When the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) Office of General Counsel announced in August that it was authorizing complaints against both McDonald’s store owners and corporate McDonald’s USA LLC as so-called “joint employers,” the employer community was abuzz, fearing wide-reaching application of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to corporate entities, or franchisors, that were removed from the day-to-day operation of the business. While there has not been a similar singular moment in the wage-and-hour arena, over the last several years workers have attempted to expand the concepts of “employer” and “employee” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state wage-and-hour law in an effort to obtain additional potential reservoirs of recovery.

While the decision of the NLRB’s general counsel relates to application of the NLRA and does not directly impact how the FLSA, a separate statute, is or will be interpreted, it is emblematic of a growing trend to expand the definitions of employer and employee under a variety of labor and employment laws. Just one example is the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit’s decision just last month finding that Trans States Airlines and GoJet Airlines, two air carriers that provided air services to United Airlines at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, were joint employers under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.

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