On December 12. 2012, Rep. Erik Paulsen (R. Minn.) introduced a bill that bears many similarities to a bill introduced earlier this year by 33 Democrats.  The Independent Contractor Tax Fairness and Simplification Act (H.R. 6653) would, like the Fair Playing Field Act (H.R. 4123) introduced

The U.S. Department of Labor recently scored a meaningful victory in yet another court case where a company failed to structure, document, and execute properly an independent contractor relationship with workers who were paid on a 1099 basis.  In Hilda L. Solis, Secretary of Labor v. Cascom, Inc. and Julia

On September 19, 2011, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman signed a Memorandum of Understanding to coordinate both agencies’ law enforcement efforts aimed at businesses that misclassify employees as independent contractors.  At a ceremony held at the Labor Department headquarters in Washington, Secretary Solis said, “We’re

The IRS yesterday announced a new program to permit taxpayers to voluntarily reclassify independent contractors as employees for federal employment tax purposes.

The program, called the “Voluntary Classification Settlement Program” (VCSP), would allow businesses to voluntarily reclassify workers who currently receive 1099s from the company by making what is referred

On Friday, April 8, 2011, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced the Payroll Fraud Prevention Act (S. 770), a trimmed-down version of the Employee Misclassification Prevention Act bill that was introduced into both houses of Congress a year ago. Taking a cue

The Pennsylvania Construction Workplace Misclassification Act was signed into law on October 13, 2010.  Also called House Bill 400 and Act 72 of 2010, the new law went into effect on February 10, 2011.

Earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry published three documents on its website

Last month, the federal district court judge assigned to handle dozens of state law class action claims brought around the country against FedEx Ground by its drivers, who have claimed they are “employees” misclassified as independent contractors (ICs), issued a comprehensive ruling covering 42 of the of the remaining lawsuits. 

Yesterday a federal court in Manhattan granted a motion for class action certification to a group of  adult dancers who have worked at the Penthouse Executive Club in New York City.  They alleged, among other things, that the Club violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by failing to

The New York Construction Industry Fair Play Act goes into effect today, as previously noted in a detailed posting on this site  and in an article published in the New York Law Journal by a publisher of this blog.  From this point forward in the construction industry, companies and their