independent contractor

Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist

by Liz Pelly  · 7 Jan 2025  · 293pp  · 104,461 words

of musicians organizing to win.6 This is all despite the fact that UMAW and MWA are not actually unions: because independent artists are technically independent contractors, U.S. labor laws currently prohibit them from unionizing, instead making it so that musicians coordinating boycotts can be deemed illegal cartels. As of this

Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves From the Tyranny of the Automobile

by Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon and Aaron Naparstek  · 21 Oct 2025  · 330pp  · 85,349 words

where people lived, but traffic sewers. The DOT deflected the criticism, saying only that the message boards did not belong to the department but to independent contractors, who were immediately dispatched to reprogram the signs to their original traffic-related messages. Nevertheless, the mysterious hacker—who, in homage to the anonymous British

The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity

by Tim Wu  · 4 Nov 2025  · 246pp  · 65,143 words

the power of any business or frankly any institution. There is no company without its workers, whether they are full-time salaried, part-time, or independent contractors. Yet an individual worker, especially one desperate for a job, is entirely outmatched against a large employer. That first became evident during the Industrial Revolution

Money in the Metaverse: Digital Assets, Online Identities, Spatial Computing and Why Virtual Worlds Mean Real Business

by David G. W. Birch and Victoria Richardson  · 28 Apr 2024  · 249pp  · 74,201 words

have people or organizations who need to receive payments, there will be a need for digital wallets. This is particularly the case in industries with independent contractors who need to get paid quickly. Insurance, healthcare, assisted living and every form of media and entertainment industry are already using digital wallets to improve

Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy

by Alexandrea J. Ravenelle  · 12 Mar 2019  · 349pp  · 98,309 words

. Identifiers: LCCN 2018033918 (print) | LCCN 2018038179 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520971899 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520300552 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520300569 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Precarious employment. | Independent contractors. | Employee rights. | Flexible work arrangements—United States. | Labor—United States. | Labor market—United States. Classification: LCC HD5857 (ebook) | LCC HD5857 .R38 2019 (print) | DDC 331

…

avoid social responsibilities, including workers’ compensation, overtime, and disability accommodations.33 A 2015 Occupational Safety and Health Administration report suggests that temporary workers and independent contractors also receive less training and are more likely to be injured on the job as a result. Although researchers have addressed how classification as an

…

brought by workers of Uber, Lyft, and Handy argue that the restrictions on, and requirements for, workers mean they should be considered employees—not independent contractors. Other suits, such as one against CrowdFlower.com (renamed Figure Eight in 2018), a start-up that breaks digital jobs into tiny tasks performed

…

in the midst of the service pivot and multiple other changes. In September 2015, the service announced that on-demand workers would switch from being independent contractors (1099 workers) to being employees. Workers, who had previously been paid sixty dollars for a shift of up to four hours, had their pay

…

even though the right to organize and form a union was established in the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, most sharing economy workers are considered independent contractors and outside the coverage of the act. As a result, as of this writing, only drivers in Seattle have been granted the right to

…

having changed the world of work for the better. Yet, for all of these improvements, just eighty years later, sharing economy workers—classified as independent contractors—find themselves without any of these protections. And yet, this is only the start of the workplace troubles that gig economy workers often experience. Like

…

s pain is similar to what Ehrenreich wrote about, but whereas Ehrenreich’s colleagues were hourly employees, covered by workers’ compensation policies, Emma is an independent contractor. She is not eligible for workers’ compensation, paid sick leave, or health insurance. If she is injured on the job, she has no recourse.

…

disability accommodations, family leave protections, protection from discrimination, or the right to form unions. The majority of sharing economy services consider their workers to be independent contractors, or 1099 workers, named for the end-of-year tax document they receive that details their income. In addition to freeing companies from the obligation

…

insurance funds or to make an employer’s contribution to Social Security and Medicare (7.65 percent of the employee’s salary), classifying workers as independent contractors allows companies to create a two-tier system in terms of benefits without facing complaints of discrimination. Full-time workers can get 401k contributions,

…

. It’s no wonder that in 2011, the American Bar Association noted that a federal study estimated 3.4 million employees were classified as independent contractors when they should be reported as employees; a 2009 study by the Treasury Department’s inspector general estimated that misclassification costs the United States fifty

…

do with your spine. So I’m hoping this combination of physical therapy and acupressure will allow me to not have to do that.” As independent contractors, Kitchensurfing workers are not covered by workers’ compensation. They also don’t qualify for employer-sponsored disability compensation. “We’re just the hired help

…

any such injuries to themselves or their property. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Not all sharing economy companies embrace the independent contractor model. Some start-ups have made an active decision to pay workers as employees, with all of the protections that entails—and without destroying

…

employees strengthened the company and its reputation by improving customer satisfaction, leading to reduced customer-acquisition costs. MyClean’s CEO, Michael Scharf, explained, “We see [independent contractors] as a legal risk. We also want, for lack of a better word, control—the ability to manage, dispatch, train, have processes in place

…

or engage in money laundering. But the structuring of gig-based employment leaves workers in a precarious situation. By deeming gig economy workers to be independent contractors, companies deny them many of the protections often associated with employees. Since their work is temporary and their numbers are many, companies don’t seem

…

more for labor. They’ve also received pushback from potential investors who have declined to support their company because they weren’t classifying workers as independent contractors. “There was this whole trend at the time because of Uber. ‘Uber for anything . . .’ It was like heroin for VC [venture capitalists]. . . . [T]

…

plan for anything or have any benefits.” Sapone admits that their company could have gone either way in terms of hiring workers as employees or independent contractors. But Sapone and her cofounder disliked the high level of customer and worker churn found in the 1099 model, and they were concerned about

…

fair, the impetus for treating workers as employees is not generally philanthropic. For instance, the office service Managed by Q views its rejection of the independent contractor model as a business strategy. Shortly before creating the service, the founder, Dan Teran, read Zeynep Ton’s book, The Good Jobs Strategy. The

…

their workers as employees or offering their workers stock options and full company involvement? For one, the cost savings from classifying a worker as an independent contractor can be considerable: after factoring in unemployment insurance, workers compensation premiums, Social Security and Medicare contributions, health insurance, and any additional benefits, the savings

…

are able to offer much lower prices than companies that commit to paying an actual wage. The cost savings of deeming workers to be independent contractors creates a perverse incentive for companies to save money on the backs of their workers. It also makes it harder for companies that are

…

worker that’s been misclassified . . . are worse than your chances of finding a leprechaun riding a unicorn.”84 As noted previously, classifying workers as independent contractors reduces payroll taxes, including Social Security contributions, workers compensation, and health insurance premiums. Misclassifying workers can also lead to issues when workers file for unemployment

…

supervises others under a contract pursuant to which the worker agrees to provide material and labor and is only responsible for the result, this indicates independent contractor status. 6. Continuing relationship: A continuing relationship between the worker and the person for whom the services are performed indicates employee status. 7. Set

…

hour, week, or month: Payment by the hour, week, or month generally points to employment status; payment by the job or a commission indicates independent contractor status. 13. Payment of business and/or traveling expenses. If the person for whom the services are performed pays expenses, this indicates employee status. An

…

: The provision of significant tools and materials to the worker indicates employee status. 15. Significant investment: Investment in facilities used by the worker indicates independent contractor status. 16. Realization of profit or loss: A worker who can realize a profit or suffer a loss as a result of the services (

…

available to the general public: If a worker makes his or her services available to the public on a regular and consistent basis, that indicates independent contractor status. 19. Right to discharge: The right to discharge a worker is a factor indicating that the worker is an employee. 20. Right to

…

, to be covered by civil rights laws, and to have taxes deducted from their paychecks. Workers would also have the opportunity to pool with other independent contractors to receive certain benefits, such as disability insurance, retirement accounts, and liability insurance, much like workers who join the Freelancer’s Union. However, under

…

IRS’s 1984 Strategic Initiative, an examination of 3,331 employers for the 1984 tax year, found that 15 percent of employers misclassified workers as independent contractors. The IRS also found that “when employers classified workers as employees, more than 99 percent of wage and salary income was reported. However, when

…

workers were classified as independent contractors, 77 percent of gross income was reported when a Form 1099 was filed, and only 29 percent of gross income was reported when no Form

…

of numerous workplace protections. Implementing my solutions would reduce this risk. ENTREPRENEURS BY CHOICE Under the Time Rule and pajama policy, the category of independent contractor would be reserved for people who were largely self-directed. Workers could opt out of employee status and choose to be entrepreneurs by incorporating, which

…

Passengers to Stop Drinking in Car.” NBC Washington, February 22. Committee on Ways and Means. 2007a. “Hearing on the Effects of Misclassifying Workers as Independent Contractors.” Hearing before the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support and the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures of the Committee on Ways and Means, U

…

. “The Casualization of Intimacy: Consensual Non-Monogamy and the New Sexual Ethos.” PhD. diss. Available from ProQuest, AAI3550956. Griffith, Erin. 2015. “Why Kitchensurfing Made Its Independent Contractors into Employees.” Fortune, September 1. Griswold, Alison. 2014. “In Search of Uber’s Unicorn.” Slate, October 27. ———. 2016a. “The Dirty Secret of Airbnb Is

…

Background Relating to Worker Classification for Federal Tax Purposes (JCX-26-07). Washington, DC: Internal Revenue Service, May 7. Jost, Micah Prieb Stoltzfus. 2011. “Independent Contractors, Employees and Entrepreneurialism under the National Labor Relations Act: A Worker-by-Worker Approach.” Washington and Lee Law Review 68(311). Kahn, Bonnie Menes. 1987

…

, 208 collective bargaining, 64–65, 70, 71 collective consciousness, 32 Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation, 68–69 Commission on Industrial Relations, 93 commission structure model: independent contractor status and, 199–201box 1; Juno/Gett, 190–91; Lyft, 75; TaskRabbit, 6, 80, 185; Uber, 75–76, 184; worker control and, 182 Committee

…

171; worker control and, 64, 171 entrepreneurship: overview, 6, 23, 31; Airbnb and, 44; capital requirements for, 40; democratization of, 5, 6, 34, 186; independent contractor status and, 206–7; inequality and, 38, 183, 186; Kitchensurfing and, 58; for the masses, 5, 6; platforms and, 181–82; reduction of barriers to

…

CrowdFlower financing programs: Santander, 3, 73; Uber, 3, 73 flexibility: overview, 6, 15, 16; addressing need for, 177; in-demand job skills and, 38; independent contractor status and, 111; of Kitchensurfing, 167–68; limits to, 86–87; stigmatization of usage of, 184; successful workers, 10–11, 19, 159 FLSA (Fair Labor

…

guilds, 71 Hacker, Jacob, 37, 181 hackerspaces, 27 Hall, Elaine, 121 Hall, Jonathan, 38 Handy: as exchange of services, 27; homeless workers and, 42; independent contractor status and, 36; lawsuits by workers against, 38; term reinvention and, 29 happy worker model, 178, 190, 207 Harris, Seth, 196, 201, 202 Hart, Keith

…

152, 162, 187, 188, 190; Airbnb and, 72; costs of, 186; Driver Injury Protection insurance, 102; Hello Alfred and, 188; high-deductible plans, 37; independent contractor status and, 94, 190–91, 196; Kitchensurfing and, 59; lack of, 152, 156, 207; Managed by Q, 190; MyClean and, 190; Postmates and, 110–11

…

and, 164–66; Gabriele, 82, 132, 170–71; guest screening, 47, 168–72; host discrimination, 35–36; host-guest interactions, 33–34, 128–31; as independent contractors, 36; Instant Book service, 170; James, 167, 168, 170; Jessica, 165; Joshua, 165, 170, 192–93; landlord-tenant disputes, 230n17; landlord-tenant issues, 222n49

…

; McClean, 189; opportunities for, 23, 157; risks of, 37; TaskRabbit and, 56; of workplace risk, 191. See also piecemeal system overtime: avoidance of, 36; independent contractor status and, 94; paid overtime, 189 overwork, 6, 15–16 The Overworked American (Schor), 16 owner-occupied move-ins, 41 paid time off, 180, 188

…

–84; Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft, 31–36; income rates, 184–85; increasing casualization of labor and the related risk shift, 36–39; increasing social inequalities, 39–42; independent contractor classification, 196–202; pajama policy, 204–5, 206; participant recruitment and methodology, 42–43; promises of, 5, 6, 25, 207–9; protecting workers in,

…

50 UberPeople, 72–73, 225n34 uberPOOL, 27, 105–6 UberRUSH, 127–28 UberTaxi service, 77 Uber workers: Baran, 2–3, 6; Bryan, 78–79; as independent contractors, 36 uberX, 27, 75, 75tab. 2, 77, 78, 107 underemployment, 42, 62, 175 underground economy, 186 unemployment: discrimination against long-term unemployed, 62; long

…

-term unemployed, 11; sharing economy and, 61 unemployment benefits: access to, 187; independent contractor status and, 94; unionization and, 177 unemployment insurance, 120, 191 unemployment rate, 10, 175, 176 unexotic underclass, 231n4 unicorns (startups), 2 unionization: overview, 6,

…

-home arrangements, 66 worker categories, 59, 109–11; Strivers, 10–15; Strugglers, 10–12, 14–18; Success Stories, 10–13, 18–21. See also independent contractors; striving workers; struggling workers; successful workers worker classification: overview, 11–12; employer-employee relationship factors, 199–201box 1; FLSA and, 196; independent worker category, 201

…

, 202; risk and, 36; tax revenues and, 205–6; time rule solution, 202–3. See also independent contractor status worker safety: overview, 6, 22; advanced planning and, 97–100; dangers of driving for hire, 101–4; health issues of driving, 104–6; in

…

109–11; urination issues, 106–9. See also workerplace injuries workers’ compensation: overview, 22; access to, 187, 189; avoidance of, 36; costs of, 191; independent contractor status and, 91–92, 94–95, 96–97, 196; short history of, 92–94 work hours: on-call time, 81–84; erratic nature of, 74

…

16; promise of, 6; social class and, 38; striving workers and, 14–15 workplace injuries: overview, 4–5, 6, 22; financial aspects of, 74; independent contractor status and, 95–97; lack of protective regulations on, 90–92. See also workplace protections workplace issues: overview, 2, 22, 90–92; advanced planning and

Humans as a Service: The Promise and Perils of Work in the Gig Economy

by Jeremias Prassl  · 7 May 2018  · 491pp  · 77,650 words

actually going on from regulators and evade the law. His first example of a ‘pervasive’ arbitrage technique? ‘[F]iring employees and re- hiring them as independent contractors to avoid employment regulation.’36 * * * The Economics of the Gig Economy 21 In that sense, then, employment law—or rather the evasion of employ- ment

…

employment status, on the other hand, is a consistent theme throughout: shareholder value is created by denying workers their legally mandated rights. Classifying workers as independent contractors allows plat- forms to offer services without having to pay for their cost. Responsibility for assets, remuneration, insurance, and tax, as well as the risks

…

today are clear about the indus- try’s commercial focus and courts are increasingly content to ignore sophis- ticated contractual attempts to recast employees as independent contractors. The gig economy’s claims of genuine entrepreneurship and innovation, on the other hand, pose a much more significant challenge: if true, they would leave

…

the ‘Roo’ or Rider Community, instead of a fleet of delivery couriers, are designed to defeat employment law through the contractual reclassification of workers as independent contractors—with less and less success. Cuddly terminology as well as the fictional language used in gig plat- forms’ contracts are increasingly coming under attack. When

…

in late 2015 highlighted, key industry players were often closely involved in drafting the laws—many of which contain provisions designed to classify drivers as independent contractors, beyond the scope of state-level employment law protection.61 In some cases, this is achieved through explicit carve-outs. In Ohio, for example, the

…

- tract’,62 and in Indiana, ‘an Act to amend the [State] Code concerning insurance’ discreetly stipulates that TNC drivers are similarly to be seen as independent contractors by law.63 Other states have included less direct provisions to similar effect. In Texas, legislation stipulates that a TNC ‘does not control, direct, or

…

key element in * * * 48 Doublespeak most employment law tests,64 and in North Carolina, a ‘rebuttable presump- tion exists that a TNC driver is an independent contractor and not an employee’.65 Similar lobbying efforts are by no means limited to the United States. A European Agenda for the Collaborative Economy, published

…

used to provide the underlying service’ should be classified as service providers.66 Even those uncomfortable with the legislative classification of gig- economy workers as independent contractors eschew employment status. At the least radical end of the spectrum, we find proposals to create a ‘third’ employment status for gig-economy workers, located

…

between the traditional categories of employee and independent contractor. Building on the notion that on-demand economy platforms represent a genuinely novel form of work, deserving of its own legal status and regulatory apparatus

…

when these workers communicate online, companies spy on them—and even kick potential troublemakers off their platforms. Moreover, since on-demand workers are frequently considered independent contractors, they aren’t pro- tected by federal labor laws that prohibit companies from retaliating against employees who join together to improve conditions.70 More and

…

consumers and workers. Gig-economy platforms step in to restore choice and control for each of us. To some extent, that is true, of course: independent contractors enjoy much more flexibility than regular employees, who have traded some of their freedoms for stability and protection, and consumers might gain access to hitherto

…

regulation of the labour market hinges on a fundamental trade-off between security and control: employees working under a contract of employ- ment are protected; independent contractors are not. Most countries’ employment laws have adopted a version of this ‘binary divide’ model to structure their employment law, tax, and social security systems

…

wage, and may not illegally discriminate against particular groups in hiring and firing.3 Employers deduct payroll taxes, and contribute to pensions and insurance payments; independent contractors can set higher rates in return for being responsible for their own tax returns and long-term economic security. * * * Playing by the Rules 95 Some

…

simple and far from innovative. This ‘disrup- tion’ is based on contractual misclassification (the simple assertion in plat- forms’ terms and conditions that workers are independent contractors rather than employees) and the increasing use of multilateral work arrangements, * * * 96 Disrupting the Disruptors through the sharing and blurring of employer control between customers

…

very point of the carefully drafted and strongly worded terms and conditions that prospective workers and customers must accept before joining a platform: TASKERS ARE INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS AND NOT EMPLOYEES OF COMPANY. COMPANY DOES NOT PERFORM TASKS AND DOES NOT EMPLOY INDIVIDUALS TO PERFORM TASKS. USERS HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT COMPANY DOES NOT

…

WORK PERFORMED OR THE TASKS IN ANY MANNER.5 Everyone has agreed, it appears, that on-demand platforms are but neutral intermediaries, facilitating transactions between independent contractors and their clients—and thus most certainly outside the scope of local, national, or international employment regulation. But the law isn’t quite so easily

…

been embroiled in misclassification lawsuits. Like many on-demand platforms today, the company exercised tight control over its delivery drivers, whilst maintaining that they were independent contractors. In one of the leading decisions against FedEx, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2014 upheld drivers’ claims that they were employees

…

decision, which caught the attention of journalists and regulators across the world, Judge Snelson was unequivocal in finding that claimant drivers were workers, rather than independent contractors. The language in Aslam, Farrar v Uber was unusually pointed: [87] . . . we have been struck by the remarkable lengths to which Uber has gone in

…

and ACOSS are pursuing Uber for several million euros’ worth of contributions that the platform has refused to pay, insisting that its drivers are but independent contractors.15 Regulators around the world are starting to take notice. A set of interpretative guidelines under the US Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, released

…

of $1 billion.21 The underlying message is clear: however strongly worded, platforms’ denial of employment status will not automatically succeed in classifying workers as independent contractors. Depending on each jurisdiction and claim, the ordin- ary tests of employment and labour law apply to work in the on-demand economy—and, given

…

amount of work avail- able from the employer have nothing to do with the worker’s managerial skill and do little to separate employees from independent contractors—both of whom are likely to earn more if they work more and if there is more work available.26 Because the platform clearly exercises

…

taxes directly to the state, and to deduct (‘with- hold’) a certain percentage of income tax and employment-related insur- ances. As mere intermediaries for independent contractors, gig-economy platforms argue, they should not be subject to either of these obligations. This leads to a direct tax loss: by engaging

…

independent contractors, plat- forms are not responsible for any of the payroll taxes levied on other compan- ies. In many countries, this loss is further compounded by

…

was] forecast to cost [UK] public finances over £5 billion’ per year.24 Tax authorities are increasingly challenging platforms’ insistence that work- ers operate as independent contractors. French social security administrators URSSAF brought a claim for nearly €5 million in unpaid contributions dur- ing a period of 18 months in 2012–13

…

on the employer’s share of revenue; devolution of tax responsibility to individual contractors also makes collec- tion cumbersome and patchy. In the United States, independent contractors have to report their earnings on Income Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1099 (hence the name ‘1099 economy’, which sometimes crops up as a synonym for

…

their so-called vicarious liability—a legal doctrine that holds employers responsible for wrongs committed by their employees.34 Detailed rules vary across jurisdictions, but independent contractor status is nearly always the easiest way of wriggling out of responsibility. This will usually leave the injured consumer or bystander without meaningful recourse, as

…

service quality. Consider working time and minimum wage protection (or wage and hours laws, as they are known in some countries) as an example. An independent contractor who has been on the road for most of a day and decides to put in another few hours to pay her expenses will be

…

workers with state benefits instead? From this perspective, platforms would still be forced to bear the cost of their business activities, but could continue with independent contractor classification. Even if we ignore the practical problems with this approach (remember the difficulties with tax collection chronicled earlier), however, it turns out that employment

…

- enon itself is generally accepted. Oei and Ring, for example, characterize platforms’ decision to classify themselves as mere intermediaries and their ‘affirma- tive adoption of independent contractor classification’ as examples of ‘tax opportunism’, rather than regulatory arbitrage, whilst acknowledging that the overlap between those categories can be significant—‘In some cases, it

…

Coase, ‘The nature of the firm’ (1937) 4(16) Economica 386. Coase sug- gested that the main advantage of hierarchical employment relationships over contracts with independent contractors was the entrepreneur’s degree of control and the resulting decrease in transaction cost, whether in the search, selection and training of workers, or the

…

33. Even platforms themselves might profit. Take competition law as an example: an increasing number of lawsuits allege that if gig-economy workers are genuinely independent contractors, then their use of an app to determine prices would be a clear violation of competition or antitrust law. (See, for an overview, Julian Nowag

…

, 76, 77 Kaplow, Louis 184 illegal practices 57 Kasparov, Garry 1 immigrant workers 77 Katz, Lawrence 16 incentive structures 67–8 Katz, Vanessa 116, 179 independent contractors 21 Kaufman, Micha 17, 145, 149 Independent Workers Union of Great Kempelen, Wolfgang von 1 Britain (IWGB) 113, 179 Kennedy, John F. 135, 185 industrialization

The Gig Economy: The Complete Guide to Getting Better Work, Taking More Time Off, and Financing the Life You Want

by Diane Mulcahy  · 8 Nov 2016  · 229pp  · 61,482 words

instead of employees, a Sisyphean task given the government’s unclear, imprecise, and varying definitions of employee and contractor. Not unexpectedly, the trend of hiring independent contractors instead of employees has become persistent and widespread, and it’s growing. Companies incur lower labor costs, have more flexibility, and can realize greater efficiency

…

may be able to make an employer’s matching contribution if you have set up a separate business entity. Unemployment protection: Self-employed people and independent contractors aren’t required to pay the federal and state unemployment taxes, so they aren’t eligible for the unemployment benefits those taxes cover. Independent workers

…

calls his proposal “libertarianism with a safety net.”15 Allow Contractors to Collectively Bargain The National Labor Relations Act applies only to employees, thus excluding independent contractors from the ability to bargain collectively. In the past, contractor attempts to unionize and bargain have been thwarted by invoking antitrust laws. The argument is

…

. Chamber of Commerce sued the city of Seattle, saying that the ordinance violates antitrust laws.17 California is expected to introduce a similar bill covering independent contractors who work on on-demand platforms. What most of these proposals have in common is that they attempt to improve the current labor market by

…

2. Carre, Francoise, “(In)dependent Contractor Misclassification,” Economic Policy Institute, June 8, 2015. www.epi.org/publication/independent-contractor-misclassification/ 3. IRS, “Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee?” www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Independent-Contractor-Self-Employed-or-Employee 4. U.S. Department of Labor, “Administrator’s Interpretation No. 2015-1,” July 15

…

, 2015. www.dol.gov/whd/workers/misclassification/AI-2015_1.htm 5. www.employmentlawspotlight.com/2014/10/nlrb-adopts-new-test-for-independent-contractor-misclassification-applies-it-to-find-fedex-drivers-are-employees-who-can-unionize/ 6. Christian, Blake E., “IRS Compliance and Enforcement Trends,” Journal of Accountancy, September

…

/09/the-age-of-flex-labor-is-here See also, Cruz, Roberto, “A Class of Their Own? Independent Contractors Causing a Conundrum,” Workforce, September 1, 2015 www.workforce.com/articles/21560-a-class-of-their-own-independent-contractors-causing-conundrum 10. Kitces, Michael, “Why Employee Benefits Will Become Irrelevant,” The Wall Street Journal, April

The Fissured Workplace

by David Weil  · 17 Feb 2014  · 518pp  · 147,036 words

room set-up, overall pace, and quality standards established by Marriott, whose name the property bears. A cable installer in Dayton, Ohio, works as an independent contractor (in essence a self-employed business provider), paid on a job-by-job basis by Cascom Inc., a cable installation company. Cascom’s primary client

…

mandatory social payments (such as unemployment and workers’ compensation insurance or payroll taxes) or to shed liability for workplace injuries by deliberately misclassifying workers as independent contractors.2 Misclassification of this sort is a major problem, particularly in industries like construction and janitorial services. The fissured workplace does not arise only from

…

the act. The definition of “employee” has become a hotly contested issue in recent years, particularly in regard to the reclassification of employees as independent contractors. Since independent contractors are viewed under law as business entities in their own right, they are exempted from minimum wage and overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards

…

of historically responsible employers. Finally, we look at how multitiered subcontracting in the cable industry changed what were once employees of cable media companies into independent contractors. Past as Prologue: Fissured Coal Mines and the “New” Subcontracting Subcontracting was long used in underground coal mining for reasons similar to those found

…

repeatedly, fissuring often leads to more fissuring. In this case, Cascom did not pay its cable installers as employees, but instead set them up as independent contractors. In principle, that meant that each cable installer was a self-standing business that subcontracted the work from Cascom. In reality, however, Cascom determined

…

which homes each so-called independent contractor would visit and how much the contractor could charge (a rate Cascom both set and collected). Cascom precluded installers from taking on new business independently

…

, fined them for work judged (after the fact) to be substandard, and monitored their activities closely.65 The one way Cascom treated installers as independent contractors was by compensating them on the basis of jobs completed rather than hours worked. That meant an installer received the same amount of money whether

…

As the principal contractor, Cascom created its own rigid standards, monitoring, and enforcement systems to see that its subcontractors—in this case individuals employed as independent contractors—met them. By moving installation work outside to the model of contracting created by Cascom, Time Warner ultimately could pay a far lower cost per

…

employed inside the media giant. The case is not unique: many forms of fissured subcontracting end with outer tiers of individuals hired as so-called independent contractors rather than as employees. Independent contracting can be a legitimate form of business organization, but it connotes specific things: that contractors control their own

…

of time for drop-offs and can be docked if packages arrive outside of it or if the company receives complaints from customers. As an independent contractor, the driver is required to purchase a truck (as specified by FedEx) that bears the company logo. In addition to financing the vehicle, the

…

the difference between the fees paid per delivery and the costs incurred for servicing the route, rather than on a salary or hourly rate. As independent contractors, drivers are not covered by overtime or other labor standards or protections against discrimination, health and safety laws, or provisions that would allow them

…

further acknowledges that SLTD’s said audit is in no way intended to waive or release PWV’s I-9 compliance obligations … or alter the independent contractor relationship between the parties.”12 Subcontracting and the Workforce: A Refrain Subcontractors like PWV receive payment on the basis of truckloads completed (or on

…

who sold newspapers in the street on commission) were in fact employees of the Hearst publishing empire despite Hearst’s contention that they were formally independent contractors who purchased papers from Hearst but sold them on their own as “entrepreneurs.” The NLRB decision and the Supreme Court’s affirmation of it

…

led enraged conservatives in Congress to amend the NLRA in 1947 to specifically exempt independent contractors.6 This moved the NLRB and the courts to apply the tests for employment created by common law in deciding on issues of coverage under

…

way work is actually done) versus only the outcomes has important implications as to whether the agent undertaking that activity is an employee or an independent contractor, and therefore whether the principal is liable or not for the actions of the agent. But the important point is that the test itself

…

revenues from Awuah’s clients, deducted royalty fees and interest and principal payments for the loan, and sent the remainder to him. Awuah, as an independent contractor, faced all costs for conducting his business (wages for workers, associated tax, workers’ compensation and other social payments, costs of cleaning materials, insurance, transportation,

…

he and 115 other franchisees were, in reality, employees of Coverall. The suit, brought by his attorney, Shannon Liss-Riordan, questioned the validity of the independent contractor / franchise status of the Coverall agreements given the top-down nature of the relationship among the franchisor, customers, and individual franchisees. If in fact Coverall

…

only the franchisee but also Domino’s Pizza LLC as the franchisor in the suit. Domino, citing case law that typically holds franchisees to be independent contractors, thereby removing franchisors from liability, sought a summary judgment by a trial court to remove it from the suit. Although the trial court granted

…

the burden of proof to an employer to show that an individual is not an employee. Employers must show that an individual designated as an independent contractor is free from control or direction in the performance of work; that the service provided by the individual is outside the normal activities of

…

franchising cases were brought under this Massachusetts statute. Twenty-two states have passed legislation that addresses the classification of workers as independent contractors.54 While a senator, Barack Obama introduced the Independent Contractor Proper Classification Act of 2007. The legislation addresses misclassification by closing tax incentives that make it more advantageous for businesses to

…

Stopping Lowest-Road Employers Egregious Fissuring Some forms of fissuring are clearly directed toward end-running basic employment responsibilities, such as deliberately classifying workers as independent contractors who by all recognizable standards are employees. As discussed in Chapter 8, many states became aware of this problem in the past decade, and

…

others, any current or future business that is covered anywhere under OSHA’s explosives or process safety management standards if that business employs workers or independent contractors.” Additionally, he agreed to “have no involvement in any enterprise that has employees if it is located within 1,000 yards of another business

…

Taxi Workers Alliance in New York City also suggests the possibilities of new organizations and collective actors in the workplace. Because of their designation as independent contractors, taxi drivers are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act. Nonetheless, since 1993 the Taxi Workers Alliance, led by Bhairavi Desai, has brought

…

of a self-standing market which splits further apart. Contractors use subcontractors, who in turn farm out work to individuals who operate as so-called independent contractors. Or, transferred to a franchising model, lead franchisors create regional franchisors, who then sell to local franchisors. Fissuring also spreads. Successful fissuring in one

…

landscaping, computer programming services); • Day laborers: Individuals who get work by waiting at a place where employers pick up people to work for the day; • Independent contractors: Individuals who obtain customers on their own to provide a product or service (and may or may not have other employees working for them). These

…

by companies to work for a specified period of time, such as seasonal workers in the retail sector; • Self-employed workers: Workers not classified as independent contractors (who therefore do not pay payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, and other standard employment costs).8 Using data from the Contingent Worker Survey, the U.

…

categories of contingent work that are closely related to fissured employment grew substantially between 1995 and 2005. In particular, the number of workers classified as independent contractors grew from 8.3 million to 10.3 million, and also increased as a percentage of total employment, from 6.7% to 7.4%.

…

of contingent work in Table 11.1 are less closely aligned with the concept of fissured workplaces. This includes self-employed workers (not categorized as independent contractors) and standard part-time workers. Including those categories when estimating the extent of fissured employment would tend to overstate its extent. For example, many

…

—to attorneys who typically must travel to the home of the borrower. A common practice now is to subcontract this work to lawyers working as independent contractors, compensating them on a per closing basis, rather than assigning lawyers from the firm itself. The assigned attorney is expressly forbidden to offer any

…

, 9, and 10. 12. Direct and control test has become central in the area of misclassification laws regarding whether workers have been incorrectly classified as independent contractors rather than employees. I discuss this in Part III. 13. 29 U.S.C. §§ 201–219 (1994). Not surprisingly, the application of this broad

…

are complementary, but one aspect is not observable, the employer faces a difficult problem in creating a compensation model. Shifting this work to an independent contractor is desirable in such cases in that the payment becomes one more directly related to output of the provider than to the input of the

…

of franchising, it is not the only problematic workplace practice in the janitorial sector. Another common practice is subcontracting janitorial services and classifying workers as independent contractors, similar to the cable installers discussed in Chapter 5. This practice—common in office cleaning in many metropolitan services—can lead to multiple tiers of

…

place pressure on end users (Lerner, Hurst, and Adler 2008). The Wage and Hour Division has also investigated the use of misclassification of employees as independent contractors in janitorial services, including recent investigations in Chicago. See “US Department of Labor Sues Two Chicago-Area Cleaning Companies, Owners to Recover Unpaid Wages

…

information systems, business strategies, and public policies that enable modern lean retailing, see Abernathy and Volpe (2012). 3. The company advertises “independent contractor opportunities” on its website: “If you’re an independent contractor, select from the following links for information about opportunities with the FedEx family of companies.” The choices include FedEx Custom Critical

…

Owner/Operator; FedEx Ground Independent Contractor; and FedEx Home Delivery Independent Contractor (http://www.fedex.com/us/indp/independentcontractors.html, accessed February 8, 2013). 4. This model of retailing has also become common in

…

gain or loss.” For a discussion of this new stream of reasoning and its potential impact on further expanding the legal underpinning for use of independent contractors, see Jost (2011). 8. See Stone (2006) Rogers (2010), and Jost (2011) for related discussions. 9. See Rebitzer (1995) and Wells, Kochan, and Smith

…

liability on the incentives of parties in principal/agent relationships. 14. Arlen and MacLeod note, “Thus vicarious liability creates perverse incentives for principals to prefer independent contractors over employees when the risks fall primarily on third parties in the very situation in which control may be most socially beneficial, when agents are

…

Valley Coal Co. v. Yensavage, 218 F.546 (2d Cir. 1914)). The case is discussed in the context of the more recent decisions regarding the independent contractor status of FedEx drivers in Jost (2011). 51. Definition of “employee” in West Virginia Code, section 21-5-1(b)(1996); definition of “employer”

…

www.dol.gov/whd/workers/misclassification/ for a discussion of joint initiatives between state agencies and the Wage and Hour Division regarding misclassification. 55. The Independent Contractor Proper Classification Act addresses the section 530 safe harbor provision of federal tax law, which is a loophole that allows employers to classify workers as

…

and unemployment insurance, it imposes those costs on the individual worker (and also creates tax compliance problems in many instances). See “S. 2044—110th Congress: Independent Contractor Proper Classification Act of 2007,” GovTrack.us (database of federal legislation), 2007 (see http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/110/s2044/text, accessed September 2

…

Plans and Collective Bargaining.” Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, no. 717. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Jost, Micah Prieb Stoltzfus. 2011. “Independent Contractors, Employees, and Entrepreneurialism under the National Labor Relations Act: A Worker-by-Worker Approach.” Washington and Lee Law Review 68, no. 1: 313–373. Kahn

…

Small Business in Focus: Finance; A Compendium of Research. Washington, DC: Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, 9–38. Perritt, Henry. 1988. “Should Some Independent Contractors Be Redefined as Employees under Labor Law?” Villanova Law Review 33, no. 6: 989–1041. Perrow, Charles. 1984. Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies

…

–282; and politics, 208–209 Independent contracting, 10, 314n37, 314n39, 341n7; in the logistics industry, 161–162; as form of employment, 270 Independent Contractor Proper Classification Act of 2007, 205 Independent contractors, 21, 24, 186, 205, 212, 236; misclassification of workers as, 10; and cable installation, 119–121; FedEx drivers as, 161; and

…

; business model for franchising, 134–136; financial viability of franchising, 136–139; franchising and labor standards, 139–142; evolution of employment structures in, 220; and independent contractors, 327n31; and branding, 327n31; Jan-Pro Franchising International, 133–134; franchising agreement, 134–136 Job polarization, 284–285 Jobs, Steve, 51, 175 Journatic, 277–

The Corruption of Capitalism: Why Rentiers Thrive and Work Does Not Pay

by Guy Standing  · 13 Jul 2016  · 443pp  · 98,113 words

the growing numbers in so-called self-employment, who now account for about 15 per cent of the ‘employed’. Most of the jobs outsourced to ‘independent’ contractors have been low-paid, so the sample used for calculating average wages has shifted towards higher-income employees. And bonuses paid to higher-income workers

…

provided by the platform – development of the technology, administering booking and payment systems and so on. The platforms insist that taskers are not employees but independent contractors, so are not covered by labour laws, entitling them to certain benefits and safeguards, including, in the USA and elsewhere, the right to unionise. Uber

…

goes to great lengths to justify the independent contractor label, describing drivers as part-time ‘driver-partners’ who choose to provide rides using the Uber platform. TaskRabbit’s support centre poses the rhetorical question

…

‘Do Taskers work for TaskRabbit?’ and gives its answer: ‘No, they do not. Taskers are local entrepreneurs and independent contractors who work for themselves. TaskRabbit simply provides the platform for Clients and Taskers to meet. We vet and background-check all Taskers before allowing them

…

business model. This is why Uber agreed a proposed $100 million out-of-court settlement in April 2016 in return for maintaining drivers’ status as independent contractors. At the time of writing the settlement had still to be approved by a judge. When US home cleaning platform Homejoy folded in 2015, the

…

extra income, the change has made this harder, because other commitments restrict availability for tasks. Taskers have to be on call, making their description as ‘independent contractors’ even more far-fetched. As one Facebook comment put it, ‘Anyone left working for TR [TaskRabbit] is an indentured servant … You are not growing your

…

character of work and labour. It is reducing the number of defined jobs by shifting to tasks done by people who are neither employees nor independent contractors. At the same time, it is increasing the number of activities counted as jobs in our misleading labour statistics. By being commodified – made into market

…

firms’ (defined as having between zero and nine employees) came into existence. Many, if not most, will have been formed by self-employed freelancers and ‘independent contractors’. Average income from self-employment fell by 22 per cent between 2009 and 2014, at a time when official statistics indicated that nearly three-quarters

…

used official revenue data to dismiss the impact as trivial, he undermines his claim by noting that ‘failure to report income is very common among independent contractors’. In one respect, the on-demand economy reverses a capitalist mantra. Instead of being owned by capitalists, the main means of production are ‘owned’ by

…

are rentiers, earning a lot for doing little, if we accept their claim that they are just providing technology to put clients in touch with ‘independent contractors’ of services. Thus, Uber and rival Lyft insist they are technology, not transport companies. As platform-based tasking expands, it will be appreciated just how

…

more people below tax thresholds, for example by expanding part-time labour. In many countries, payroll and income taxes are lower for those classified as independent contractors. So, the shift may feed into the austerity agenda by increasing budget deficits and fuelling demands for further cuts in public spending on the spurious

…

from mass-transit transport – buses, trams, tubes and trains – that has lower pollution costs. Then there are safety concerns. If Uber and others allow their ‘independent contractors’ to drive as much as they wish, some may drive more hours than are safe. Limiting hours may not solve that problem if drivers survive

…

to jury trial in June 2016. However, in April 2016, Uber reached an out-of-court settlement with the drivers that maintains their status of independent contractors in return for certain concessions. A ruling by the UK’s Employment Tribunal was also expected in 2016. 18 S. Harris and A. Krueger, ‘A

…

, 2015. 41 In the April 2016 proposed settlement, Uber agreed to ‘facilitate and recognize’ drivers’ ‘associations’. The city of Seattle has passed a law granting independent contractors the right to unionise. Chapter 7 THE CORRUPTION OF DEMOCRACY There is a murkier side to the growth of rentier capitalism: the institutionalised manipulation of

Gigged: The End of the Job and the Future of Work

by Sarah Kessler  · 11 Jun 2018  · 246pp  · 68,392 words

—as important, powerful things so often are—extremely boring, at least at surface level. It was essentially a tax classification. Uber had called its drivers “independent contractors.” This relieved the company from government-mandated employer responsibilities in most countries, and in the United States, where Uber started, it relieved the company of

…

with commitments to contribute to government safety net programs for retirement and unemployment benefits. And they can be difficult to fire when business circumstances change. Independent contractors come with none of these responsibilities. They also do not have the right to unionize under US federal collective bargaining laws, and there’s no

…

more closely. It seemed the site, called Gigster, wasn’t looking for employees to help build the world’s biggest engineering department. Instead, it wanted independent contractors, or “remote talent,” who could work on their own schedules. “The nature of work is changing,” the promo text read. “In the future, companies

…

he wanted to contribute monthly to his retirement savings account, and his expected taxes, which would double once he made the switch from employee to independent contractor. Then he browsed through Gigster’s website, which listed available jobs and their compensation, to estimate how much he would need to work in order

…

X” entrepreneurs were solving the service portion of their businesses in a similar way. Though some hired subcontractors, like Managed by Q, and some hired independent contractors, like Uber, the misconception behind both strategies was similar: “We’d build this beautiful interface, and of course the cleaning just happens,” Saman remembered thinking

…

calls “independent business operators” (IBOs), who in turn hire the people who actually answer phones. Terrence had found an IBO that was looking for new independent contractors. On the website of Gary’s new employer, under a slideshow of white women in headsets with too much makeup and photoshopped white teeth, an

…

graphic designers, journalists, movie production crews, programmers—and those with less scarce skills, like house cleaners and drivers and Mechanical Turk workers. As a group, independent contractors earn more than employees who do similar work. Many of them are highly skilled freelancers like Curtis, the New York City–based programmer, and make

…

that there are several reasons workers’ pay and benefits are stronger when workers are permanent employees at a larger company than when they work as independent contractors, for a contractor, or for a temp agency. He writes: Large firms employing a wide spectrum of workers—from highly trained engineers and professional

…

$90, NELP reported to a US Senate Committee, “The stores said the workers were not their employees, and the labor brokers said the deliverymen were independent contractors.”14 * * * Gig economy champions are fond of touting data that shows that workers like flexibility. But this data doesn’t take into consideration how

…

develop a reputation for providing great service, so that customers would begin to rely on them. On the other, their lawyers advised them that providing independent contractors with training, uniforms, benefits, or regular work shifts—that is, the things that produce happy, well-trained employees—could put the companies at risk of

…

which could force them to make an expensive shift to employees. In the United States, there’s no single test that determines whether workers are independent contractors or employees—it’s different in different states and under different laws. And similarly in Europe, laws are often so complicated that there’s no

…

clear-cut way to define who is truly independent. Generally speaking, independent contractors should decide how to complete work, have potential for profit or loss, and, because they take on these responsibilities, have some bargaining power in contracts

…

up. Zirtual, a company that provided virtual assistants, said one reason it laid off hundreds of workers in 2015 was because it had switched from independent contractors to employees (the company was acquired soon after the switch). “All of these on-demand shared economy companies that have been built up all have

…

asked. “We’re like Uber for the home.” She started another video, this one in which the featured cleaner had a British accent. “Being an independent contractor, for me, it just means freedom and flexibility,” a version of the previously featured woman explained. Next Carol flipped to slides that explained how the

…

(a spokesperson for the company told me it has since stopped this practice). Carol did what she could to keep the conversation about supplies in “independent contractor” territory: “These are optional to take; this is your business, you are responsible for supplies.” Along with cleaning supplies, the bag held branded blue marketing

…

woman wearing a skirt in the front row. “Don’t call us,” Carol automatically corrected. * * * Uber was extremely shrewd at finding new ways to manage independent contractors through its app. “Employing hundreds of social scientists and data scientists,” wrote the New York Times in 2017, “Uber has experimented with video game techniques

…

, looked a lot like the old process of cheating workers by misclassifying them. In January 2015, workers for Instacart, a gig economy company that sent independent contractors shopping on behalf of its customers, filed a lawsuit that alleged the company’s employment practices were “unethical, oppressive and unscrupulous” (the case was subsequently

…

of a long change in how companies structured their workforces. Not a solution, but a problem in need of one. * * * Categories like temp worker and independent contractor put divisions between companies and workers who provide them with labor. Gig economy apps widened these divisions. Without the need to manage people face-to

…

. Instacart, a startup that delivers groceries and once relied entirely on independent workers, also made the decision to hire workers rather than rely solely on independent contractors. “This is something that people need to be trained on and coached on, on a regular basis,” said Apoorva Mehta, the CEO.18 Ultimately,

…

our couriers, which we believe will ultimately create the best experience for our customers.”19 Delivery restaurants Munchery and Sprig also switched their couriers from independent contractors to employees shortly after launching. The gig economy remained prevalent, both in Silicon Valley and beyond, and some of the startups that switched away from

…

using independent contractors failed even after hiring employees. But Managed by Q had to some extent proved the Good Jobs Strategy could work. Running Managed by Q was

…

like a gambling addict. “I kept boosting. I kept seeing results. I kept doubling the budget, tripling the budget, quadrupling the budget.” Uber drivers, as independent contractors, couldn’t join a traditional union. But with this extra help from social media, what Abe imagined to be a different kind of labor movement

…

employees, and as employees, they could organize under federal collective bargaining laws. The second was to find some way outside of those laws to organize independent contractors. A local chapter of the Teamsters in Seattle lobbied for a law that would allow Uber drivers to form a union. It passed. (Shortly later

…

executive director Bhairavi Desai called it a “historic betrayal” and promptly filed a lawsuit with ten Uber drivers that accused Uber of misclassifying workers as independent contractors.17 Abdoul Diallo, the Uber driver who helped organize other drivers in New York, said the Drivers’ Guild sounded “bogus,”18 and he encouraged drivers

…

all aspects of independent workers’ economic security.”31 Their solution was one that other countries had already adopted: a third employment category between employees and independent contractors. As they envisioned it, this third category of workers would allow gig economy companies to purchase and administer certain benefits for workers without worrying about

…

well as similar categories in Italy, Spain, and Canada, often argue that these classifications just intensify the problem: that with another option between employees and independent contractors, employers find more loopholes for opting out of the laws and benefits associated with traditional employment. Still, the idea of creating a new type of

…

fund—which he or she could put toward benefits like life insurance and dental care—and, as a result, be certain the workers would remain independent contractors. The independent contractor classification would apply to even work done previously for the company, essentially removing Handy’s risk of misclassification lawsuits. Hiring employees can cost 20

…

% to 30% more than hiring independent contractors. Social Security and Medicare payments alone cost 7.65% of a worker’s pay. By comparison, Handy had proposed companies divert at least 2.5

…

opposed the plan worried that it would look to some on-demand companies like a bargain; that it would allow them to classify workers as independent contractors (albeit, independent contractors who had access to small benefits funds) when they would be more properly categorized as employees, who have more rights and protections. Others who

…

the Affordable Care Act (ideally, healthcare would fall into the insurance benefit category, but that is a larger battle).”37 In this version, contributing to independent contractors’ benefits would not be a choice. Benefits would accrue to all workers regardless of classification. If someone worked 20 hours for one employer, that employer

…

and handyman services. Dan’s version served offices and relied on employees. Handy’s customers were households and its cleaners and handymen were classified as independent contractors. Despite these completely different approaches, it was hard to say from a business perspective which company had turned out to be more successful. Managed by

…

who worried about misclassification lawsuits and would rather hire temporary employees than freelancers. Adding mobile technology to the process makes using both temp labor and independent contractors easier, more efficient, and ultimately applicable in more situations. Is this a bad thing? Maybe not. Gig economy boosters often point out that between 70

…

for instance, not well-paid professionals who can likely afford to create their own safety nets, but couriers. As the potential for companies to use independent contractors expands with mobile technology and automation, it’s possible that workers could regard new types of piecemeal labor as being more like temp work. Unlike

…

Act? After Donald Trump was elected president, congressional Republicans made it clear they planned to repeal the US law, which made it easier for the independent contractors that Handy relied on to buy their own insurance. Oisin didn’t answer the question. “There’s a massive amount of uncertainty,” he said.

…

one pilot program somewhat similarly to the Black Car Fund in New York, which provides more than 70,000 livery drivers—typically, like Uber drivers, independent contractors—with workers’ compensation insurance via a 2.5% surcharge on every ride. The customer pays into the fund, rather than the dispatcher. Uber’s

…

It offered a $5 monthly discount to drivers for Lyft, which introduced it in a blog post as “an easy, affordable investing platform built with independent contractors in mind.”8 (Goldman Sachs acquired Honest Dollar four months later.) An organization called Peers.org aimed to collect these sorts of services onto a

…

results paled in comparison to the security of a traditional full-time job with benefits, and, second, that they involved a choice. Companies that hired independent contractors could choose whether to participate in a benefits fund like the one Peers.org had envisioned. They could choose to ensure contract workers were paid

…

/.) The National Domestic Workers Alliance, a worker advocacy group, organized nannies, elder caretakers, home cleaners, and other domestic workers, all of whom tended to be independent contractors. Instead of union dues, the organization mostly ran on grants. A non-traditional union founded in 2003, called the Freelancers Union, advocated for another form

…

Warren Slams Uber and Lyft. Financial Times. May 19, 2016. https://www.ft.com/content/abc00336-1de1-11e6-b286-cddde55ca122. 25   Trottman, Melanie. Employees vs. Independent Contractors: U.S. Weighs in on Debate over How to Classify Workers. The Wall Street Journal. July 15, 2015. https://www.wsj.com/articles/labor-department

…

) ecommerce Economic Policy Institute (EPI) Elance (freelance marketplace). See also Upwork Employee Benefits Security Administration (US Department of Labor) employees alternatives to current classification of independent contractors versus at Instagram Managed by Q and misclassification of retention rights of social safety nets and Uber and unionizing and Etsy (ecommerce website) Even (income

…

capital investment and continued relevance of cooperatives decline of earnings employee model and flexibility and freedom and future of healthcare and history of independence and independent contractors and insecurity and instability and jury duty and lawsuits and Medicare politics and portable benefits and ratings systems retirement security and as safety net socioeconomics

…

ratings scale worker rates and benefits worker retention worker training Hanley, Dervala Hanrahan, Oisin Harris, Seth Hayek, Friedrich healthcare Affordable Care Act in Canada COBRA independent contractors and Medicare Hermes UK (delivery service) Highlight (social networking app) Holmberg, Susan Homejoy (home-cleaning service) household income H.U.G. (Helping You Grow) Hughes

…

, Chris Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) Husein, Mamdooh (“Abe”) iCEO (automated management system) IKEA Inc. (magazine) independent business operators (IBOs) independent contractors alternatives to current classification of Arise and category of definition of earnings employees versus Gigster and misclassification of switch to employee model from Uber and

…

of change affiliate marketing program driver-led activism and protests Drivers’ Guild and FTC charges of exaggerated earnings funding growth of guaranteed fares history of independent contractor model lawsuits and legal issues “No shifts. No boss. No limits” pitch Pandora partnership politics and price war with Lyft rating system self-driving cars

Empire of Guns

by Priya Satia  · 10 Apr 2018  · 927pp  · 216,549 words

Uberland: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Rules of Work

by Alex Rosenblat  · 22 Oct 2018  · 343pp  · 91,080 words

J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2014

by J. K. Lasser  · 5 Oct 2013  · 1,845pp  · 567,850 words

The World's First Railway System: Enterprise, Competition, and Regulation on the Railway Network in Victorian Britain

by Mark Casson  · 14 Jul 2009  · 556pp  · 46,885 words

J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2022: For Preparing Your 2021 Tax Return

by J. K. Lasser Institute  · 21 Dec 2021

Sleeping Giant: How the New Working Class Will Transform America

by Tamara Draut  · 4 Apr 2016  · 255pp  · 75,172 words

The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century

by Steve Coll  · 29 Mar 2009  · 769pp  · 224,916 words

Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (And Why We Don't Talk About It)

by Elizabeth S. Anderson  · 22 May 2017  · 205pp  · 58,054 words

Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire

by Brad Stone  · 10 May 2021  · 569pp  · 156,139 words

J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2016: For Preparing Your 2015 Tax Return

by J. K. Lasser Institute  · 19 Oct 2015

From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry

by Martin Campbell-Kelly  · 15 Jan 2003

Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris

by Richard Kluger  · 1 Jan 1996  · 1,157pp  · 379,558 words

The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism

by Arun Sundararajan  · 12 May 2016  · 375pp  · 88,306 words

Stacy Mitchell

by Big-Box Swindle The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses (2006)

Death of the Liberal Class

by Chris Hedges  · 14 May 2010  · 422pp  · 89,770 words

Economic Dignity

by Gene Sperling  · 14 Sep 2020  · 667pp  · 149,811 words

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

by Jane Mayer  · 19 Jan 2016  · 558pp  · 168,179 words

The Gig Economy: A Critical Introduction

by Jamie Woodcock and Mark Graham  · 17 Jan 2020  · 207pp  · 59,298 words

Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley From Building a New Global Underclass

by Mary L. Gray and Siddharth Suri  · 6 May 2019  · 346pp  · 97,330 words

J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax

by J K Lasser Institute  · 30 Oct 2012  · 2,045pp  · 566,714 words

The Laundromat : Inside the Panama Papers, Illicit Money Networks, and the Global Elite

by Jake Bernstein  · 14 Oct 2019  · 470pp  · 125,992 words

The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World

by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian  · 7 Oct 2024  · 336pp  · 104,899 words

Peers Inc: How People and Platforms Are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism

by Robin Chase  · 14 May 2015  · 330pp  · 91,805 words

The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security

by Deborah D. Avant  · 17 Oct 2010  · 872pp  · 135,196 words

Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield

by Jeremy Scahill  · 22 Apr 2013  · 1,117pp  · 305,620 words

The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy

by Peter Temin  · 17 Mar 2017  · 273pp  · 87,159 words

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army

by Jeremy Scahill  · 1 Jan 2007  · 924pp  · 198,159 words

The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government

by David Talbot  · 5 Sep 2016  · 891pp  · 253,901 words

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

by Cheryl Mendelson  · 4 Nov 1999  · 1,631pp  · 468,342 words

WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us

by Tim O'Reilly  · 9 Oct 2017  · 561pp  · 157,589 words

The Vietnam War: An Intimate History

by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns  · 4 Sep 2017  · 1,433pp  · 315,911 words

Culture & Empire: Digital Revolution

by Pieter Hintjens  · 11 Mar 2013  · 349pp  · 114,038 words

Chokepoint Capitalism

by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow  · 26 Sep 2022  · 396pp  · 113,613 words

Inner Entrepreneur: A Proven Path to Profit and Peace

by Grant Sabatier  · 10 Mar 2025  · 442pp  · 126,902 words

Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves From the American Dream

by Alissa Quart  · 14 Mar 2023  · 304pp  · 86,028 words

The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People - and the Fight for Our Future

by Alec Ross  · 13 Sep 2021  · 363pp  · 109,077 words

The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against Al-Qaeda

by Ali H. Soufan and Daniel Freedman  · 11 Sep 2011  · 624pp  · 189,582 words

Riding for Deliveroo: Resistance in the New Economy

by Callum Cant  · 11 Nov 2019  · 196pp  · 55,862 words

Who Stole the American Dream?

by Hedrick Smith  · 10 Sep 2012  · 598pp  · 172,137 words

Construction Project Management

by S. Keoki Sears  · 7 Feb 2015

System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot

by Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami and Jeremy M. Weinstein  · 6 Sep 2021

How to Fix the Future: Staying Human in the Digital Age

by Andrew Keen  · 1 Mar 2018  · 308pp  · 85,880 words

Gamers at Work: Stories Behind the Games People Play

by Morgan Ramsay and Peter Molyneux  · 28 Jul 2011  · 500pp  · 146,240 words

The Sovereign Individual: How to Survive and Thrive During the Collapse of the Welfare State

by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg  · 3 Feb 1997  · 582pp  · 160,693 words

Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection

by Jacob Silverman  · 17 Mar 2015  · 527pp  · 147,690 words

What Went Wrong: How the 1% Hijacked the American Middle Class . . . And What Other Countries Got Right

by George R. Tyler  · 15 Jul 2013  · 772pp  · 203,182 words

What's Yours Is Mine: Against the Sharing Economy

by Tom Slee  · 18 Nov 2015  · 265pp  · 69,310 words

The Docks

by Bill Sharpsteen  · 5 Jan 2011  · 326pp  · 29,543 words

Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity

by Douglas Rushkoff  · 1 Mar 2016  · 366pp  · 94,209 words

The Business of Platforms: Strategy in the Age of Digital Competition, Innovation, and Power

by Michael A. Cusumano, Annabelle Gawer and David B. Yoffie  · 6 May 2019  · 328pp  · 84,682 words

Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War

by James Risen  · 15 Feb 2014  · 339pp  · 99,674 words

Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It?

by Brett Christophers  · 17 Nov 2020  · 614pp  · 168,545 words

Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America

by Henry Petroski  · 2 Jan 1995

Make Your Own Job: How the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic Exhausted America

by Erik Baker  · 13 Jan 2025  · 362pp  · 132,186 words

Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation

by Anne Helen Petersen  · 14 Jan 2021  · 297pp  · 88,890 words

Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World

by Joseph Menn  · 3 Jun 2019  · 302pp  · 85,877 words

Competition Overdose: How Free Market Mythology Transformed Us From Citizen Kings to Market Servants

by Maurice E. Stucke and Ariel Ezrachi  · 14 May 2020  · 511pp  · 132,682 words

Virtual Competition

by Ariel Ezrachi and Maurice E. Stucke  · 30 Nov 2016

Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World

by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott  · 9 May 2016  · 515pp  · 126,820 words

The Lonely Century: How Isolation Imperils Our Future

by Noreena Hertz  · 13 May 2020  · 506pp  · 133,134 words

Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People and Planet

by Klaus Schwab and Peter Vanham  · 27 Jan 2021  · 460pp  · 107,454 words

The Job: The Future of Work in the Modern Era

by Ellen Ruppel Shell  · 22 Oct 2018  · 402pp  · 126,835 words

Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes

by Mark Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne  · 5 Sep 2007  · 458pp  · 134,028 words

Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age

by Leslie Berlin  · 7 Nov 2017  · 615pp  · 168,775 words

The Network Imperative: How to Survive and Grow in the Age of Digital Business Models

by Barry Libert and Megan Beck  · 6 Jun 2016  · 285pp  · 58,517 words

Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, a New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet

by Trebor Scholz and Nathan Schneider  · 14 Aug 2017  · 237pp  · 67,154 words

Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy--And How to Make Them Work for You

by Sangeet Paul Choudary, Marshall W. van Alstyne and Geoffrey G. Parker  · 27 Mar 2016  · 421pp  · 110,406 words

After the Gig: How the Sharing Economy Got Hijacked and How to Win It Back

by Juliet Schor, William Attwood-Charles and Mehmet Cansoy  · 15 Mar 2020  · 296pp  · 83,254 words

Value of Everything: An Antidote to Chaos The

by Mariana Mazzucato  · 25 Apr 2018  · 457pp  · 125,329 words

The Smartphone Society

by Nicole Aschoff

Internet for the People: The Fight for Our Digital Future

by Ben Tarnoff  · 13 Jun 2022  · 234pp  · 67,589 words

Rockonomics: A Backstage Tour of What the Music Industry Can Teach Us About Economics and Life

by Alan B. Krueger  · 3 Jun 2019

The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway

by Doug Most  · 4 Feb 2014  · 485pp  · 143,790 words

5 Day Weekend: Freedom to Make Your Life and Work Rich With Purpose

by Nik Halik and Garrett B. Gunderson  · 5 Mar 2018  · 290pp  · 72,046 words

The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea

by Steve Levine  · 23 Oct 2007  · 568pp  · 162,366 words

Stealth of Nations

by Robert Neuwirth  · 18 Oct 2011  · 340pp  · 91,387 words

We Are All Fast-Food Workers Now: The Global Uprising Against Poverty Wages

by Annelise Orleck  · 27 Feb 2018  · 382pp  · 107,150 words

The Rise of the Network Society

by Manuel Castells  · 31 Aug 1996  · 843pp  · 223,858 words

The Winner-Take-All Society: Why the Few at the Top Get So Much More Than the Rest of Us

by Robert H. Frank, Philip J. Cook  · 2 May 2011

The Pursuit of Power: Europe, 1815-1914

by Richard J. Evans  · 31 Aug 2016  · 976pp  · 329,519 words

The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class

by Guy Standing  · 27 Feb 2011  · 209pp  · 89,619 words

Not Working: Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone?

by David G. Blanchflower  · 12 Apr 2021  · 566pp  · 160,453 words

The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition

by Jonathan Tepper  · 20 Nov 2018  · 417pp  · 97,577 words

After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made

by Ben Rhodes  · 1 Jun 2021  · 342pp  · 114,118 words

You've Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All

by Adrian Hon  · 14 Sep 2022  · 371pp  · 107,141 words

Digital Barbarism: A Writer's Manifesto

by Mark Helprin  · 19 Apr 2009  · 272pp  · 83,378 words

Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong About the Future of Transportation

by Paris Marx  · 4 Jul 2022  · 295pp  · 81,861 words

Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology

by Anu Bradford  · 25 Sep 2023  · 898pp  · 236,779 words

A Hacker's Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society's Rules, and How to Bend Them Back

by Bruce Schneier  · 7 Feb 2023  · 306pp  · 82,909 words

The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier

by Ian Urbina  · 19 Aug 2019

The People's Republic of Walmart: How the World's Biggest Corporations Are Laying the Foundation for Socialism

by Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski  · 5 Mar 2019  · 202pp  · 62,901 words

Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom

by Grace Blakeley  · 11 Mar 2024  · 371pp  · 137,268 words

Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It

by Cory Doctorow  · 6 Oct 2025  · 313pp  · 94,415 words

Exponential: How Accelerating Technology Is Leaving Us Behind and What to Do About It

by Azeem Azhar  · 6 Sep 2021  · 447pp  · 111,991 words

Marx at the Arcade: Consoles, Controllers, and Class Struggle

by Jamie Woodcock  · 17 Jun 2019  · 236pp  · 62,158 words

We Are the Nerds: The Birth and Tumultuous Life of Reddit, the Internet's Culture Laboratory

by Christine Lagorio-Chafkin  · 1 Oct 2018

Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy

by Andrew Yang  · 15 Nov 2021

Travel While You Work: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Business From Anywhere

by Mish Slade  · 13 Aug 2015  · 288pp  · 66,996 words

A Pelican Introduction: Basic Income

by Guy Standing  · 3 May 2017  · 307pp  · 82,680 words

Interplanetary Robots

by Rod Pyle

Work Less, Live More: The Way to Semi-Retirement

by Robert Clyatt  · 28 Sep 2007

Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey Into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley

by Corey Pein  · 23 Apr 2018  · 282pp  · 81,873 words

The Purpose Economy: How Your Desire for Impact, Personal Growth and Community Is Changing the World

by Aaron Hurst  · 31 Aug 2013  · 209pp  · 63,649 words

The End of Policing

by Alex S. Vitale  · 9 Oct 2017  · 318pp  · 82,452 words

How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

by Harry Browne  · 1 Jan 1973  · 312pp  · 114,586 words

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

by Jessica Bruder  · 18 Sep 2017  · 273pp  · 85,195 words

The Costs of Connection: How Data Is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism

by Nick Couldry and Ulises A. Mejias  · 19 Aug 2019  · 458pp  · 116,832 words

Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People and Planet

by Klaus Schwab  · 7 Jan 2021  · 460pp  · 107,454 words

Superminds: The Surprising Power of People and Computers Thinking Together

by Thomas W. Malone  · 14 May 2018  · 344pp  · 104,077 words

The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World

by Jay Bahadur  · 18 Jul 2011  · 286pp  · 87,870 words

The Search for Life on Mars

by Elizabeth Howell  · 14 Apr 2020  · 530pp  · 145,220 words

Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech

by Brian Merchant  · 25 Sep 2023  · 524pp  · 154,652 words

Don't Be Evil: How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles--And All of US

by Rana Foroohar  · 5 Nov 2019  · 380pp  · 109,724 words

Work Optional: Retire Early the Non-Penny-Pinching Way

by Tanja Hester  · 12 Feb 2019  · 231pp  · 76,283 words

The Tylenol Mafia

by Scott Bartz  · 21 Sep 2011  · 756pp  · 167,393 words

The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention

by William Rosen  · 31 May 2010  · 420pp  · 124,202 words

Bezonomics: How Amazon Is Changing Our Lives and What the World's Best Companies Are Learning From It

by Brian Dumaine  · 11 May 2020  · 411pp  · 98,128 words

Unacceptable: Privilege, Deceit & the Making of the College Admissions Scandal

by Melissa Korn and Jennifer Levitz  · 20 Jul 2020  · 520pp  · 134,627 words

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

by George Packer  · 4 Mar 2014  · 559pp  · 169,094 words

Lessons-Learned-in-Software-Testing-A-Context-Driven-Approach

by Anson-QA

How to Form Your Own California Corporation

by Anthony Mancuso  · 2 Jan 1977

Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America's Favorite Food

by Steve Striffler  · 24 Jul 2007  · 208pp  · 51,277 words

Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age

by Duncan J. Watts  · 1 Feb 2003  · 379pp  · 113,656 words

Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

by Paul Jarvis  · 1 Jan 2019  · 258pp  · 74,942 words

Red-Blooded Risk: The Secret History of Wall Street

by Aaron Brown and Eric Kim  · 10 Oct 2011  · 483pp  · 141,836 words

Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future

by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson  · 26 Jun 2017  · 472pp  · 117,093 words

The Story of Stuff: The Impact of Overconsumption on the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-And How We Can Make It Better

by Annie Leonard  · 22 Feb 2011  · 538pp  · 138,544 words

The New Class Conflict

by Joel Kotkin  · 31 Aug 2014  · 362pp  · 83,464 words

Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain

by James Bloodworth  · 1 Mar 2018  · 256pp  · 79,075 words

Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets

by John McMillan  · 1 Jan 2002  · 350pp  · 103,988 words

The Introvert Entrepreneur: Amplify Your Strengths and Create Success on Your Own Terms

by Beth Buelow  · 3 Nov 2015  · 261pp  · 71,349 words

The Right to Earn a Living: Economic Freedom and the Law

by Timothy Sandefur  · 16 Aug 2010  · 399pp  · 155,913 words

Darwin Among the Machines

by George Dyson  · 28 Mar 2012  · 463pp  · 118,936 words

Rewriting the Rules of the European Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity

by Joseph E. Stiglitz  · 28 Jan 2020  · 408pp  · 108,985 words

More: The 10,000-Year Rise of the World Economy

by Philip Coggan  · 6 Feb 2020  · 524pp  · 155,947 words

An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination

by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang  · 12 Jul 2021  · 372pp  · 100,947 words

Leviathan Wakes

by James S. A. Corey  · 14 Jun 2011  · 648pp  · 170,770 words

Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech

by Geoffrey Cain  · 15 Mar 2020  · 540pp  · 119,731 words

Confessions of a Crypto Millionaire: My Unlikely Escape From Corporate America

by Dan Conway  · 8 Sep 2019  · 218pp  · 68,648 words

Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism

by Premilla Nadasen  · 10 Oct 2023  · 288pp  · 82,972 words

Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires

by Douglas Rushkoff  · 7 Sep 2022  · 205pp  · 61,903 words

Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice

by Jamie K. McCallum  · 15 Nov 2022  · 349pp  · 99,230 words

The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze

by Laura Shin  · 22 Feb 2022  · 506pp  · 151,753 words

The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation

by Carl Benedikt Frey  · 17 Jun 2019  · 626pp  · 167,836 words

Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door -- Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy

by Christopher Mims  · 13 Sep 2021  · 385pp  · 112,842 words

The New Class War: Saving Democracy From the Metropolitan Elite

by Michael Lind  · 20 Feb 2020

Work in the Future The Automation Revolution-Palgrave MacMillan (2019)

by Robert Skidelsky Nan Craig  · 15 Mar 2020

Amazon: How the World’s Most Relentless Retailer Will Continue to Revolutionize Commerce

by Natalie Berg and Miya Knights  · 28 Jan 2019  · 404pp  · 95,163 words

The Capitalist Manifesto

by Johan Norberg  · 14 Jun 2023  · 295pp  · 87,204 words

Data Science for Business: What You Need to Know About Data Mining and Data-Analytic Thinking

by Foster Provost and Tom Fawcett  · 30 Jun 2013  · 660pp  · 141,595 words

One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility

by Zack Furness and Zachary Mooradian Furness  · 28 Mar 2010  · 532pp  · 155,470 words

Lifestyle Entrepreneur: Live Your Dreams, Ignite Your Passions and Run Your Business From Anywhere in the World

by Jesse Krieger  · 2 Jun 2014  · 189pp  · 52,741 words

Platform Capitalism

by Nick Srnicek  · 22 Dec 2016  · 116pp  · 31,356 words

Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America

by Alissa Quart  · 25 Jun 2018  · 320pp  · 90,526 words

Faster, Higher, Farther: How One of the World's Largest Automakers Committed a Massive and Stunning Fraud

by Jack Ewing  · 22 May 2017  · 434pp  · 114,583 words

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

by David Graeber  · 14 May 2018  · 385pp  · 123,168 words

Against Intellectual Monopoly

by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine  · 6 Jul 2008  · 607pp  · 133,452 words

The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy

by Aaron Perzanowski and Jason Schultz  · 4 Nov 2016  · 374pp  · 97,288 words

Abolish Silicon Valley: How to Liberate Technology From Capitalism

by Wendy Liu  · 22 Mar 2020  · 223pp  · 71,414 words

Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI

by Madhumita Murgia  · 20 Mar 2024  · 336pp  · 91,806 words

Peer-to-Peer

by Andy Oram  · 26 Feb 2001  · 673pp  · 164,804 words

Ghost Road: Beyond the Driverless Car

by Anthony M. Townsend  · 15 Jun 2020  · 362pp  · 97,288 words

The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It

by Robert B. Reich  · 24 Mar 2020  · 154pp  · 47,880 words

King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone

by David Carey  · 7 Feb 2012  · 421pp  · 128,094 words

The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket

by Benjamin Lorr  · 14 Jun 2020  · 407pp  · 113,198 words

Shortchanged: Life and Debt in the Fringe Economy

by Howard Karger  · 9 Sep 2005  · 299pp  · 83,854 words

When the Wolves Bite: Two Billionaires, One Company, and an Epic Wall Street Battle

by Scott Wapner  · 23 Apr 2018  · 302pp  · 80,287 words

The Retreat of Western Liberalism

by Edward Luce  · 20 Apr 2017  · 223pp  · 58,732 words

The Googlization of Everything:

by Siva Vaidhyanathan  · 1 Jan 2010  · 281pp  · 95,852 words

Branded Beauty

by Mark Tungate  · 11 Feb 2012  · 290pp  · 87,084 words

Wild Ride: Inside Uber's Quest for World Domination

by Adam Lashinsky  · 31 Mar 2017  · 190pp  · 62,941 words

The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power, and Status in the Twenty-First Century

by Ryan Avent  · 20 Sep 2016  · 323pp  · 90,868 words

The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good

by Robert H. Frank  · 3 Sep 2011

It's Better Than It Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear

by Gregg Easterbrook  · 20 Feb 2018  · 424pp  · 119,679 words

Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions That Shape Social Media

by Tarleton Gillespie  · 25 Jun 2018  · 390pp  · 109,519 words

The Theft of a Decade: How the Baby Boomers Stole the Millennials' Economic Future

by Joseph C. Sternberg  · 13 May 2019  · 336pp  · 95,773 words

Sabotage: The Financial System's Nasty Business

by Anastasia Nesvetailova and Ronen Palan  · 28 Jan 2020  · 218pp  · 62,889 words

The Passenger

by AA.VV.  · 23 May 2022  · 192pp  · 59,615 words

Cultureshock Paris

by Cultureshock Staff  · 6 Oct 2010  · 401pp  · 108,855 words

Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World

by Meredith Broussard  · 19 Apr 2018  · 245pp  · 83,272 words

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks

by Scott J. Shapiro  · 523pp  · 154,042 words

Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire

by Rebecca Henderson  · 27 Apr 2020  · 330pp  · 99,044 words

City on the Verge

by Mark Pendergrast  · 5 May 2017  · 425pp  · 117,334 words

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World

by Anand Giridharadas  · 27 Aug 2018  · 296pp  · 98,018 words

Woke, Inc: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam

by Vivek Ramaswamy  · 16 Aug 2021  · 344pp  · 104,522 words

The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet

by Jeff Goodell  · 10 Jul 2023  · 347pp  · 108,323 words

New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI

by Frank Pasquale  · 14 May 2020  · 1,172pp  · 114,305 words

Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

by Devon Price  · 4 Apr 2022  · 456pp  · 101,959 words

Wealth and Poverty: A New Edition for the Twenty-First Century

by George Gilder  · 30 Apr 1981  · 590pp  · 153,208 words

Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup

by Brad Feld and David Cohen  · 18 Oct 2010  · 326pp  · 74,433 words

The Unbanking of America: How the New Middle Class Survives

by Lisa Servon  · 10 Jan 2017  · 279pp  · 76,796 words

Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency

by James Andrew Miller  · 8 Aug 2016  · 790pp  · 253,035 words

Drugs 2.0: The Web Revolution That's Changing How the World Gets High

by Mike Power  · 1 May 2013  · 378pp  · 94,468 words

Open for Business Harnessing the Power of Platform Ecosystems

by Lauren Turner Claire, Laure Claire Reillier and Benoit Reillier  · 14 Oct 2017  · 240pp  · 78,436 words

Truevine: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother's Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South

by Beth Macy  · 17 Oct 2016  · 398pp  · 112,350 words

Billionaires' Row: Tycoons, High Rollers, and the Epic Race to Build the World's Most Exclusive Skyscrapers

by Katherine Clarke  · 13 Jun 2023  · 454pp  · 127,319 words

The Great Divergence: America's Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It

by Timothy Noah  · 23 Apr 2012  · 309pp  · 91,581 words

Rule of the Robots: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Everything

by Martin Ford  · 13 Sep 2021  · 288pp  · 86,995 words

The Second Curve: Thoughts on Reinventing Society

by Charles Handy  · 12 Mar 2015  · 164pp  · 57,068 words

Invisible Women

by Caroline Criado Perez  · 12 Mar 2019  · 480pp  · 119,407 words

No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age

by Jane F. McAlevey  · 14 Apr 2016  · 423pp  · 92,798 words

How the World Ran Out of Everything

by Peter S. Goodman  · 11 Jun 2024  · 528pp  · 127,605 words

Working Identity, Updated Edition, With a New Preface: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career

by Herminia Ibarra  · 17 Oct 2023  · 200pp  · 67,943 words

Uncomfortably Off: Why the Top 10% of Earners Should Care About Inequality

by Marcos González Hernando and Gerry Mitchell  · 23 May 2023

Driverless Cars: On a Road to Nowhere

by Christian Wolmar  · 18 Jan 2018

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

by Christopher Paolini  · 14 Sep 2020  · 1,171pp  · 309,640 words

Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work

by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal  · 21 Feb 2017  · 407pp  · 90,238 words

Off the Books

by Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh

Better Buses, Better Cities: How to Plan, Run, and Win the Fight for Effective Transit

by Steven Higashide  · 9 Oct 2019  · 195pp  · 52,701 words

The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America

by Gabriel Winant  · 23 Mar 2021  · 563pp  · 136,190 words

Abaddon's Gate

by James S. A. Corey  · 3 Jun 2013  · 586pp  · 167,497 words

America, You Sexy Bitch: A Love Letter to Freedom

by Meghan McCain and Michael Black  · 31 May 2012  · 367pp  · 117,340 words

American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America’s Deadliest Drug Epidemic

by John Temple  · 28 Sep 2015  · 308pp  · 96,604 words

Up and Down Stairs: The History of the Country House Servant

by Jeremy Musson  · 12 Nov 2009  · 516pp  · 128,667 words

The 37th Parallel: The Secret Truth Behind America's UFO Highway

by Ben Mezrich  · 5 Sep 2016  · 286pp  · 77,039 words

The Education of Millionaires: It's Not What You Think and It's Not Too Late

by Michael Ellsberg  · 15 Jan 2011  · 362pp  · 99,063 words

The View From Flyover Country: Dispatches From the Forgotten America

by Sarah Kendzior  · 24 Apr 2015  · 172pp  · 48,747 words

There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America

by Brian Goldstone  · 25 Mar 2025  · 512pp  · 153,059 words

Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech

by Sara Wachter-Boettcher  · 9 Oct 2017  · 223pp  · 60,909 words

The Money Tree: A Story About Finding the Fortune in Your Own Backyard

by Chris Guillebeau  · 6 Apr 2020  · 237pp  · 66,545 words

The AI-First Company

by Ash Fontana  · 4 May 2021  · 296pp  · 66,815 words

My Start-Up Life: What A

by Ben Casnocha and Marc Benioff  · 7 May 2007  · 207pp  · 63,071 words

Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?

by Thomas Frank  · 15 Mar 2016  · 316pp  · 87,486 words

Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician

by Sandeep Jauhar  · 18 Aug 2014  · 320pp  · 97,509 words

Against All Enemies

by Tom Clancy and Peter Telep  · 13 Jun 2011  · 640pp  · 177,786 words

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

by Tony Hsieh  · 6 Jun 2010  · 222pp  · 75,778 words

Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action That Changed America

by Writers For The 99%  · 17 Dec 2011  · 173pp  · 54,729 words

Please Don't Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes: Essays

by Phoebe Robinson  · 14 Oct 2021  · 265pp  · 93,354 words

Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime-From Global Epidemic to Your Front Door

by Brian Krebs  · 18 Nov 2014  · 252pp  · 75,349 words

To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

by Daniel H. Pink  · 1 Dec 2012  · 243pp  · 61,237 words

Curation Nation

by Rosenbaum, Steven  · 27 Jan 2011  · 286pp  · 82,065 words

The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches From the Border

by Francisco Cantú  · 1 Jan 2018  · 191pp  · 67,625 words

Trees on Mars: Our Obsession With the Future

by Hal Niedzviecki  · 15 Mar 2015  · 343pp  · 102,846 words

The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career

by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha  · 14 Feb 2012  · 176pp  · 55,819 words

The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay

by Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman  · 14 Oct 2019  · 232pp  · 70,361 words

A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream

by Yuval Levin  · 21 Jan 2020  · 224pp  · 71,060 words

Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines

by Thomas H. Davenport and Julia Kirby  · 23 May 2016  · 347pp  · 97,721 words

The Cobweb

by Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick George  · 31 May 2005  · 514pp  · 153,274 words

Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble

by Dan Lyons  · 4 Apr 2016  · 284pp  · 92,688 words

The Ghost Map: A Street, an Epidemic and the Hidden Power of Urban Networks.

by Steven Johnson  · 18 Oct 2006  · 304pp  · 88,773 words

The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry Ellison and a Car Mechanic Teamed Up to Win Sailing's Greatest Race, the Americas Cup, Twice

by Julian Guthrie  · 31 Mar 2014  · 428pp  · 138,235 words

Busting Vegas: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees

by Ben Mezrich  · 26 Sep 2005  · 303pp  · 81,981 words

Automation and the Future of Work

by Aaron Benanav  · 3 Nov 2020  · 175pp  · 45,815 words

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America

by Barbara Ehrenreich  · 2 Jan 2003  · 200pp  · 72,182 words

Upgrade

by Blake Crouch  · 6 Jul 2022  · 396pp  · 96,049 words

Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed

by Alexis Ohanian  · 30 Sep 2013  · 216pp  · 61,061 words

On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane

by Emily Guendelsberger  · 15 Jul 2019  · 382pp  · 114,537 words

Lethal Passage

by Erik Larson  · 27 Jul 2011  · 291pp  · 87,296 words

Home Building Secrets: Save Thousands Building Your Next Home: For the first time homeowner or the second time homeower who did not learn from their first mistakes

by Ronald Jones  · 22 Dec 2015  · 83pp  · 26,284 words

J.K. Lasser's New Tax Law Simplified: Tax Relief From the HIRE Act, Health Care Reform, and More

by Barbara Weltman  · 30 Nov 2010

Codependent No More Workbook

by Melody Beattie  · 3 Dec 2011

Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond

by Tamara Kneese  · 14 Aug 2023  · 284pp  · 75,744 words