Tennessee Injury Lawyer Blog
This year the United States Department of Labor announced its 2015 Misclassification Initiative aimed at combatting the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. While this has been a priority for the DOL for the last several years, they seem to be getting really, really serious of it lately. And for good reason- a June 2013 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report stated: “The misclassification of employees as independent contractors is a nationwide issue affecting millions of workers that continues to grow and contribute to the tax gap.” A 2009 TIGTA report on misclassification said the lost tax revenue from this misclassification is more than $1.6 billion dollars annually.
Today, about 50 million workers – one-third of the workforce – are classified as independent contractors, freelancers, or temporary workers. This number is predicted to grow to 60 million workers – 40 percent of the workforce – by 2020. These workers do not receive benefits and safeguards such as unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, and retirement benefits.
On July 15 of this year, the DOL issued a memo setting out how the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal law governing minimum wage and overtime among other things, should be applied in making the determination if an employee is truly an “independent contractor” or would be considered an employee under the FLSA and entitled to the benefits it guarantees. And they could not have been more clear as to the expansive coverage of the FLSA.
