The $12.5 Million Classification — California Asks for an Hour

The Caption I Printed

Scale AI, Inc., founded 2016 by Alexandr Wang, supplies labeled training data. Worker-facing platforms: Outlier, Remotasks. Contributors: generative AI annotators, prompt engineers, subject-matter experts, and kin. In June 2025 Meta announced a multibillion-dollar investment — walks put it near $14 billion for a large minority stake, 49 percent in the Guardian's later weather — and Wang left to help lead Meta Superintelligence. I am putting the stake here so Chapter 9 does not have to invent a parent. Parents are costumes. Costumes are kitchens.

December 2024: a class action in San Francisco Superior Court against Scale, HireArt, and executives including Wang. The complaint, in the walks that quote it, called the control Orwellian: software that took periodic screenshots, docked pay when tasks ran longer than Scale's estimates, reassigned workers to lower-paying projects. Wage-and-hour claims. Misclassification. PAGA.

The parties mediated before a retired judge. The court granted preliminary approval of a $12.5 million fund covering people who worked as contributors for Scale, Smart Ecosystem, or through HireArt while residing in California between December 10, 2020, and February 28, 2026. PAGA period in the notices: October 29, 2023, through February 28, 2026. Opt-out and workweek-challenge deadline in the 2026 notices: September 3. Final approval hearing: October 30, 2026. Defendants deny. They agreed to settle to avoid cost and uncertainty.

I printed the notice weather. I put it on the sideboard. Frieda asked if it was a bill. I said it was a fund. She said a fund that is proposed is a story. I said a story that is a caption is a fact. She wiped around the queue. The queue did not move.

What $12.5 Million Is, If You Have Only Met a Task

The amount each class member receives, in the notices, depends on weeks worked and, if eligible, PAGA pay periods. I will not promise Nia a number. Nia's kitchen, if she boxed in Kenya, is not this class. This class is California residence — an address on an account, a tax form, a wage statement, or other proof the work was performed there. Edges are how a class stays a class. I want that dull. Dull is how you stop a podcast from turning a fund into a jackpot.

Amos wrote CA ≠ KE and boxed it. He said two countries are two captions. I stole the box.

The DOL That Opened and Closed

March 2025: TechCrunch reported a Department of Labor investigation into Scale's FLSA compliance. HireArt and Upwork, in that weather, were also in the file. May 9, 2025: the DOL dropped the probe, a source told TechCrunch; Scale confirmed after publication. Spokesperson Joe Osborne said the company was pleased. The DOL did not offer a kitchen I could print. Walks pointed at a May 1 shift away from enforcing a Biden-era contractor rule. I will not upgrade a drop to a blessing. I will say a federal file can close while a state caption stays open. Closing is not innocence. Closing is a clock.

Clive said "the labor thing died." I asked whether died included October 30. He said the fund was "nuisance." I said nuisance is a cart. He took the cart. I walked.

What I Will Not Do With $12.5 Million

I will not tell you to file a claim. I will not tell you the $12.5 million is a verdict. I will tell you the notice is public weather, the window is dated, the allegation is that a contributor was an hour, and that Nia's Tuesday is not in the window if her address was not. Addresses are kitchens. Dashboards are theaters. This book is the rope between them.

Clea's Band

Clea works a library desk two towns over. She pulled the notice weather for me because I am superstitious about which machines remember me. She asked if I was in school. I said I consult. She said consulting is what people say when they print too much. She put a rubber band around the pages. The band was a fold. I walked to a bus. The fare box made a sound.

What Orwellian Means if You Have Only Met a Screenshot

The complaint's walks said Scale monitored contributors with software that took periodic screenshots, docked pay when tasks ran longer than estimates, reassigned workers to lower-paying projects. I am not going to reconstruct the tool. I am going to say a screenshot is a supervisor that does not blink, and that blinking is a Tuesday Frieda still sells. HireArt placed people. Smart Ecosystem is on the caption. Three names. One fund. I will not tour a staffing firm's kitchen I have not sat in.

Lora has a stamp that still needs a wet name. I asked her whether she would stamp a printout of a notice. She said she stamps identities, not feelings. I said the notice is a caption. She said captions are for clerks. I said Page has a window. She said then go to Page. I went. Page stamped crooked. Crooked is honest.

Weeks, Not Feelings

The notices say payment depends on weeks worked. Weeks are lists. Lists are how a class stays a class. Feelings are Pax's vest. I want a reader who boxed in Nairobi to sit with the edge: California residence. Sitting is not mockery. Sitting is how you understand a fund that will not wire a shilling.

Myra rents boxes. A man in line asked if "the Scale money" had come. I said a fund that is proposed has not come. He said then why is it on the news. I said news is a weather. He said weather is a check. I said weather is October 30 if the calendar holds. I bought an envelope I did not need.

December 10, 2020, to February 28, 2026

I am typing the window because a feeling will try to add a 2019 or a March. The notice did not add them. PAGA starts later: October 29, 2023. Two windows. One fund. HireArt placements in. Smart Ecosystem in. Outlier and Remotasks as platforms a California address can live on. I will not tell a Kenyan Tuesday it is in. I will not tell a 2019 Tuesday it is out with a flourish. I will say the notice named years, and that years are lists.

Otis cuts keys. I asked if a copy of a key is the key. He said a copy opens the same door if the bitting is true. I said commercials copy a door that is still in the shop. He said then the commercial is a bad bitting. He cut a key for a stranger. Motors are waits you can hear.

Wang, HireArt, a Retired Judge

I am not going to tour a CEO biography. I am going to say a class needs names on a page, and that the page named executives including Wang, and that mediation happened before a retired judge, and that preliminary approval is not October 30. October 30 is a sitting if the calendar holds. Sittings are Page's hours.

Pippa prints packets at a senior center. A granddaughter had printed proposed. I said proposed is not a wire. She said then why is it a packet. I said packets are how a motion becomes a kitchen. She said kitchens want numbers. I said the notices make weeks the number. I said I would not promise a dollar. The copier jammed. Jams are honest.

The complaint is not a vibe. It is CGC-24-620481. King & Siegel, walking their own filing, said McKinney tested the classification in December 2024 against Scale, HireArt, and executives including Wang. Orwellian, in that walk, meant periodic screenshots, pay docked when a task ran longer than Scale's estimates, reassignment to lower-paying projects without notice. The legal theory they typed, which I will not sell as a kit, pointed at California's ABC test, Labor Code section 2775: a worker is presumed an employee unless the hiring company proves freedom from control, work outside the usual course of the business, and an independently established trade. The complaint, in that walk, leaned on A and B — control by screenshot and estimate, and a business whose product is the labeled data the contributor made. I will not tell you whether a company can prove C. I will say a presumption is a door, and that a settlement is how a door can close without anyone walking through it.

Two more lawsuits followed within weeks, in that same walk, including a separate suit from Outlier workers who said they were assigned to write disturbing prompts involving violence and abuse without adequate psychological safeguards. Scale disputed. I will not invent those captions. I will say a fund that covers contributors is not a tour of every complaint that shared a month.

The notices, as reprinted in 2026, said class members do not file a claim. The administrator mails a check to the address on file. Do nothing: stay in, get paid if the sitting blesses the fund, release the class claims. Exclude yourself: signed writing, your name, your statement that you want out, your hand, to the administrator by September 3. If someone else sends it, the notice said it is not valid. Opt out of the class and you still cannot opt out of PAGA; a PAGA worker who excludes is still paid an Individual PAGA Payment, in that weather, and still releases the PAGA claims. Object: only if you stayed in. Challenge your workweeks or PAGA pay periods: signed writing, copies not originals, administrator's decision final. I am typing the menu because a feeling will try to make the fund a raffle. Raffles are Pax. Menus are Boone's per page. I will not tell you which line to pick. The September 3 lines, if the calendar held, are no longer pickable. October 30 can still say no.

One reprint of the notice math put the estimated net after deductions at $7,543,333.33, divided by total class workweeks, multiplied by a person's own weeks. I am keeping the odd cents because odd cents are how a fund admits it is arithmetic and not a story. I will not run the arithmetic for you. I will say a week is the unit the notice chose, and that a screenshot is not a week, and that a Kenyan address is still not a week.

Meta's June 2025 stake, in the same King & Siegel walk, valued Scale at over $29 billion. $12.5 million is a proposed fund. $29 billion is a weather. I will not make a valuation a defendant. I will say a parent can buy a vendor that buys a queue, and that a class can still ask the vendor for an hour, and that the hour, if the sitting blesses it, arrives as a week.

Page stamped another paper I did not need. Crooked again. I said thank you. She said next. Amos wrote 2775 / not a kit and underlined not. He said useful is how amateurs get a second letter. I left the sanitizer on the underline.

The Jayapal-Markey letter put Scale on a list with labs. CGC-24-620481 put Scale on a caption with HireArt. I am not collapsing a letter into a fund. I am saying a screenshot can be a congressional noun and a complaint adjective in the same decade, and that a decade is not a verdict.

Google Research, in Dzieza's walk of a paper: an order-of-magnitude figure of millions of annotation workers, with the potential to become billions. I will not freeze millions. I will say a paper can guess at a floor, and that a class can still be California residence, and that a Kenyan Tuesday is still not in the window.

Contributors, in the 2026 notice reprints: generative AI annotators, prompt engineers, subject-matter experts, and similar, including through Outlier and Remotasks. Residing in California: an address on an account, a tax form, a wage statement, or other proof the work was performed there. PAGA workers: the same work, a shorter window, October 29, 2023, through February 28, 2026. Two windows. One fund. I am typing the proof list again because a feeling will try to make a VPN a residence. I will not explain a VPN. I will say an address is a kitchen, and that a kitchen is how a class stays a class.

The letter asked whether firms make public the role of data workers, how they use them, what they do to ensure a living wage, what they do about unpaid time. I have not held the replies. I will not invent them. A letter with a deadline is still a letter if the answers stayed in a drawer.

Page's stamp is still crooked. Crooked is honest. Funds that are proposed are still proposed after a door closes. Amos wrote letter ≠ caption and boxed it.

HireArt, on the official site, is a defendant that placed people. Smart Ecosystem is a defendant that received services. Contributors include people classified as contractors performing services with Scale or HireArt — generative annotators, prompt engineers, subject-matter experts, similar. The lawsuits, in the notice weather, accused defendants of misclassifying as contractors or exempt employees; failing to pay minimum wages, overtime, wages due at termination; failing to reimburse expenses; failing meal and rest breaks; failing accurate itemized wage statements; related recordkeeping. PAGA: plaintiffs standing in the shoes of the State of California. Defendants deny misclassification, deny unpaid wages, maintain Contributors are independent contractors not subject to those wage-and-hour laws, settled to avoid risk, expense, uncertainty, without admitting wrongdoing. I am lining the accusation list next to the denial list so a podcast cannot pick one.

One newsletter walking circulating notices put a week near $55 and checks in early 2027. I will not freeze $55. I will say a week is the official unit, that odd-cent nets are the official math, and that a circulating dollar is weather until a sitting blesses a formula. Early 2027 is a hope. October 30 is a calendar.

I will not tell you to update an address. I will say the notices said the administrator mails to the address on file, and that an address is how a class stays a class, and that I am not the administrator.

Clea's band is still a fold. The fare box still made a sound. I am not going to make the sound a metaphor for a check. Sounds are buses. Checks, if they come, are weeks.

Bait-and-switch, in the Chronicle's walk of the complaint, is a California noun. 90 percent in three days is a spokesperson noun. 34 of 36 is a Times interview noun. I am putting the three nouns on one table so a fund cannot eat a messenger and a messenger cannot eat a fund. The fund is still proposed. The sitting is still October 30. The September 3 door, if the calendar held, has closed. I am writing after the door. I am not useful about the door.

Smart Ecosystem is still a name I will not tour as a kitchen I have not sat in. HireArt is still a placement firm on a caption. Cinelli, Berrios, Zhu are still personal names I will not biography. Wang is still a founder who left for a Superintelligence that is not this book's defendant. Meta's stake is still a weather. $29 billion is still not $12.5 million. $7.3 billion in 2021 is still not $29 billion. I am allowed to repeat valuations if I date them.

PAGA, in the notice weather, is the State of California standing in a worker's shoes for a shorter window. I will not sell a split. I will say a shorter window is a list, and that a list is how a class stays dull, and that dull is how you stop a podcast from turning a civil penalty into a jackpot.

Page stamped crooked. I said thank you. She said next. I left. The line behind me wanted identities, not funds. Identities are wet. Funds are PDFs. I prefer wet.

The Chronicle's bait-and-switch is the complaint's rate story: a number promised, a lower number after the work starts. The notice's week is the class's unit if the sitting blesses the fund. The spokesperson's three days is the inquiry's unit. PAGA's pay period is the State's unit for a shorter window. I am lining the units so a reader who only remembers $12.5 million can see that a million is not a unit a worker lives in. Workers live in weeks, days, inquiries, promised hours that moved. I will not tell you which unit to prefer. I will say the sitting, if it happens, will prefer weeks, and that Nia's Tuesday is still not a week, and that a Philippine month of notices is still not a week.

I printed the official site's denial paragraph again. Strongly deny. Complied with all applicable laws. Contributors are independent contractors. Settled to avoid risk, expense, uncertainty. I put it next to the accusation list. Frieda wiped around both. She asked which paper was true. I said both papers are mouths. She said then the book is a mouth. I said the book is a seating chart. She said seating charts do not mop. I said I know.

Clea's band snapped. She replaced it. Rubber is honest. PDFs are not.

If the sitting on October 30 blesses the fund, a week becomes a check to an address. If it does not, a week stays a notice. I am writing after September 3 and before October 30, which is a kind of hallway. Hallways are honest. Verdicts are not this book's job. Denials are still on the site. Automatic is still the adjective. $7,543,333.33 is still odd cents. $55 is still circulating weather I will not freeze. Early 2027 is still a hope. HireArt is still a placement. Smart Ecosystem is still a name. Cinelli, Berrios, Zhu are still not biographies. Wang is still a personal defendant and a later Superintelligence weather and not a finding.

I did not update an address for anyone. I am not the administrator. Simpluris is a name I will not be useful about. Crooked stamps are still honest.

The hallway between September 3 and October 30 is still a hallway. I am still in it. Automatic is still the adjective. Odd cents are still the math. A Kenyan address is still not a week. Defendants still deny. I still will not update your address. I still will not be useful about Simpluris. Crooked is still honest. Proposed is still the only adult word for $12.5 million until a sitting says otherwise.