Who is your boss? Sometimes it's hard to tell. From Marketplace, I'm Subrey Beneshore, in for David Brancaccio.

Who your boss is makes a huge difference in taxes, worker protections, benefits. If your boss is you,

because you're an independent contractor, aka a gig worker, you're on your own in a lot of ways.

But if your boss is somebody else, that employer

has obligations to offer benefits, take out taxes. Workers and employers and governments often

fight over this. The Labor Department has just proposed a new rule on the question. Marketplaces

Nancy Marshall-Genzor has more. The proposed Trump administration rule would make it easier for companies to classify people as gig workers.

The Labor Department's wage in our division administrator Andrew Rogers makes it sound simple.

Generally, if a worker is in business for him or herself and isn't dependent on an employer for work. The worker is an independent

contractor. The proposed Trump administration rule puts more weight on how much control workers

have and whether they face a profit or loss. That standard tends to favor employers. But there

are gray areas, and the ultimate deciders here are the courts, says Richard

Ribstein, a partner with the law firm Troutman- Pepper Lock. He says this proposed new rule is,

Much ado about nothing from a legal standpoint. Ribstein says that's because anyone disagreeing

with the rules goes to court. Besides, he says, the gig worker rule changes.

Every time there's a new president, President Obama's regulations were erased by the first Trump

administration, which was overridden by the Biden White House. Now the rule is ping ponging back to

where it was during Trump's first term. Therefore, the courts are saying, we don't need any help.

That's why they've essentially disregarded these prior rules on independent contractor status.

And Rybstein expects this latest Trump administration rule to also wind up in court,

but first it has to be finalized, and that can only happen after a 60-day

public comment period. I'm Nancy Marshall Genser for Marketplace.

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