Labor and Employment Issues: The sharing economy
Eli Lehrer president, R Street Institute
‘What’s in it for the employer? We need to provide an incentive for employers to participate in a portable benefits system. One way to do that would be to reverse the presumption about who is an employee and who is an independent contractor. As is, courts in many states put the burden on the employer to prove that the worker is an independent contractor. Employers who contribute to a portable benefits fund should not have to prove that. In their case, the burden should be on the worker – if workers want full employee benefits, they should have to prove they are employees.’
