What’s Law Got to Do with It?

Abstract

Chapter 3 fills in some institutional features of the landscape of work that shape and illuminate managerial decisions about automation: the evolving law of labor and employment and the rise of “fissuring,” or outsourcing of labor needs to outside contractors. It argues that many of the mandatory legal rights, protections, and benefits that workers have won over the past century raise labor costs and tilt firms’ calculus toward both fissuring and automation; and that the prevailing legal responses to fissuring tend to strengthen the business case for automation. In short, the growing availability of automation—which offers firms a more complete exit from the costs, risks, and hassles of employing humans—confounds old and new legal strategies for improving the lives of ordinary workers.