The Uncertain Hour staff

App-based gig workers for Amazon, Uber, Lyft and more. Here's how it works.

It's the carveout that allows minor league baseball to avoid minimum wage laws — and it's one of many.

They're not called "sweatshops" because they're warm.

Legally, anyone who’s paid a piece rate must still make at least minimum wage. And companies are expected to have done the calculation.

One paper from 1990 changed business — and this thing we call employment — as we know it.

Independent contractor? Or employee?

Here's a basic explanation.

There used to be a lot more of them.

Well, not an employee, for starters. But to really understand the word and its implications, we have to look back to 19th-century labor law.