Advocacy in Action: Helping App-Based Workers Hold Corporations Accountable

NELP’s Advocacy in Action series showcases our groundbreaking, collaborative advocacy work with partners nationwide to build a good-jobs economy for all workers.

Sara, a member of the campaign Gig Workers Rising, has been a driver for Lyft and Uber for two years in the U.S., after driving for Uber in Bogotá, Colombia. She loves meeting people and taking pride in her work, but she’s seen what happens when drivers speak up. “They can take your work away in an instant,” she explains.

For Sara and many other migrant workers, this job is survival. Yet the same apps that make her work possible also exploit it, taking 70 to 80 percent of each fare and controlling when, where, and how she works.

Despite her high ratings and care for passengers, Sara lives with the constant threat of deactivation and financial instability. She spends long days behind the wheel, often sleeping in her car, paying out of pocket for gas, insurance, and maintenance—while corporations like Uber and Lyft reap enormous profits. “[I’m] fighting for a future where drivers don’t have to live like machines,” she says. “We are humans. We deserve to have rights, and to be treated with dignity.”

Sara’s story is not unique; it reflects the reality of millions of app-based and contracted workers whose labor is essential but undervalued. Their experiences reveal how corporations use technology to mask control, avoid accountability, and rewrite the rules of work itself.

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) is working towards a good-jobs economy, where all workers—regardless of how they get work—have robust rights and protections. To get there, we must expose the corporate practices that degrade working conditions and the false narratives perpetuated by these corporations.

While independent contractor misclassification is not new, the employer techniques for achieving it are always evolving. Piloted by Uber nearly two decades ago, digital labor platforms (“apps”) are automated bosses. The apps and algorithms hire workers, determine their assignment offerings, pay and surveil them, and assess their performance, even though the workers are labeled as “independent contractors.”

According to Nicole Moore, president of Rideshare Drivers United:

“Lyft and Uber have called all of us drivers ‘independent contractors’ since the very beginning. And they’ve sold many on this idea: we’re our own bosses, we work when we want to, less red tape for all—viva la 1099! But we really aren’t independent. There is SO LITTLE we control. Yes, we can work when we want, and choose not to accept some rides, but the algorithms behind these apps are basically 21st century robot bosses: they determine how much we earn, if we earn at all, and really, when we can earn. Those same algorithms can even fire us, and we don’t have the right to an explanation or the opportunity to defend ourselves to the algorithms that fire us.”

NELP is in coalition with Nicole, Sara, and workers across the country to demand fair treatment and better working conditions.

Corporations Evade Workplace Laws Through Independent Contractor Misclassification

By misclassifying workers as independent contractors, corporations pass many of the risks and costs of doing business onto their workers. For ridehail drivers like Nicole and Sara, these costs—buying and maintaining a vehicle, gas, tolls, and tickets—are substantial and eat into their already low pay.

Misclassifying workers allows employers to avoid complying with workplace laws—like minimum wage, overtime, and collective bargaining rights. Employers also avoid paying into benefits programs—like workers’ compensation, Social Security, and unemployment insurance.

Misclassification is a persistent problem in many occupations where the work is underpaid, dangerous, and labor intensive, including home care, janitorial work, construction, and most app-dispatched jobs. It’s no coincidence that Black, immigrant, and other workers of color—who face discrimination and occupational segregation—are overrepresented in these jobs.

Exposing Corporate Tech Abuses and Control

In 2025, NELP published a groundbreaking report, When ‘Bossware’ Manages Workers, exposing the ways that corporations use digital surveillance and automated decision-making systems (ADS) to control workers and evade accountability for the bad working conditions they create. Bossware is used to monitor, manage, and evaluate workers. It includes tools like productivity trackers, webcam monitoring, wearable devices, and algorithms for scheduling, wage-setting, and discipline. Lead author Irene Tung found that when it comes to app-based workers, “with hidden algorithms calling the shots, corporations can mask their control and peddle false narratives of worker autonomy and flexibility.”

NELP Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst Maya Pinto expanded on this critique in Delivering Precarity, a report about Amazon’s Flex delivery operations, through which it hires last-mile delivery drivers as “independent contractors” to deliver packages from Amazon’s facilities to customers. Amazon digitally surveils drivers in real time, tracking and collecting data on their location and productivity, and manages workers through ADS systems. Flex drivers in New Jersey explain the real-world consequences of a corporate structure based on control without responsibility. One driver, who suffered injuries carrying a heavy Amazon package, hasn’t been able to see a doctor because “Amazon won’t provide health insurance or workers’ comp coverage.” Three months after this report was published, the New Jersey Attorney General’s office announced a lawsuit against Amazon for misclassifying Flex drivers as independent contractors, citing the report’s findings on Amazon’s extensive control of working conditions.

Digital surveillance, algorithmic control, and automated decision-making systems are not limited to app-based workers, but these workers are the “canary in the coal mine” where these technologies are refined and then exported to other sectors.

Advocating for Policies that Build Worker Power

NELP advocates for policy solutions that hold corporations that misclassify their workers accountable and provide workers with information and tools that shift the balance of power.

We led efforts to secure the introduction of the Empowering App-Based Workers Act in the U.S. Senate. The bill would require corporations using digital labor platforms to be transparent with workers about the terms and conditions of their work, including their pay, the “take-rate” (the corporation’s share of the amount charged to the customer for the task), all surveillance and ADS systems used, and how workers’ data are collected and used.

We educate policymakers about how digital labor platforms are used to profit from workers and consumers alike, and why government needs to set and enforce rules. NELP Staff Attorney Dan Ocampo recently broke down the need for a “take-rate” cap in a fact sheet and companion video—a clear, accessible explainer of how Uber and Lyft use their market power to raise prices for riders while cutting pay for drivers. Across the country, gig workers are organizing and building power to demand fair pay and transparency, and NELP’s research and advocacy amplify their calls for accountability. In partnership with worker and consumer advocates, we also published a report in February 2025 explaining the harms corporations are causing through surveillance wage and price-setting.

Calling Out Corporate Gimmicks

App-based corporations lobby for laws that would legalize their misclassification schemes and require app-based workers to settle for less than what they would be entitled to as employees. We successfully urged Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers to veto a bill that would have classified app-based ridehail and delivery workers as non-employees, excluding them from state employment laws and greenlighting so-called “portable benefits” accounts.

We explain to policymakers and the public what these “portable benefits” programs really are: glorified savings accounts with minimal company contributions. Meaningful portable benefits programs are structured as insurance programs that pool risk and allow working people to weather emergencies that would otherwise be financially catastrophic. These and other principles should guide policymakers when designing real portable benefits programs.

NELP also helps worker groups fight corporate-backed campaigns to erode labor standards. In The Bully’s Playbook, with our partner PowerSwitch Action, we expose the strategies that app-based corporations deploy to block worker organizing and accountability and the ways worker organizations can anticipate and neutralize these strategies.

True empowerment means giving working people real control over their livelihoods. That’s the vision I shared as NELP’s Director of Work Structures in my May 2025 testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives. I outlined the policies that would make this vision real for all workers—livable wages, stable and predictable work schedules, paid time off, and meaningful benefits including unemployment insurance, health insurance, and retirement benefits. I also emphasized that workers need a voice in their workplace and the right to unionize, so they can improve working conditions collectively.

Supporting State and Local Campaigns to Improve Workplace Standards

In collaboration with partners in states across the country, we support state and local campaigns to hold employers accountable and improve labor standards for app-based, temp, and other misclassified or contingent workers. In New York City, we advocated for the expansion of the city’s minimum wage standard for app-based restaurant delivery workers to app-based grocery delivery workers. When the mayor vetoed the bill, we criticized the capitulation to corporate interests and successfully urged the City Council to override the veto. We also supported introduction of a New York City bill that would require logistics companies like Amazon to directly employ their delivery drivers.

In Connecticut, we are advocating for a minimum wage for the state’s ridehail and delivery workers. And in New Jersey, we are supporting rulemaking that will make it more difficult for corporations to misclassify workers as independent contractors.

Building Partnerships to Advance Workers’ Rights

At NELP, we recognize that strong partnerships are essential to a strong workers’ rights movement. We convene a national gig network space that brings together partners from across the country—including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington State—to focus on halting the “gigification” of work and building power with app-based workers. We share policy, research, and communication strategies that build relationships and expand our partners’ capacity.

App-based workers are rewriting the rules of the gig economy—and NELP stands with them. Together, we’re building a future where no corporation can hide behind an algorithm to deny workers their rights. NELP is committed to building a good-jobs economy—where all workers, including app-based and misclassified workers, have access to expansive rights. As part of this work, we will continue to build trusting relationships with our partners, support local campaigns, call out corporate gimmicks, and work toward policy solutions that build worker power. You can take action too: call your Senators and tell them to support the Empowering App-Based Workers Act. The bill will help address many of the demands that workers are organizing around, including increased pay and more transparency.