On July 15, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) administrator David Weil issued an administrator’s interpretation on the application of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) definition of “employ” on the identification of employees who are misclassified as independent contractors. The administrator’s interpretation (AI) concludes that “most workers are employees under the FLSA.” The AI was issued in the context of the DOL’s larger Misclassification Initiative, which provides for the collaboration of the DOL, Internal Revenue Service and 26 states through information-sharing and coordinated enforcement.
The DOL’s AI comes at a time where worker classification has become not only the focus of government agencies, but also an area of increased wage-and-hour litigation and public conversation. While the AI sets out a multifactored test to determine whether a worker qualifies as an employee under the FLSA, it almost singularly focuses on a worker’s economic dependence on the business in question. Simply stated, according to the DOL, if a worker is economically dependent on a business, that worker is an employee of that business.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
