On Sept. 10, the labor division of the auditor’s office of the city of Denver sent a letter to clients of the online platform Instawork, informing them of their potential liability for Instawork’s misclassification of workers as independent contractors. The city asserts that these clients share potential joint liability for wage and other violations. The city said it is taking an “education first” approach, but it could bring enforcement action against clients in the future. This is the first such outreach to online platform clients of which ASA is aware. For a detailed description of the City’s actions against Instawork, see the wage theft section of the auditor’s office website at denvergov.org.

The letter comes on the heels of the city’s August determination that Instawork violated wage and misclassification laws more than 20,000 times between 2020 and 2024. The letter follows outreach by ASA and the Colorado Staffing Association, an ASA-affiliated chapter, apprising Denver officials of the unfair playing level created by online platforms’ misclassification of workers. The associations’ outreach was part of an ongoing multiyear industry campaign to combat misclassification by urging regulators at every level to step up enforcement against violators.