WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Labor proposed a rule on Tuesday that would make it more difficult for companies to treat workers as independent contractors, a change that is expected to shake up the business models of the ridesharing, delivery and other industries that rely on gig workers.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comThe Labor Department said it will consider workers' opportunity for profit or loss, the permanency of their jobs, and the degree of control a company exercises over a worker, among other factors.“Misclassification deprives workers of their federal labor protections, including their right to be paid their full, legally earned wages," Walsh said.The rule, which will take at least several months to finalize, would replace a Trump administration regulation that says workers who own their own businesses or have the ability to work for competing companies, such as a driver who works for Uber and Lyft, can be treated as contractors.More than one-third of U.S. workers, or nearly 60 million people, performed some sort of freelance work in the past 12 months, a December 2021 survey by freelancing marketplace Upwork showed."