At Michino-Eli Yamada, a diner in Japan, you can order oyster-infused soft serve ice cream, topped with soy sauce.

While that sounds like a truly awful blend of flavors (and a waste of perfectly good soft serve), the diner is getting plenty of press for its creativity.

There seems to be some competition in Japan for ruining the soft serve experience. There’s another restaurant offering a miso ramen bowl with a cone of soft serve floating in the bowl. Photo here.

I’m a fan of adding rainbow sprinkles to my soft serve, but adding oysters or miso ramen is an unfair outcome.

And that brings us to today’s topic, about another seemingly unfair outcome. Let’s talk about why the concept of joint employment exists. Because to a business accused of being a joint employer, joint employment often feels like an unfair outcome.

Why should your business be responsible for payroll and overtime errors committed by a different employer, such as a staffing agency? Since you’ve asked so politely, I’ll tell you why.

Suppose a staffing agency worker is due overtime pay but the staffing agency employer didn’t pay it. Maybe it’s a tiny staffing agency that lacks the funds. Maybe the primary employer would go bankrupt if hit with a wage and hour lawsuit. In that case, the worker is legally due overtime pay but will be out of luck.

There are two possible results here: One is that the worker loses out on the overtime pay. The second is that a joint employer — the company that benefitted from that worker’s labor — pays.

Who is in a better position to incur the loss? Who is in a better position to prevent the loss? The answer to both questions is the business receiving the benefit of the services — the joint employer.

It’s a policy decision that the business benefiting from the services should pay the missing overtime instead of the worker not receiving the money due.

So what can a potential joint employer do about it? Fortunately, several things.

First, select a reputable staffing agency, one that you are confident will pay its workers as the law requires. Tiny staffing firms might be cheaper, but the reason they might be cheaper is because they lack the infrastructure and sophistication to comply with legal requirements.

Second, use a comprehensive staffing agency agreement. A good staffing agency agreement should include several components, including creating contractual obligations for the staffing agency to pay overtime and minimum wage and to comply with other aspects of the law. A good agreement will also include carefully-drafted indemnity provisions.

Click here to see “Ten Things That Should Be in Your Staffing Agency Agreement But Probably Aren’t.”

There are good policy reason why the concept of joint employment exists. There are also lots of steps potential joint employers can take to limit their risk of liability.

There are no good reasons, though, for oyster-flavored soft serve. I’m not budging on that point.

© 2026 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.