When I was starting a business in Canada, I very quickly realized that a trick many startups used of hiring people as contract workers was actually illegal from

When I was starting a business in Canada, I very quickly realized that a trick many startups used of hiring people as contract workers was actually illegal from a tax perspective. This is because if you are hired as a contractor and in reality you are an employee the company does not need to pay anywhere near as much payroll taxes and thus can "save money" on the hire while the impetus to pay the taxes fully falls on the individual hired as a contractor. The CRA(Canadian Revenue Agency, our IRS) recognizes this as a way to get around taxes, and if they find out you are hiring employees but paying them as contractors, you could very easily end up in a situation where you owe a ton of back taxes on those 'employees.' This Gig Economy is just another way around that. I'm actually somewhat surprised that California which historically has been a very pro-labour state has taken this stance. This could be a major shift for business in general, as long as the businesses can find a way to recategorize a worker as a contractor they will save money. What's the unintended consequence. Large businesses hiring tons of people as "contractors" to save money, and in the end the workers getting shafted by the tax implications of that. I'm not saying I support or don't support this, but I know in Canada, at least with our current legal system this will not stand for the CRA.