{"slug":"agent-payment-contract","title":"Co-pilots, agents, and the new contract","summary":"Outcome, hybrid, attribution. Three contract patterns of 2026 — and the bookkeeping layer they all require.","lede":"When the agent does the work, the human still gets the paycheck. That has been the awkward truth of 2024–2025.","date":"2026-05-04","reading_time":"5 min","category":"Future of Work","tags":["compensation","contracts","unions","Toptal","Upwork"],"image":"https://cdn.twc.sh/images/igcache/Agent%20Payment%20Contract/1500_900/blog.jpg","url":"/blog/agent-payment-contract.html","wordcount":680,"related":["proof-of-human-work","my-agent-shipped-this","hiring-2027-survey"],"schema":"Article"}