Legal Responses to the Rise of the On-Demand Economy in Georgia and the United States

Abstract

Are gig-economy workers “employees” or “independent contractors” for purposes of wage, hour,
employee-benefit, and labor laws? In both Georgia and the U.S. gig-economy work is significant
and rapidly expanding, though precise statistics in both countries do not exist. Similarly, in both
countries, companies providing gig-economy work label their workers as “independent
contractors”, though in many respects the companies’ control over the ways the workers do their
work more closely resembles traditional employment status. In both countries, the law has not
yet caught up to the changing nature of gig-economy work.
After discussing the prevalence and nature of gig-economy work in both Georgia and the U.S.,
this article examines the [thus far inadequate] response to this new type of work. It then reflects
on broader questions such as how the law should systematically attempt to resolve issues
regarding the status of gig-economy workers. For example, should it respond by attempting to
clarify the way that workers are classified and impose existing legal rules on these new-economy
workers? Should it reject classification altogether and instead either expand certain employment
protections to all workers regardless of classification, or divorce such protections from workplace
status entirely? How can countries coordinate their respective labor laws to avoid a “race to the
bottom” of labour standards by multinational employers?