Wired: Wired: Shyp Makes Couriers Employees Before It’s Too Big to Change

“Some workers question the model’s fairness, suggesting that companies are padding their bottom lines by shifting costs to workers with few protections or guarantees. According to research by the National Employment Law Project, businesses can save up to 30 percent of their payroll tax costs by choosing to classify employees as contractors—savings, some argue, that offer unfair competitive advantage by incentivizing misclassification. But businesses that scale up quickly based on the assumption that its workers will remain contractors risk backing themselves into a corner if the model itself ends up alienating workers or falling afoul of employment laws.”

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