What I said is even true in the US - employers have payroll and other compliance obligations such as their portion of Social Security and Medicare taxes, unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation insurance, sometimes a state-specific requirement for short-term disability insurance, and often more. Plus health insurance and paid time off are usually part of the package for employees at least in the tech world, and COBRA rights exist after losing the job. Plus unionization rights too.

For independent contractors, all of those things are either fully the responsibility of the contractor (such as the Social Security and Medicare taxes) or absent entirely (such as the unionization rights). Whether that’s legal even in the US depends on whether the relationship is misclassified employment or true independent contracting. (These are among several reasons why true independent contractors charge much higher rates than people who just acquiesce to employer misclassification.) The IRS has a many-factor test based on the common law and is absolutely willing to hear reports of alleged misclassification. So are many state and local government agencies.