1.Grace Cathedral Church owns a for-profit restaurant in Ohio called Cathedral Buffet. The buffet has both employees and volunteers that staff the restaurant. Volunteers perform many of the same restaurant-related tasks as employees: cleaning, washing dishes, serving cake, chopping vegetables, and manning the cash register. However, there is one meaningful distinction between employees and volunteers. Employees receive an hourly wage; volunteers do not.

The pastor often announces before his Sunday sermon that the buffet is short-handed and needs more volunteers from the parish, claiming it is the "Lord's Buffet" and that church members who repeatedly refuse to volunteer at the restaurant are at risk of "blaspheming against the Holy Ghost." The pastor never promises any compensation. Restaurant managers work around volunteer's schedules, ensuring they are free during their assigned shifts. If you were the Sixth Circuit, would you find that the volunteers are employees or independent contractors? What variables would help you in reaching your decision? [Acosta v. Cathedral Buffet, Inc., 892 F.3d 819 (6th Cir. 2018).]