labor lawAdivision of labor law center

        Does misclassification of employees as independent contractors increase during a recession? Some experts seem to think so. Several states and the federal government are reacting to this crisis with increased enforcement and higher penalties against employers who violate these statutes.

        Speaking to SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, attorney Frank Connolly said,” When it comes to a lot of start-ups or small businesses that don’t have a lot of assets, a lot of it is naïveté and a lot of it is convenience. I don’t have the money to pay a lot of people a lot of cash. I can avoid it by calling these people independent contractors.” Connolly, with the firm of Jackson Lewis in Washington, D.C. adds, “These employers probably don’t realize that they are violating the law.”

        In most cases, if the employer controls when, where or (more…)