In a double-sided marketplace I'm tempted to think of the actual seller as being the one that determines the price.
In the case of Handy, Uber, etc... it is in fact Handy, Uber, etc.
In the case of Amazon, the price is determined by the contractor themselves.
Is there some major flaw in this thinking? Employees are not generally empowered to determine the price at which their work is sold, and yet contract suppliers are. I think this works fairly well to determine whether or not the person actually performing the work is really an employee or a contract supplier.
No major flaw in that thinking. In fact as pointed out elsewhere in this thread it's one of the major checklist items that the IRS uses to make this determination for w-2 vs 1099 (employee vs contractor). Different states however may have other criteria that pushes someone one way or the other.
Nice point...Can the worker set prices? At a minimum, if the answer to that is 'yes', then they are a contractor. And most people who can't set prices are employees, or are at least edge cases(e.g. taxi drivers). That's the best single test I know of.
In the case of Handy, Uber, etc... it is in fact Handy, Uber, etc.
In the case of Amazon, the price is determined by the contractor themselves.
Is there some major flaw in this thinking? Employees are not generally empowered to determine the price at which their work is sold, and yet contract suppliers are. I think this works fairly well to determine whether or not the person actually performing the work is really an employee or a contract supplier.