Category: Labor
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Employment-at-will makes the US an outlier and not in a good way
Most developed nations require cause to fire workers. The US stands alone in defaulting to at-will employment, and the costs are larger than usually admitted.
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The gig economy exists mostly to avoid payroll taxes
Gig work is sold as flexibility, but the structural logic favors companies dodging payroll taxes and benefits costs. Here’s what the model really optimizes for.
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PhDs are an exploitation pipeline and the academy knows it
Doctoral programs run on cheap labor, vague timelines, and dim job prospects. Universities have the data and keep the pipeline open anyway.
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Independent contractor classifications are mostly tax fraud with extra steps
Many companies classify workers as contractors to dodge payroll taxes and benefits. The IRS and DOL agree it’s often illegal — but enforcement is uneven.
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Tipping is a tax workaround employers love and we keep voting for
Tipping started as a class signal and became a wage subsidy. Employers and customers both prop it up — and the IRS quietly benefits from the chaos.
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Restrictive covenants are how employers extract free labor after employment ends
Non-competes, non-solicits, and clawbacks let employers control workers after they leave. The covenants are spreading down the income ladder. Here’s the cost.
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Adjunct professors are the gig workers nobody marches for
Adjunct professors teach a majority of college classes for poverty wages and no benefits. They’re America’s most invisible gig workforce. Here’s why nothing changes.
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The gig economy survives because the law lets companies pretend workers aren’t workers
The gig model depends on calling workers contractors. The legal contortions to maintain that fiction are getting harder to defend in court and at the ballot.
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1099 vs W-2 is a moral question, not just a tax one
Worker classification looks like a tax issue but it’s really about who carries the risk. Many 1099 arrangements quietly offload it onto workers.