Workforce Bulletin

There is a comedian by the name of Jeff Foxworthy who has been enormously popular for the past two decades or so. 

Perhaps you are familiar with him.  (And if you are, you probably thought that you stumbled upon the wrong blog just now.)

Remarkably, Mr. Foxworthy’s name comes up frequently when talking about whether workers have been properly classified as independent contractors.  Not because there is anything funny about that issue; there isn’t.  And not because Mr. Foxworthy was misclassified as an independent contractor.  Instead, his name pops up because Mr. Foxworthy has ...

It is no secret that independent contractor misclassification claims are being filed against employers with a great deal of frequency, often as class actions and often in California.  Many of those lawsuits have been filed against gig economy companies.  But, of course, they are not the only companies facing such claims.

As a result, many companies that classify workers as independent contractors are asking a basic question, “Are those workers properly classified?”

It sounds like such a simple question, one that should have a simple answer.

But there is no simple answer, at least ...

Recently, a number of proposed class and collective action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of so-called “gig economy” workers, alleging that such workers have been misclassified as independent contractors. How these workers are classified is critical not only for workers seeking wage, injury and discrimination protections only available to employees, but also to employers desiring to avoid legal risks and costs conferred by employee status.  While a number of cases have been tried regarding other types of independent contractor arrangements (e.g., taxi drivers ...