an effort to curb the practice

Changes to Independent Contractor Laws are Threatening Millions of American Jobs

Proposed changes to independent contractor laws and other federal and state actions are threatening the livelihoods of millions of Americans.

A multi-front assault on independent contracting
is intensifying at both the federal and state levels.
Government agencies are threatening to eliminate
the businesses created by independent contractors
and erect legal barriers that would make engaging
independent contractors’ services difficult, if not illegal.

Federal Threat

President Barack Obama’s 2014 fiscal year budget
includes $14 million to “combat independent
contractor misclassification, including $10 million
for grants to States to identify misclassification
and recover unpaid taxes and $4 million for the
Department of Labor Wage & Hour Division to
investigate misclassification.”

In January 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor
announced plans for a $1.9 million study on
the misclassification of independent contractors
by assessing whether American workers understand
their job classification and the implications of
their status on their wages, benefits and taxes.

The Department plans to collect information from
more than 10,000 American workers and 100
company executives in an effort to curb the practice
in which employers allegedly misclassify workers
to evade state...