The gig economy has become impossible for regulators to ignore. Globally, an estimated 163 million workers earn income through digital platforms, representing 4.4% of the global labour force. Yet in most jurisdictions, these workers occupy a legal grey zone — not employees entitled to social insurance, minimum wages, and unfair dismissal protections, but not fully independent contractors either.
A Typology of Regulatory Approaches
Our review of thirteen jurisdictions identifies four broad regulatory strategies. First, the reclassification approach — exemplified by California’s AB5 law and, more recently, EU Platform Work Directive provisions — attempts to shift the legal classification of platform workers toward employment, triggering existing labour protections. Second, the lex specialis approach creates a new intermediate legal status for platform workers, granting some but not all employment protections. Third, the sectoral agreement approach relies on collective bargaining between platform companies and gig worker organisations, avoiding legislative mandate. Fourth, the light-touch approach maintains the independent contractor classification while imposing specific minimum standards through regulation.
The worker classification question is ultimately the wrong framing. The right question is: what minimum floor of protections do platform workers need, and what is the most efficient mechanism for delivering them?