The 'Comprehensive' 0.01%
Human Rights Watch cites iffy research in its public comment supporting New Jersey’s proposed independent-contractor rule.
Human Rights Watch, which considers app-based work a form of exploitation, filed a public comment in support of New Jersey’s proposed independent-contractor rule.
The organization professed its “strong support” for the New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development plan that threatens the incomes and careers of about 1.7 million people across hundreds of professions, including freelance writers and editors like me.
In standing against the 80% of overall independent contractors who wish to remain self-employed—not to mention the 77% of app-based workers who wish to remain independent contractors—Human Rights Watch also stood against the numerous New Jersey legislators on both sides of the political aisle who have said, among other things, that the Labor Department’s proposal departs from existing statute and case law, and is instilling terror in the people it would hurt.
The $200-million-plus Human Rights Watch explains its support for threatening New Jersey’s smallest of small-business owners by writing this in its public comment:
“In our investigation into labor rights violations in app-based work, published in May 2025, Human Rights Watch surveyed 127 platform workers in Texas and conducted in-depth interviews with 95 individuals working in rideshare, food delivery, and grocery shopping across seven major companies: Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, Shipt, Favor, and Amazon Flex – many of which operate in New Jersey.”
Let’s do a little math based on those figures.
There are approximately 680,000 app-based workers in Texas. Surveying just 127 of them means the results represent 0.01% of the app-based workers in that state.
And the 95 individuals who were interviewed, according to a previously published Human Rights Watch article, are from 13 states. Which means the organization spoke with an average of about seven people per state—and none of them from New Jersey.
Those interviews happened between 2021 and 2023, at the height of the pandemic, when there was a huge surge in demand for food to be delivered to people’s homes and the number of people doing platform work jumped more than 150%. Thus, data from these years is skewed compared to other years.
But never mind all that. In the New Jersey public comment, Human Rights Watch describes the information it presents as “the first comprehensive study” of its kind.
Comprehensive. Where have I seen that word used before in freelance busting?
Ah, yes: New Jersey’s Labor Department used the word comprehensive to describe the 2019 Report by Governor Murphy’s Task force on Misclassification that kicked off this whole mess in New Jersey, and that is so easily debunked, it’s a joke.
Human Rights Watch, in its New Jersey public comment, also fails to mention that app-based workers comprise less than 10% of all independent contractors who have our livelihoods in the crosshairs of this proposal. It leaves out—as just a couple examples among hundreds of professions—the insurance and financial advisers (about 90% of whom are independent contractors) and the truck drivers at the Port of NY&NJ (77% of whom are independent contractors).
Human Rights Watch does, however, manage to include the claim that “several” (I guess that means as few as two?) of these app-based workers in this comprehensive study “had attempted to unionize or protest unsafe conditions but faced legal and structural barriers in the absence of employee recognition.”
That’s an interesting choice of words. In the absence of employee recognition. It suggests that being a unionizable employee is something independent contractors desire, yet are being denied.
Here on planet reality, fewer than 1 in 10 independent contractors say they’d prefer a traditional job. The vast majority of us prefer self-employment, including the app-based workers.
You know, almost as if choosing to work on our own terms is a human right we’ve been free to exercise since the day this nation was founded.
Add It to the List
It’s unbelievably frustrating how often the freelance-busting brigade gets up on a soapbox and spreads claims in the media or public record, only to have the underlying information turn out to be, at best, questionable.
Just in the past three months alone, we’ve had:
A social-media disinformation campaign about the Modern Worker Empowerment Act that was so hideous, it led to calls for “Luigi”
More evidence and yet more evidence that all these claims of widespread employee misclassification appear to be wildly exaggerated at the state and federal levels alike
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders mischaracterizing Gallup data on the public record at a Capitol Hill hearing about independent-contractor legislation
Revelations and more revelations about what appear to be purposely mischaracterized claims in the 2019 Report of Governor Murphy’s Task Force Report on Misclassification in New Jersey
The National Law Employment Law Project getting called out (by yours truly) during a U.S. House of Representatives hearing over mischaracterized data claims
A whopper of a tale published by NJ Spotlight News that has no business being called “news” at all
In the coming days, weeks and months, I hope to get access to all the public comments that were filed against us independent contractors in my home state of New Jersey. Unlike at the federal level, where public comments are published online so the public can see them, the State of New Jersey is not making these public comments immediately visible.
I cannot foresee our side letting them get away with that, any more than we allowed them to get away with failing to live-stream the public hearing. Our side made sure there was video of the testimony for the world to see.
So, stay tuned. There will absolutely be more to come.