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As covered at length here, Arizona has enacted a new law effective August 6, 2016 allowing businesses and service providers seeking to enter into an independent contractor relationship to execute a “declaration of independent business status.”  A declaration complying with the statute creates a presumption of proper classification of the relationship between the …

This month, two New York federal judges reviewing a claim of misclassification rejected a claim for overtime compensation, agreeing that a business properly classified two translators as independent contractors rather than as “employees” under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law. See Mateo v. Universal Language Corp., 2015 U.S. Dist.…

Cases challenging the independent contractor status of certain service providers under the wage-and-hour laws are likely to continue in the near future due to the difficulties in applying the law to complex factual patterns. The Department of Labor recently provided additional guidance for determining contractor status in the form of an Administrator’s Interpretation (and the…

As previously promised, the Department of Labor today issued its eighth Administrator’s Interpretation (“AI”) since the 2010 implementation of this form of guidance. Today’s Interpretation, as expected, reflects the current Department’s position that the governing analysis is the economic realities test which, in the Department’s view, is used to determine “whether the worker…

“Administrator’s Interpretations” from the Wage Hour Division have been relatively few and far between since their implementation in 2010. However, on Friday Administrator David Weil, speaking at a conference at New York University School of Law, indicated his office would be issuing such an interpretation to “clarify” who qualifies as an…

In a setback for that state’s thriving adult entertainment business, the Nevada Supreme Court yesterday ruled that Sapphire Gentleman’s Club improperly classified its 6000+ semi-nude performers as independent contractors rather than employees under Nevada’s minimum wage law.  Terry et al. v. Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club et al., case number 59214, 10/30/14.

The Nevada court, citing…

One common “joint employer” allegation which has been regularly rejected by courts is that a regional cable provider is a joint employer of its installation subcontractors’ employees or contractor installers, due to the alleged business or operational control the cable provider exerts over the subcontractor in how installation work is performed.  A Missouri…

Service providers vendors (and those vendors’ employees) are free to assert claims that they  “employees” of the entity for which they are providing services under the FLSA under independent contractor misclassification and joint employer theories.  Service providers continue to do so despite limited success, the most recent example being Judge Andrew Carter’s (SDNY) summary…