Divorce and Gig Workers
With the global pandemic aftermath still in the midst, many people have been or were unemployed, laid off, let go from their jobs or even decided to change career paths. There are not many scenarios that attorneys in family law have not seen, but the pandemic has really challenged family law attorneys in many different ways. The rise of gig work since the start of the pandemic has proved to be somewhat of a challenge for family law attorneys especially when it comes to determining support of a minor child and a spouse.
The Rise of Gig Workers
Since the start of the pandemic, businesses have utilized freelance workers when they were needed versus hiring someone full time to do the job. The rise of gig workers has continued in the past two years.
In Michigan and throughout the United States, support calculations are based on income of the parties, usually through a parties’ paystubs or tax returns. However, with freelance and gig work it becomes more difficult to know exactly what income the gig worker makes, especially when the worker earns cash versus being a 1099 employee.
Another scenario that causes problems is that since there has been a change in the way work is being done the gig worker may not be earning their full potential of income or vice versa may be making more income than previous years (which is not always guaranteed to continue).
Gig Workers and Family Law 
Gig workers hours vary drastically, and their schedule is constantly changing. It is not as simple as giving a gig worker 40 hours a week like a person with a regular full-time job position because not all the time is a gig worker working 40 hours. It also seems inappropriate to tell an individual that they must have a certain number of gig jobs a week. Which poses another complex issue for attorneys when trying attribute the correct amount of income to an individual. There can be periods in time where work is slow and other periods where there does not seem like there is enough time to fit all the jobs in. In the case of a divorce, a gig worker may not be able to take as many jobs when the gig worker has the children for their parenting time.
When there is a major change in a person’s income, support can be modified. In Michigan, support is normally reviewed every three years. However, that does not mean that you cannot petition the court to have your support recalculated due to a change in circumstance. A sufficient change in circumstance would be being laid off or fired from your job or earning substantially less than you did in years prior. That does not mean to quit your job and work in a different field where you make less money because the court will not tolerate that as a change in circumstance without a real good reason.
Child Support and Gig Workers
Child support is utilized to help one parent care for the child when the other parent does not have as many overnights with the child or if the other parent earns more than their ex-spouse. Child support or spousal support should be based off a person’s earnings, but a court can look at a person’s financial situation and make a determination as to whether the individual has more of an earning potential than what they are currently earning. This is how some individuals have more income attributed to their earnings. Though this is not an automatic guarantee in cases. A party must be able to prove that the other party has the ability to earn more than what they are earning.
With the global pandemic still rearing its ugly head everything is unpredictable. It is difficult to tell what lies ahead for gig workers and the workforce in general.
For more information, please see article “The Rise of Gig Economy and What It Means for Divorce” by Nathalie Boutet on www.familylawyermagazine.com.
The attorneys at Kathryn Wayne-Spindler & Associates are experienced attorneys who change with the times to meet the needs of their clients. Contact the Milford, Michigan law office of Kathryn Wayne-Spindler & Associates at 248-676-1000 for assistance. Or contact our new location in Alexander City, Alabama at 800-809-9414. The attorneys of Kathryn Wayne-Spindler & Associates practice law throughout Southeastern Michigan primarily including Oakland, Wayne, Washtenaw, Genesee and Livingston counties.
In Alabama Kathryn practices in primarily Lee, Tallapoosa, Macon, Chambers, Coosa and Elmore Counties.
