[maratd]

> If you 'contract' to just one employer you're an employee for both tax purposes and protections.

That's not the case in the US. Our laws bar the contractor from having set hours, a set place of work, and a myriad of other rules. So if a contractor comes in 9 to 5 and has his own desk, he'll be classified as an employee. Honestly, I would prefer a similar % rule, that seems simpler and I think would accomplish the intent far better than what we have now.

[gamblor956]

US law doesn't ban any of those things. Those are simply factors in determining whether a person is an employee or contractor, which in the US is not a bright-line test but is more of a circumstances-based finding. The US also employs the % rule as a factor in that determination.

[neaden]

The problem with the percent rule is that people could easily fall in and out of it. If we imagine someone who is an Uber driver but also works part time as an employee at another business, depending on how many hours they get in a given week as a part time employee they could go above or below the 80% figure. From Uber's standpoint you could also have two people who each drive for 10 hours a week earning the same pay, one of whom that is the only source of income, the other it's only 20% of their income.

[drag0nballz]

Exactly -- and companies would not want to hire contractors because it's impossible for them to know if someone is going to be treated as an employee all of a sudden (say they hired them part-time but their other p/t gig ended). I don't know how Australia deals with this.