Debbie Berkowitz

“On demand” or “gig economy” jobs are among the most dangerous jobs in the United States. Many on-demand businesses, however, have figured out how to avoid responsibility for worker safety and workers’ compensation—simply by labeling their workers as “independent contractors” who are supposedly in business for themselves. That’s just wrong—these workers can be and should be covered by workers’ comp.

When you buy your chicken in the supermarket, or eat it at KFC, the label will be missing some critical information about the people who helped make your meal possible. It won’t say, for example, that the workers who processed that chicken might have been wearing diapers at the time. The label might let you know the chicken is organic, or free-range, or free of antibiotics—but not that the workers who handled, cut, and packaged that chicken were compelled to soil themselves in order to keep their jobs.