Startups Nervous After Uber Ruling in CA

Estimates are that as many as one in 10 independent contractors in the U.S. now work under something resembling the Uber model – as free-lancers who put in as much or as little time as they want, but under a “platform” with strictures formulated by a third party. The recent ruling by the California Labor Commission, which declared an Uber driver to be an employee, has alarmed many of these companies. An article in the Los Angeles Times suggests that pressure is building for regulatory changes, with some new definitions possibly resulting in a third category of worker, the “dependent contractor.”