미국의 ‘전국노동관계법’상 근로자 개념의 변천 – ‘기업가적 기회’에 대한 평가를 중심으로 –

With the recent rise of the gig economy, there has been a growing number of workers who simultaneously exhibit characteristics of both employees and independent business operators. In this context, collective bargaining over wages—traditionally protected under labor law—may be viewed as collusive conduct from the perspective of classical antitrust law. As a result, new discussions have emerged concerning the boundary between labor law and antitrust law. This issue is not unique to Korea; rather, it is a shared challenge across many industrialized nations where economic development has reached a certain level of maturity. Given these circumstances, it is significant to examine the U.S. approach to the doctrine of labor exemption under antitrust law, and more specifically, the standards for determining employee status under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). In particular, the role that a worker’s status as a “business operator” has played in the classification of employee status is instructive for Korea, where the applicability of antitrust law to workers under the Trade Union Act is emerging as a pressing legal issue. This article provides an overview of the historical development of the concept and criteria of “employee” under the NLRA since its enactment in 1935, with attention to relevant federal court decisions, NLRB rulings, and legislative amendments. Through this, it seeks to identify the dynamic nature of the standards for determining employee status under the NLRA. Furthermore, it examines the 2023 Atlanta Opera decision, which suggests a growing likelihood that platform workers and other labor providers with partial entrepreneurial characteristics may now be more broadly recognized as employees under the NLRA.