A new law from the Biden administration set to go into effect this March aims to protect gig workers from predatory employment practices and guarantee select benefits. Separately, independent contract work reportedly contributed up to $1.27 trillion to the US economy in 2023.

NYU Wagner Labor Initiative Director Terri Gerstein addresses loopholes employers use to label workers as independent contractors rather than full-time employees, demanding more regulation and enforcement from investigatory bodies to protect American workers.

“The US Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, which enforces the minimum wage law and overtime as well as child labor and other laws, only has around 700 something investigators for the entire country, which is around 400 fewer than they had in the late 1970s,” Gerstein tells Yahoo Finance.

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Editor’s note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.