Another take on the Cliff notes: * Google raters are subcontractors for contracting companies, among which one is Leapforce. yep * Google flaunts new con

Another take on the Cliff notes: * Google raters are subcontractors for contracting companies, among which one is Leapforce. yep * Google flaunts new contract requiring takers to use employees instead of subcontractors. Don't get the use of "flaunts" here. Google is rolling out new requirements that its contractors use employees instead of contract labor. Leapforce's main or only client is Google, so had to make changes to its policy of only using contract labor. * Leapforce decides to employ raters, but at much reduced salaries and no benefits. There's no indication that pay per hour is going down and they've never had benefits. The change is that contractors are becoming employees and limited to working 26 hours a week. * Raters who work mostly from home are the losers in the equation, and have a hard time finding other work. Yes, it seems that raters drew the short straw here. Hard to know for sure whether Google's fear of labor regulators or it's well-intentioned desire to improve working conditions were the cause. This seems like the future of the gig economy. Same work load, less pay, less security, less employee power. The model Leapforce has is has been around for decades. The internet has made the model more feasible, but working from home as a contractor for a single company is not a new evil. A few points to further counter balance your Cliff notes: * Raters get paid from $13.50 to $17.50 per hour for work from home and are upset about the cut in hours because this is significantly more than they can make anywhere else. * Raters are now going to become employees and thus the employer will be paying Social Security and employer taxes, saving the employees somewhere on the order of 50% in income tax liability. Unless their pay is cut to compensate, their per-hour rate is going to go up in this change. And it's worth repeating, they don't have any benefits now so aren't losing them. * Employment status also brings unemployment coverage and disability benefits in case they get fired or become disabled. Side note: I hope for Leapforce's sake and that of their contractors/employees that they got Google's blessing before making their CEO so available and transparent on the relationship with Google. I just don't think I'd ever give the press much access to me on the record talking about my largest (or maybe only) client without vetting every word with the client first. Even if everything in the article was already well known by labor regulators, I'd be very concerned that articles like these paint a much bigger target on my back.