Gig economy workers are typically contractors, freelancers and other independent employees who, many times, perform the same or similar work as traditional employees, but who are not afforded the same rights under federal law, NPR reports.

A contract worker, for example, does not have the right to sue for sexual harassment or gender discrimination since workplace civil rights laws do not apply to them.

There are tens of millions of independent workers and about 20% of jobs are being done by someone under contract, NPR reported earlier this year. Laws and benefits pertaining to the workplace are based on a full-time employment model. But that model has not evolved to accommodate workers who are increasingly being tapped by numerous industries looking to cut labor costs.

Additionally, apps that allow users to hire drivers, for example, are another huge driver of gig jobs. "You're cut out of a lot of the basic employment protections, and that can be everything from protection to make sure you're getting paid on time [to] protections against harassment, [unsafe] workplace, discrimination," says Caitlin Pearce, executive director of the Freelancers Union. Her organization has 350,000 members.

New York City, and three states--California, Washington and Pennsylvania--do provide contractors some workplace protections. But independent workers are excluded from cornerstone workplace protections, including The Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination Employment Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. They also are not granted numerous workplace health and safety protections.

"The same protections where the supervisor and the manager control the workplace, control the worker, is not relevant to the independent contractor relationship," says Camille Olson, a lawyer who represents employers.

Olson's reasoning is that contractors determine their own working conditions, and therefore, don't need the same protections as traditional workers. But others argue that many contract positions are essentially traditional working roles and employers are just designating more workers as contractors so they can cut benefits and rights.

"Most people don't recognize how much the workplace has changed" and how much they are becoming contractor-dependent, says David Weil, dean at the Heller School at Brandeis University and a former Labor Department official who worked under President Barack Obama.

"The recourse that you're historically provided isn't there either," Weil adds. Making matters worse for independent workers is the lack of concrete data from the agency charged with enforcing workplace civil rights laws. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission does not retain complaints made by independent workers because in most cases these workers are not eligible to make their case to the agency.

The lack of data from the EEOC doesn't equal a lack of legitimate gripes from independent workers. HoneyBook, a website for freelancers in creative professions, recently learned in an unscientific survey it conducted, that more than 50% of its respondents faced sexual harassment.

"There is fear around how the client will respond; there's fear now around even reviews," which could hurt future business, says Natalie Franke, manager of the user community at HoneyBook.

Franke recounts that she was physically molested on the job when she worked freelance as a wedding photographer. "The only other individuals who would understand what they're going through are competitors," Franke notes.

Governments can advocate on behalf of gig workers by passing laws that give them the right to sue for their contracted payment with little or no legal cost for the workers to bring the suit, Forbes reports. But, until that happens, gig workers will have to be their own advocates and push for contracts that afford them some of the benefits that traditional workers take for granted. This could include cost for retirement savings and healthcare.

"It would not be unreasonable in economies where health insurance is an individual responsibility for employers to contribute a proportional amount to that expense as well," Forbes' contributor Abdullahi Muhammed writes.

Despite the hurdles, two companies are working to give freelancers a bit more leverage, Quartz at Work reports. Fiverr and AND CO are building what they term "the first standardized freelance contract with built-in sexual harassment protections."

"[M]ost freelancers do not have institutional resources like a Human Resources department or even governmental bodies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to turn to in a time of need," the companies note in a statement.

Their standardized contract clearly states that harassment by clients and staff is not permitted and allows freelancers to end a working agreement if the harassment does not end after a client has been warned. The contractor is then entitled to be paid in full and receive that payment within 30 days.

"We recognize this is a small step in a much longer journey, but it's an important one," the companies note.

The problem with this new type of contract is whether independent workers will want to jeopardize their source of income and future work or projects vital to their survival as a freelancers.

The new contract also fails to define "harassment." Still, Sam Katzen, spokesman for Fiverr, endorses the contract as a positive step. "While any freelancer must contend with going through enforcement in the case of a breach, having a contract in place makes a breach less likely than not having one at all," Katzen says. A contract also may "provoke cultural change," he adds.