Lyft has submitted $19,435,087.06 in payments to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s (NJDOL’s) unemployment, temporary disability, family leave insurance trust funds, and workforce development funds after an audit found that the ride-share company improperly classified over 100,000 drivers as independent contractors, depriving them of crucial safety-net benefits by failing to make required contributions from 2014 to 2017.
“New Jersey’s rigorous enforcement of employee classification laws protects workers and law-abiding employers alike,” said New Jersey Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo. “Misclassification imposes a financial toll on both good actor employers and misclassified workers, who lose critical rights such as minimum wage, overtime pay, workers’ compensation coverage, unemployment insurance, earned sick leave, family leave, and more. Although many allege that being an employee stifles flexibility, this couldn’t be further from the truth. There is no reason temporary or on-demand workers who work flexible hours, or even minutes at a time, can’t be treated like other employees.”