Metro Girl

Standing page

Glossary

25 defined terms, each taken from the piece that establishes it. Where two bodies define the same word for different populations, both definitions are here.

Part A
Worker is free from the hiring entity's control and direction, in contract and in factClassification · The Three-Part Test That Rewrote California →
Part B
Work is outside the usual course of the hiring entity's businessClassification · The Three-Part Test That Rewrote California →
Part C
Worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade or business of the same kindClassification · The Three-Part Test That Rewrote California →
Contingent worker (BLS)
lacks long-term attachment; narrowest measure ~1.3–1.9% of employmentThe Count · Twelve Years When Nobody Counted →
Independent contractor (BLS)
alternative arrangement category; ~6.9% of employment in 2017The Count · Twelve Years When Nobody Counted →
Own-account worker (Eurostat/ONS)
self-employed without employees; not directly equivalent to BLS categoriesThe Count · Twelve Years When Nobody Counted →
Alternative arrangement worker
BLS umbrella covering contractors, on-call, temp agency, and contract company workersThe Count · Twelve Years When Nobody Counted →
Self-employed (ONS / BLS)
broadest term; includes employers, covers main-job self-identification; legal status may differThe Count · Gig, Contingent, Own-Account, Self-Employed: Not Synonyms →
Own-account worker (Eurostat / ONS)
subset of self-employed; solo only, no employees; says nothing about platform use or income shareThe Count · Gig, Contingent, Own-Account, Self-Employed: Not Synonyms →
Contingent worker (BLS)
defined by tenure expectations, not legal form; can include employees on short contractsThe Count · Gig, Contingent, Own-Account, Self-Employed: Not Synonyms →
Gig worker
no agreed statistical definition; broadly task-based, platform-mediated, episodic; used politically more than analyticallyThe Count · Gig, Contingent, Own-Account, Self-Employed: Not Synonyms →
Scheinselbstständigkeit
German legal concept; nominally self-employed but substantively dependent; one failure mode, not a full taxonomyThe Count · Gig, Contingent, Own-Account, Self-Employed: Not Synonyms →
Own-account worker
self-employed with no employees; the majority of the UK self-employed totalThe Count · What the ONS Series Captures and What It Misses →
Employer (self-employment category)
self-employed person who hires at least one other workerThe Count · What the ONS Series Captures and What It Misses →
Contributing family worker
works in a family business without formal pay; included in Eurostat totals, excluded from the ONS primary headlineThe Count · What the ONS Series Captures and What It Misses →
Reference-week vs four-week averaging
a methodological difference between Eurostat's harmonised LFS approach and some ONS sub-seriesThe Count · What the ONS Series Captures and What It Misses →
worker status
UK statutory intermediate category between employee and independent contractor; confers rights to minimum wage and holiday pay but not unfair dismissal protectionClassification · The Plumber Who Made It to the Supreme Court →
substitution clause
a contractual term permitting a worker to send a replacement; courts examine whether the right is genuine or illusoryClassification · The Plumber Who Made It to the Supreme Court →
Employment Rights Act 1996
the primary UK statute defining employee and worker for most statutory-rights purposesClassification · The Plumber Who Made It to the Supreme Court →
Scheinselbstständigkeit
German for false or bogus self-employment; triggers social-insurance liabilityClassification · False Self-Employment Has a German Word for a Reason →
Bundessozialgericht
Germany's federal social court; the forum in which Scheinselbstständigkeit cases are heardClassification · False Self-Employment Has a German Word for a Reason →
Rebuttable presumption
legal device by which a worker is assumed to be an employee unless the engaging party proves otherwiseClassification · False Self-Employment Has a German Word for a Reason →
Employee
full employment rights including unfair dismissalClassification · Seven Judges, Two Drivers, and the Question of Who Works for Uber →
Worker
intermediate category: minimum wage, holiday pay, pension auto-enrolment, whistleblower protection; not unfair dismissalClassification · Seven Judges, Two Drivers, and the Question of Who Works for Uber →
Independent contractor
no statutory employment rightsClassification · Seven Judges, Two Drivers, and the Question of Who Works for Uber →

Where the definitions come from

The vocabulary is contested; these are the files that argue about it.

The other sections

Eight landing pages. Every piece is reachable from one of them, or from the archive.