On November 16, 2022, the Department of Labor announced that it had recovered $1.2 million in back wages from four different home health care agencies on behalf of 599 home healthcare workers. One of the responsible employers, Guardian Angels Care Services, Inc., owed $160,477 in overtime back wages for misclassifying its employees as independent
I’ve written several times on the topic of employee v. independent contractor misclassification (here, here, here, here, here, here). Yesterday, the DOL issued an Administrator’s Interpretation attempting to provide additional guidance, and the Department’s opinion, on the application of the standards for determining whether a worker is an
I am always skeptical when I hear a deal that sounds too good to be true. Because of my healthy skepticism, I hope that I am unlikely to be scammed by the phishing e-mail advising me a foreign distant relative has left me a lot of money and I only need to send a few thousand dollars to an off-shore bank
Lawyers prosecuting and defending wage and hour misclassification cases (i.e., exempt/nonexempt and employee/contractor) will emphasize how fact intensive these inquiries can be. The importance of factual distinctions in litigating misclassification cases is demonstrated by two cases recently decided by the Fifth Circuit. In Cromwell v. Driftwood Electrical Contractors, a panel of the
In another cable splicer misclassification case arising in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, the Fifth Circuit affirmed a trial court decision that Louis Thibault was an independent contractor rather than an employee. Therefore, he was not entitled to overtime under the FLSA.
Thibault owned a business in his home state of Delaware selling picnic tables, storage
Companies using independent contractors to perform work normally performed by employees beware; state and federal governmental taxing authorities are challenging those classifications in an effort to increase tax revenue on wages that are not properly reported. According to a recent article by the Associated Press, "the Internal Revenue Service and 37 states are cracking down on
I’ve written several posts on the potential pitfalls that may befall a company that mistakenly classifies workers as independent contractors. You can see those posts here and here. A recent bill introduced in Congress would make it even more difficult to classify workers as independent contractors and would require companies to file more information with
Employers have long been challenged by a variety of wage and hour litigation such as misclassification cases and off-the-clock overtime cases. One of the latest trends in wage and hour litigation is attacking a company’s classification of its workers as independent contractors instead of employees. Because independent contractors are not entitled to certain aspects of benefits provided