York Times last week.
A bill pending in the state legislature would clear up this dispute by declaring all Garden State workers, baring a few exceptions, to be employees........MORE
It's almost as if this could become a movement, a movement larger than the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement, which reminds me that, with Thanksgiving approaching, it might be time to adopt the older folks tradition of playing the song.
"This is one of the best anti-war songs ever recorded. Even pro-war people get a kick out of it."
