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Warren and Siurek, LLP

Phone: 713-522-0066

Phone: 713-522-0066

Se Habla Español

Warren and Siurek, LLP

Where Your Job Is Our Job

Se Habla Español

Skilled Attorneys To Protect Worker Rights In The Gig Economy

As a gig economy worker, you know what it means to embrace new opportunities. But you may also have concerns about issues such as wage and hour laws, health and safety protections, and taxes.

At Warren & Siurek, L.L.P., we represent many contractors, freelancers and other workers in the fast-growing gig economy. Our employment law attorneys can help you understand your rights and assert them effectively.

Call 713-522-0066 or 877-497-0328 to discuss your specific situation. From our office in Houston, we serve clients throughout southeast Texas.

What Rights Do You Have?

For decades, the law has tried to distinguish between employees and independent contractors to their benefit. Employees generally receive certain benefits that independent contractors do not. This has in turn created incentives for employers to misclassify employees as contractors.

What’s different about the gig economy is that an online platform such as Uber is involved. In the so-called sharing economy, a worker receives gigs from customers ordered through an app created and hosted by a third party.

Many of these platforms, however, exert considerable control over how to perform the job from those who accept gigs. And control of the work has historically been the key test in determining that a worker is an employee, not an independent contractor.

This has important implications for such issues as:

  • Pay rates — If you are considered a gig economy worker, rather than an employee, it affects whether your employer must comply with minimum wage standards and eligibility for overtime.
  • Reimbursement of expenses — Employees can have expenses reimbursed; contractors generally must pay their own expenses
  • Civil rights and workers’ compensation laws — Employees are generally covered by these laws, but contractors are not.
  • Taxes — Employers are obligated to pay Medicare and Social Security taxes for employees, but not for contractors.

Our law firm is committed to staying on the cutting edge of emerging issues such as these in the gig economy. We will provide the guidance you need to know where you stand and take steps to move forward in a dispute with your employer.

Get The Help You Need

Call our office to arrange an appointment or complete the brief online form to get in touch with our lawyers.