From featured guest blogger at the National Law Review   Richard J. Reibstein of Pepper Hamilton LLP – good commentary on why what Congress is proposing concerning Independent Contractors won’t work and what should be done instead: 

Congress has introduced two bills intended to discourage businesses from misclassifying employees as independent contractors and end the issuance of Form 1099s to workers who are not legitimate independent contractors.  Both bills – one a labor bill and the other a tax bill – have the laudable objective of curtailing misclassification of employees as independent contractors.  But the two bills, although related, contain different tests for determining who is an independent contractor or employee. 

The Obama Administration has firmly endorsed both bills.  While some Administration-supported legislative initiatives have little chance of passage in the lame-duck session of Congress or in 2011, these bills have a far better chance of passage because they are both revenue raisers.  Between the two bills, the labor bill may be passed earlier, inasmuch as hearings on the bill have already been held.

It can hardly be disputed that businesses that intentionally issue Form 1099s to workers contribute to the tax gap, deprive workers of federal, state, and local workplace protections, and places businesses that properly classify workers at a competitive disadvantage.  But, what about unintentional misclassification by businesses confused by varying definitions and legal standards used to determine who is an independent contractor and who an “employee” under an array of labor, tax, and benefits laws?

A 2006 report to Congress by the Government Accountability Office addressing misclassification observed that “the tests used to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee . . . differ from law to law,” even among various federal labor, employment, and employee benefits laws.  The GAO report notes, “For example, the NLRA, the Civil Rights Act, FLSA, and ERISA each use a different definition of an employee and various tests, or criteria, to distinguish independent contractors from employees.”  A 2009 report by theGAO concluded that while “the independent contractor relationship can offer advantages to both businesses and workers” and “[m]any independent contractors are classified properly,” Congress should take steps to help businesses that “may be confused about how to properly classify workers.” 

The tax bill expressly seeks to clarify confusion over who is an employee or independent contractor under the federal employment tax laws; however, the labor bill not only contains a test at odds with the tax bill but is also inconsistent with the test used in most other federal laws dealing with labor and employment.

The passage of the labor bill as drafted, with or without passage of the tax bill, will contribute to an even more confusing legal landscape for the hundreds of thousands of businesses that treat certain workers as independent contractors.

The Tax Bill:  The Fair Playing Field Act of 2010 

In mid-September 2010, both the Senate (S. 3786) and House (H.R. 6128) introduced the more recent of the two bills addressing misclassification – the Fair Playing Field Act of 2010.  The bill would close what the sponsors of the legislation, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA), refer to as a “tax loophole allowing businesses to misclassify workers as independent contractors.”  As set forth in the preamble of the bill, “Such misclassification for tax purposes contributes to inequities in the competitive positions of businesses and to the Federal and State tax gap, and may also result in misclassification for other purposes, such as denial of unemployment benefits, workplace health and safety protections, and retirement or other benefits or protections available to employees.”

The “loophole” that the Fair Playing Field Act seeks to close is Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978.  For the past 30 years, that law has afforded businesses a “safe harbor” to treat workers as independent contractors for employment tax purposes as long as the company has had a reasonable basis for such treatment and has consistently treated such employees as independent contractors by reporting their compensation on a Form 1099.

The tax bill’s “findings” recognize that while “many workers are properly classified as independent contractors, in other instances workers who are employees are being treated as independent contractors.”  The bill continues: “Workers, businesses, and other taxpayers will benefit from clear guidance regarding employment tax status.”  The bill therefore directs the Secretary of the Treasury to issue guidance in the form of regulations “allowing workers and businesses to clearly understand the proper federal tax classification of workers.” 

The Fair Playing Field Act bill provides that, in issuing such guidance, the term “employment status” for any individual shall be determined “under the usual common law rules applicable in determining the employer-employee relationship, as an employee or as an independent contractor (or other individual who is not an employee).”  

The IRS and the courts have historically used the “common law” test for determining independent contractor status under the Tax Code.  But, as noted below, the other federal bill seeking to curtail misclassification not only refers to a different test for determining who is an employee and who is an independent contractor, but also is out of sync with prevailing judicial precedent.

The Labor Bill:  The Employee Misclassification Prevention Act (EMPA)

EMPA was introduced in late April 2010 by the Senate (S. 3254) and House (H.R. 5107).  EMPA would amend an existing law, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), by creating a new labor law offense: misclassification of an employee as an independent contractor. 

If passed, EMPA would also impose strict record-keeping and notice requirements upon businesses with respect to workers treated as independent contractors, expose such businesses to fines of $1,100 to $5,000 per employee for each misclassification, and award triple damages for violations of the minimum wage or overtime provisions of the FLSA.

EMPA also makes specific reference to the definition of “employee” found in the FLSA, a 1938 law that regulates child labor and mandates the payment of minimum wage and overtime for employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek. For decades, courts have interpreted the word “employee” in FLSA cases under an expansive legal standard that is commonly referred to as the “economic realities” test.  As the Supreme Court has noted, this expansive interpretation under the FLSA derives from laws that were intended to prevent child labor violations, and “stretches the meaning of ‘employee’ to cover some parties who might not qualify as [an employee] under a strict application of traditional [common] law principles.”

As drafted, however, the EMPA bill would arguably incorporate the FLSA’s broad “economic realities” test into its definition of “employee.”  That test gives undue weight to the economic dependence by workers on the business that has retained them.  Such a test is inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s most recent judicial precedents applying the “common law” test and is at odds with what the that Court referred to as  the “common understanding…of the difference between an employee and an independent contractor.”

At least one house of Congress is presumably well aware of this disconnect.  As the Assistant Secretary of Labor testified in writing before the Senate at a hearing held on EMPA on June 17, 2010, “Whether a worker is an employee [or independent contractor] depends on which law is applicable.”  He continued, “We recognize that it is conceivable for a worker to be correctly classified differently under the different standards that apply for different statutory purposes.”  Thus, absent a legislative “fix,” a business that properly classified a particular worker under the “common law” test used to determine independent contractor status under the Tax Code, ERISA, and the nation’s discrimination laws, may be found to have misclassified the same worker under the new EMPA law if the “economic realities” test of the 1938 FLSA law is used. 

Congress Should Provide a Common Federal Definition of “Employee” for Misclassification Purposes

The “common law” test for determining if an individual is an independent contractor or employee focuses on whether the business controls the manner and means that the work is accomplished.  The Supreme Court has set forth twelve factors relevant to the issue of “control,” but noted that there are many additional factors that can be useful in determining employee status, including the additional factors set forth in the IRS’s so-called “20 factor” test.

According to the Supreme Court, the “common law“ test “comports…with our recent precedents and with the common understanding, reflected in those precedents, of the difference between an employee and an independent contractor.”  Those recent precedents include the Court’s determination of whether a worker was an employee or independent contractor under the nation’s pension law and under one of the most important post-Civil Rights discrimination laws – the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The sponsors of EMPA as well as witnesses who testified in favor of the bill’s passage at a Senate committee hearing in June have noted that EMPA is intended to serve a number of important objectives: closing the tax gap that has deprived the federal and state governments of tax revenues; affording protections to misclassified workers under an array of federal laws that govern employers and employees (including ERISA, FLSA, OSHA, and the federal discrimination laws); and promoting fair business competition by outlawing the practice of misclassification, which creates an unfair advantage for businesses that improperly avoid the payment of payroll taxes.  Notably, these are the very same purposes set forth in the preamble of the Fair Playing Field Act.  Thus, both misclassification bills are intended to serve the same broad tax, labor, and business purposes.  There is no reason, therefore, for Congress to have two different and potentially conflicting tests for determining if a worker is an employee or independent contractor. 

The FLSA is one of over a dozen major federal labor and employment laws; it is not a misclassification statute.  Congress appears to have attached EMPA to the FLSA merely as a matter of legislative convenience. The value of piggy-backing new legislative initiatives on existing laws can have many benefits, such as eliminating the need for Congress to draft definitional, administrative, procedural, and other similar provisions for a new piece of legislation. 

This valuable use of legislative piggy-backing, however, should not automatically incorporate special definitional sections within the existing law where the definitions were enacted to serve purposes wholly unrelated to the purpose of the new legislation.  Indeed, the Congressional Declaration of Policy underlying the FLSA, which was enacted as part of the New Deal legislation, was to address “labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being of workers.”  The broad purposes of EMPA have little if nothing to do with the narrow remedial purposes of the FLSA or the child labor law statutes that were used to craft the expansive definition of “employee” in the FLSA. 

The Congressional goal expressed in the Fair Playing Field Act of “allowing workers and businesses to clearly understand the proper federal tax classification of workers” is beneficial, but if Congress allows EMPA to be passed with a different definition of “employee” than what prevails under the Tax Code and most other federal laws, all Congress will have done is created more confusion among workers and businesses.  In addition, in order to comply with all federal laws covering “employees,” a prudent business would have to disregard the “common law” test applicable under most federal statutes including the Fair Playing Field Act and only treat workers as independent contractors if they satisfied the narrower test under the New Deal child labor and wage and hour law.  This would have the effect of limiting the use of legitimate independent contractors, a result that Congress has never articulated as a purpose of either of the two bills.  Indeed, as stated in the preamble to the Fair Playing Field Act, Congress has found that “many workers are properly classified as independent contractors….”

What Congress Should Do

Congress should use the legislative process to take one of the following two steps to remedy this important discrepancy between the two bills or, if only the labor bill is passed, to ensure that it does not create even greater confusion about who is and who is not an independent contractor: 

• Modify the definition of “employee” within EMPA so that it uses the same wording found in the Fair Playing Field Act for determining employee or independent contractor status.  Such determinations under that law should be made, as stated in the Fair Playing Field Act, “under the usual common law rules applicable in determining the employer-employee relationship, as an employee or as an independent contractor (or other individual who is not an employee).” 
   
• Make it crystal clear in the legislative history of the bill, including the Senate and House committee reports, that the definition of “employee” for purposes of EMPA should be construed in a manner consistent with both the “common law” test – which is the prevailing judicial standard under most federal laws including ERISA, the ADA, and the Tax Code – and the “common understanding” of contemporary independent contractor relationships. 

Another approach would be to amend the definition of “employee” or “employ” under the FLSA to language that updates the New Deal definitional terms and, like the Fair Playing Field Act bill,  incorporates the “common law” test that prevails under virtually every other federal law.   

The urgent need for thoughtful federal legislation in the area of misclassification is hard to argue against.  The one witness that testified in a critical manner about EMPA at the Senate hearing this past June did not suggest that federal legislation is not needed.  Rather, he criticized the size of the proposed penalties for misclassification, the nature of the record-keeping requirements, the language of the proposed notice to be given to all workers, and the potential that the anti-retaliation provision could reward unethical conduct. 

The determination of whether an individual worker is an independent contractor or employee is, more often than not,  in the “gray area” and it oftentimes presents a close question of law.  Regardless of whether Congress conducts further hearings on EMPA, it is imperative that legislators avoid placing businesses and workers in the untenable position where they may be found by the very same court to have properly classified an individual under one of the two new proposed laws but improperly classified him or her under the other.

Copyright © 2010 Pepper Hamilton LLP

Congress has introduced two bills intended to discourage businesses from misclassifying employees as independent contractors and end the issuance of Form 1099s to workers who are not legitimate independent contractors.  Both bills – one a labor bill and the other a tax bill – have the laudable objective of curtailing misclassification of employees as independent contractors.  But the two bills, although related, contain different tests for determining who is an independent contractor or employee. 

The Obama Administration has firmly endorsed both bills.  While some Administration-supported legislative initiatives have little chance of passage in the lame-duck session of Congress or in 2011, these bills have a far better chance of passage because they are both revenue raisers.  Between the two bills, the labor bill may be passed earlier, inasmuch as hearings on the bill have already been held.

It can hardly be disputed that businesses that intentionally issue Form 1099s to workers contribute to the tax gap, deprive workers of federal, state, and local workplace protections, and places businesses that properly classify workers at a competitive disadvantage.  But, what about unintentional misclassification by businesses confused by varying definitions and legal standards used to determine who is an independent contractor and who an “employee” under an array of labor, tax, and benefits laws?

A 2006 report to Congress by the Government Accountability Office addressing misclassification observed that “the tests used to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee . . . differ from law to law,” even among various federal labor, employment, and employee benefits laws.  The GAO report notes, “For example, the NLRA, the Civil Rights Act, FLSA, and ERISA each use a different definition of an employee and various tests, or criteria, to distinguish independent contractors from employees.”  A 2009 report by theGAO concluded that while “the independent contractor relationship can offer advantages to both businesses and workers” and “[m]any independent contractors are classified properly,” Congress should take steps to help businesses that “may be confused about how to properly classify workers.” 

The tax bill expressly seeks to clarify confusion over who is an employee or independent contractor under the federal employment tax laws; however, the labor bill not only contains a test at odds with the tax bill but is also inconsistent with the test used in most other federal laws dealing with labor and employment.

The passage of the labor bill as drafted, with or without passage of the tax bill, will contribute to an even more confusing legal landscape for the hundreds of thousands of businesses that treat certain workers as independent contractors.

The Tax Bill:  The Fair Playing Field Act of 2010 

In mid-September 2010, both the Senate (S. 3786) and House (H.R. 6128) introduced the more recent of the two bills addressing misclassification – the Fair Playing Field Act of 2010.  The bill would close what the sponsors of the legislation, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA), refer to as a “tax loophole allowing businesses to misclassify workers as independent contractors.”  As set forth in the preamble of the bill, “Such misclassification for tax purposes contributes to inequities in the competitive positions of businesses and to the Federal and State tax gap, and may also result in misclassification for other purposes, such as denial of unemployment benefits, workplace health and safety protections, and retirement or other benefits or protections available to employees.”

The “loophole” that the Fair Playing Field Act seeks to close is Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978.  For the past 30 years, that law has afforded businesses a “safe harbor” to treat workers as independent contractors for employment tax purposes as long as the company has had a reasonable basis for such treatment and has consistently treated such employees as independent contractors by reporting their compensation on a Form 1099.

The tax bill’s “findings” recognize that while “many workers are properly classified as independent contractors, in other instances workers who are employees are being treated as independent contractors.”  The bill continues: “Workers, businesses, and other taxpayers will benefit from clear guidance regarding employment tax status.”  The bill therefore directs the Secretary of the Treasury to issue guidance in the form of regulations “allowing workers and businesses to clearly understand the proper federal tax classification of workers.” 

The Fair Playing Field Act bill provides that, in issuing such guidance, the term “employment status” for any individual shall be determined “under the usual common law rules applicable in determining the employer-employee relationship, as an employee or as an independent contractor (or other individual who is not an employee).”  

The IRS and the courts have historically used the “common law” test for determining independent contractor status under the Tax Code.  But, as noted below, the other federal bill seeking to curtail misclassification not only refers to a different test for determining who is an employee and who is an independent contractor, but also is out of sync with prevailing judicial precedent.

The Labor Bill:  The Employee Misclassification Prevention Act (EMPA)

EMPA was introduced in late April 2010 by the Senate (S. 3254) and House (H.R. 5107).  EMPA would amend an existing law, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), by creating a new labor law offense: misclassification of an employee as an independent contractor. 

If passed, EMPA would also impose strict record-keeping and notice requirements upon businesses with respect to workers treated as independent contractors, expose such businesses to fines of $1,100 to $5,000 per employee for each misclassification, and award triple damages for violations of the minimum wage or overtime provisions of the FLSA.

EMPA also makes specific reference to the definition of “employee” found in the FLSA, a 1938 law that regulates child labor and mandates the payment of minimum wage and overtime for employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek. For decades, courts have interpreted the word “employee” in FLSA cases under an expansive legal standard that is commonly referred to as the “economic realities” test.  As the Supreme Court has noted, this expansive interpretation under the FLSA derives from laws that were intended to prevent child labor violations, and “stretches the meaning of ‘employee’ to cover some parties who might not qualify as [an employee] under a strict application of traditional [common] law principles.”

As drafted, however, the EMPA bill would arguably incorporate the FLSA’s broad “economic realities” test into its definition of “employee.”  That test gives undue weight to the economic dependence by workers on the business that has retained them.  Such a test is inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s most recent judicial precedents applying the “common law” test and is at odds with what the that Court referred to as  the “common understanding…of the difference between an employee and an independent contractor.”

At least one house of Congress is presumably well aware of this disconnect.  As the Assistant Secretary of Labor testified in writing before the Senate at a hearing held on EMPA on June 17, 2010, “Whether a worker is an employee [or independent contractor] depends on which law is applicable.”  He continued, “We recognize that it is conceivable for a worker to be correctly classified differently under the different standards that apply for different statutory purposes.”  Thus, absent a legislative “fix,” a business that properly classified a particular worker under the “common law” test used to determine independent contractor status under the Tax Code, ERISA, and the nation’s discrimination laws, may be found to have misclassified the same worker under the new EMPA law if the “economic realities” test of the 1938 FLSA law is used. 

Congress Should Provide a Common Federal Definition of “Employee” for Misclassification Purposes

The “common law” test for determining if an individual is an independent contractor or employee focuses on whether the business controls the manner and means that the work is accomplished.  The Supreme Court has set forth twelve factors relevant to the issue of “control,” but noted that there are many additional factors that can be useful in determining employee status, including the additional factors set forth in the IRS’s so-called “20 factor” test.

According to the Supreme Court, the “common law“ test “comports…with our recent precedents and with the common understanding, reflected in those precedents, of the difference between an employee and an independent contractor.”  Those recent precedents include the Court’s determination of whether a worker was an employee or independent contractor under the nation’s pension law and under one of the most important post-Civil Rights discrimination laws – the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The sponsors of EMPA as well as witnesses who testified in favor of the bill’s passage at a Senate committee hearing in June have noted that EMPA is intended to serve a number of important objectives: closing the tax gap that has deprived the federal and state governments of tax revenues; affording protections to misclassified workers under an array of federal laws that govern employers and employees (including ERISA, FLSA, OSHA, and the federal discrimination laws); and promoting fair business competition by outlawing the practice of misclassification, which creates an unfair advantage for businesses that improperly avoid the payment of payroll taxes.  Notably, these are the very same purposes set forth in the preamble of the Fair Playing Field Act.  Thus, both misclassification bills are intended to serve the same broad tax, labor, and business purposes.  There is no reason, therefore, for Congress to have two different and potentially conflicting tests for determining if a worker is an employee or independent contractor. 

The FLSA is one of over a dozen major federal labor and employment laws; it is not a misclassification statute.  Congress appears to have attached EMPA to the FLSA merely as a matter of legislative convenience. The value of piggy-backing new legislative initiatives on existing laws can have many benefits, such as eliminating the need for Congress to draft definitional, administrative, procedural, and other similar provisions for a new piece of legislation. 

This valuable use of legislative piggy-backing, however, should not automatically incorporate special definitional sections within the existing law where the definitions were enacted to serve purposes wholly unrelated to the purpose of the new legislation.  Indeed, the Congressional Declaration of Policy underlying the FLSA, which was enacted as part of the New Deal legislation, was to address “labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being of workers.”  The broad purposes of EMPA have little if nothing to do with the narrow remedial purposes of the FLSA or the child labor law statutes that were used to craft the expansive definition of “employee” in the FLSA. 

The Congressional goal expressed in the Fair Playing Field Act of “allowing workers and businesses to clearly understand the proper federal tax classification of workers” is beneficial, but if Congress allows EMPA to be passed with a different definition of “employee” than what prevails under the Tax Code and most other federal laws, all Congress will have done is created more confusion among workers and businesses.  In addition, in order to comply with all federal laws covering “employees,” a prudent business would have to disregard the “common law” test applicable under most federal statutes including the Fair Playing Field Act and only treat workers as independent contractors if they satisfied the narrower test under the New Deal child labor and wage and hour law.  This would have the effect of limiting the use of legitimate independent contractors, a result that Congress has never articulated as a purpose of either of the two bills.  Indeed, as stated in the preamble to the Fair Playing Field Act, Congress has found that “many workers are properly classified as independent contractors….”

What Congress Should Do

Congress should use the legislative process to take one of the following two steps to remedy this important discrepancy between the two bills or, if only the labor bill is passed, to ensure that it does not create even greater confusion about who is and who is not an independent contractor: 

• Modify the definition of “employee” within EMPA so that it uses the same wording found in the Fair Playing Field Act for determining employee or independent contractor status.  Such determinations under that law should be made, as stated in the Fair Playing Field Act, “under the usual common law rules applicable in determining the employer-employee relationship, as an employee or as an independent contractor (or other individual who is not an employee).” 
   
• Make it crystal clear in the legislative history of the bill, including the Senate and House committee reports, that the definition of “employee” for purposes of EMPA should be construed in a manner consistent with both the “common law” test – which is the prevailing judicial standard under most federal laws including ERISA, the ADA, and the Tax Code – and the “common understanding” of contemporary independent contractor relationships. 

Another approach would be to amend the definition of “employee” or “employ” under the FLSA to language that updates the New Deal definitional terms and, like the Fair Playing Field Act bill,  incorporates the “common law” test that prevails under virtually every other federal law.   

The urgent need for thoughtful federal legislation in the area of misclassification is hard to argue against.  The one witness that testified in a critical manner about EMPA at the Senate hearing this past June did not suggest that federal legislation is not needed.  Rather, he criticized the size of the proposed penalties for misclassification, the nature of the record-keeping requirements, the language of the proposed notice to be given to all workers, and the potential that the anti-retaliation provision could reward unethical conduct. 

The determination of whether an individual worker is an independent contractor or employee is, more often than not,  in the “gray area” and it oftentimes presents a close question of law.  Regardless of whether Congress conducts further hearings on EMPA, it is imperative that legislators avoid placing businesses and workers in the untenable position where they may be found by the very same court to have properly classified an individual under one of the two new proposed laws but improperly classified him or her under the other.

Copyright © 2010 Pepper Hamilton LLP