U.S. Department of Labor's Wage & Hour Division Issues Guidance on Worker Classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act
Today, the United States Department of Labor's Wage & Hour Division issued guidance on the Fair Labor Standard Act's (FLSA) "suffer or permit to work" standard regarding the classification of workers as employees or independent contractors under FLSA. You can read the guidance here . Recognizing an increasing number of complaints from workers about being treated as independent contractors by employers, the DOL determined it may be helpful to provide additional guidance on the issue of what workers qualify as employees or independent contractors. In its guidance, the DOL stresses that most workers should be classified as employees and emphasizes that the economic realities test should be applied broadly to take into account the remedial purposes of FLSA. The DOL's guidance reiterates that the FLSA "defines 'employee' as 'any individual employed by an employer,' 29 U.S.C. 203(e)(1), and 'employer' as including 'any person a...