View from K Street: Back to work in the Information Age

We have lived through a few weeks none of us has ever experienced: an assassination attempt on a former president who is a current candidate; a presidential withdrawal from the campaign; a Black-South Asian woman as major party presidential candidate; a tottering stock market. All the while, the world is aflame in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan, and beyond. It may be all too much to take in—it is certainly more than has been absorbed on K Street. It has also distracted us from some remarkable occurrences affecting the workplace.

Our economy has fundamentally changed. We are irretrievably in the Information Age. No job, from farming to steelmaking, is unaffected. Our workforce and our workplace have changed in response to technology and other external forces, not limited to the pandemic—reliable, high-speed internet, remote work, freelancing, hybrid schedules, accommodations for child-rearing, and other personal demands. What hasn’t much changed are the laws that burden this dynamic, evolving workplace. Because of the rigidity of our worker classification laws, far too many people work without basic legal protections and benefits. Some way must be found to level this playing field, to provide multiple opportunities while providing common standards. And it has begun.

Who is an employee?

There is no area more contested in workplace law than who is an employee, who an independent contractor. These titles carry enormous significance. An employee enjoys all the protections of the law—minimum wage, overtime, right to organize, civil rights protections, pension rights, health and safety oversight, and more.