[quanticle]

The reason these restrictions exist is to address the inherent power differential between the contractor and the contractee.

There are other easier ways to address that differential. Namely: unionization. In many European countries, there are no minimum wage laws. There is no government agency equivalent of OSHA. Instead, they have unions, where workers themselves band together and collectively bargain to ensure they're adequately compensated and given a safe working environment.

Instead, we in the United States, have chosen to make the government our union. Then we're shocked and surprised when it does a bad job, or when its blanket policies have disproportionate impact on certain industries.

[arcticbull]

That's a good observation, and hold true in Canada to an extent too. In the US, union participation is 10% [1] while in Canada it's about 30% [2]. In the EU it's just short of 60% [3]. Amazing how each doubling or tripling of labor union participation rates creates monumental changes in the way employees are treated: minimum 35 days of PTO in Europe, guaranteed child care, mat/pat leave. It's almost like collective bargaining works.

US PTO: 0 days (!!), CA PTO: 16-30 days, EU PTO: Up to 36 days.

It was only 50 years ago that the Republicans were the party of labor unions [4]. How times changed.

[1] https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

[2] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=141001...

[3] https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/labor-force-part...

[4] https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/07/la...

[jononor]

Sure some european countries do not have minimum wages by law (like Norway). But which countries don't have an equivalent of OSHA?

Also, be very careful in comparing unions in Europe with the US, the systems are very different. Unions in Norway for example are not "per company", they are usually working across a whole industry or even across all industries for a particular education/work-role (like engineers). Employees chose freely whether to be member of a union, or which one to pick - and membership is independent of an employeer/contract.

[arcticbull]

Labor unions in Canada are similar, they tend not to be per-company, but rather broad like CUPE [1] which represents 2% of the Canadian population.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Union_of_Public_Emplo...

[gruez]

Isn't that also the case in the us, with unions like the UAW?

[lumost]

The UAW is an odd example of a super multi industry union. The Resident Advisors at my university were obligated to be UAW members.

The UAW theoretically got involved in the employment contract negotiations, but none of the RAs could get in touch with them despite paying union dues. There was a group trying to organize action to leave the UAW and form an independent union.

Large organizations tend towards incompetence and corruption over a prolonged period of time.