Welcome to the Tech Policy Podcast, your source for policy rants and raves from Tech Freedom,

your Washington, D.C. advocate for the freedom to tinker and innovate.

I'm Evan Swartz-Trober, your host.

Last week, we did an episode on Uber and its regulatory battles with New York City.

And while that battle may have subsided, Uber's facing lawsuits all over the country around its worker classification.

We're going to dig into that issue a bit today.

Joining me in our DC studio is Jared Meyer, a research fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He's also the

author of Disinherited, How Washington is Betraying America's Young, and he'll also be coming out

with a book next month called Uber Positive, Why Americans Love the Sharing Economy. Jared, thank you

for joining me. Hey, thanks for having me again, Evan. Jared, last week I said that you might have peaked a little bit too early.

You know, you've written two books.

You know, you're already even 30 years old yet.

Forbes already named you one of its 30 under 30 for law and policy.

And I think you coming on this podcast two weeks in a row, I think I might be right.

What do you think? Well, it's fun chatting with you

and also learning from the other people on the other podcast. So I suggest for people to check out

the other episodes as well, even if they don't cover Uber. Thank you for coming in again.

So what is the difference between an employee and an independent contractor? Why does that matter?

Well, under current U.S. law, employees are given additional benefits and protections that

independent contractors aren't. But in exchange for this, an employer can control on employees

work much more than a firm that contracts with an independent contractor can. So it's kind of a

tradeoff between flexibility and more control over your work environment

...