Independent contractor misclassification

It is rare for a business to challenge an administrative determination concerning a single worker’s claim for unemployment insurance benefits. Indeed, many employers tend to delegate responsibility to handle administrative proceedings before state unemployment offices to companies providing “unemployment claims services.” This is because the issue in most unemployment cases

Last week, kgb USA, which operates a text message and Internet-based information service, consented to the entry of a federal court judgment to pay $1.3 million in unpaid minimum wage and overtime wages to its 14,500 current and former “Special Agents” in settlement of claims brought by the U.S.

This month there have already been two cases in the staffing and workforce solutions industry that highlight the risks posed to that industry and their clients where the workers being referred are paid on a 1099 basis. One case arose in New York and involved workers referred to clients holding

Buried in the Federal Register on January 11, 2013 is a proposal for the U.S. Department of Labor to conduct a study to “better understand employees’ experience with worker misclassification” by “measur[ing] workers’ knowledge about their current job classification, and their knowledge about the rights and benefits associated with their

Many due diligence reviews in mergers, acquisitions and investments have ignored the issue of independent contractor (IC) misclassification liability. This is a difficult exposure to identify unless the legal team digs below the information typically provided by the seller or available in public records. In view of the crackdown by federal and state governments on the

The IRS earlier this week temporarily expanded the Voluntary Classification Settlement Program (VCSP), which was the subject of a prior post, to permit taxpayers who do not meet all of the conditions for the original Program to reclassify independent contractors as employees for federal employment tax purposes.  The expanded

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 last four years started out with expectations that the federal government would enact legislation to curtail misclassification of employees as independent contractors (ICs).  Yet, not a single bill was enacted despite strong support by President Obama for Congressional action in the area of IC misclassification. Federal regulators, though, were

The lead story in today’s front page of the Texas Tribune reports on a hearing before the Texas Workforce Commission where the testimony focused on the intersection of undocumented aliens and independent contractor misclassification. The hearing was held in advance of the Workforce Commission’s preparation for its upcoming legislative