I think Homejoy would be in the clear if they were more of a two-sided marketplace. If users could hire specific cleaners based on their ratings, and cleaners

I think Homejoy would be in the clear if they were more of a two-sided marketplace. If users could hire specific cleaners based on their ratings, and cleaners were free to set their own rates, that strikes me as more 1099 appropriate. The recent US Dept. of Labor interpretation suggests the same: see "Does the Worker’s Managerial Skill Affect the Worker’s Opportunity for Profit or Loss?" at http://www.dol.gov/whd/workers/Misclassification/AI-2015_1.htm http://www.dol.gov/whd/workers/Misclassification/AI-2015_1.h... Of course then you're even more at risk of disintermediation, so you're probably charging for listings. It's a useful business but a smaller one.