Are you an employee or a contractor? Carpenters, strippers and dog walkers now face that question

From the Los Angeles Times, Margot Roosevelt wrote an outstanding article describing many of the challenges of the gig economy and independent contractor classification. Margot writes:

When Kristyn Hansen first took a job at Stews Barber Shop, she cut hair nine hours a day, three days a week. She earned no overtime pay, had no mandated breaks, and her Ladera Ranch bosses didn’t cover Social Security taxes, unemployment or disability insurance.
That’s because Hansen, 32, was classified as an independent contractor. “I loved it,” she recalls. The schedule allowed her to take five classes at a local college. The pay — a 60% share of an $18 haircut — made for “a comfortable living” serving about 30 clients in a day. Health insurance? That was covered by her husband’s employer.
But in October, the shop switched its seven barbers to employee status. To offset the expense of payroll taxes, sick leave, vacation and other benefits extended to the barbers, pay dropped to $15 an hour, with just a 15% share of the haircut price.
Now Hansen works four nine-hour days, taking home about $300 less weekly than when she worked just three days. “For some people, there are advantages to being an employee,” she said. “But not for me. I’m stressed for sure.”
A sweeping California Supreme Court decision last April is upending large and small workplaces across California, making it harder to classify workers as independent contractors. A broad swath of California industries are affected — not just app-based companies such as Uber and Lyft.
Independent contractors are found among construction workers, truckers and warehouse workers, music teachers, software coders and sales associates, farm laborers, janitors, dog walkers, hairdressers, home-care workers, security guards, doctors, insurance agents, journalists and even strippers.