There have actually been a few cases that have made it through the courts that apply "employee" status based on how the company treats the worker rather than how they're paid.
Especially in cases where the worker is on long-term assignment somewhere like Google.
It's not done yet. The ammophiles will certainly appeal it to the SCOTUS, which isn't exactly rational lately. I'm sure Justice Alito will find a relevant quote from a 12th century blacksmith saying that the Duke cannot legally prevent him from forging horse shoes, and because horses are instrumental to war, are considered "weapons" and thus, the government can't place any sort of restriction on guns because horses are people too, he'll say, citing Tina Belcher.
29ish miles.
A single bill of US currency is 0.0043 inches thick.
$44bil in $100 bills is 1,892,000 inches, which comes out to 29.861 miles.
A lot of science fiction writers try to address the problem of time when humanity becomes a space-faring race. Star Trek has the idea of a "Stardate" and instructed the script writers to just fucking make it up,
For example, 1313.5 is twelve o'clock noon of one day and 1314.5 would be noon of the next day. Each percentage point (sic) is roughly equivalent to one-tenth of one day. The progression of stardates in your script should remain constant but don't worry about whether or not there is a progression from other scripts. Stardates are a mathematical formula which varies depending on location in the galaxy, velocity of travel, and other factors, can vary widely from episode to episode."
Meanwhile, Asimov in the Robots / Foundation universe, everyone still uses the idea of a 365-day / 24-hour day "year", even if no one remembers Earth (except a R. Daneel Olivaw and a few others).
And Kim Stanley Robinson in his Mars trilogy does what OP notes -- Martian years are longer, and the societies diverge pretty rapidly, within a generation, for a whole host of reasons.
Maybe not "need", but yes, a fully peer reviewed study confirming or rejecting seemingly obvious conclusions is an important part of the scientific method. It's how we gain confidence in what we (think we) know.