January 9, 2024
January 9, 2024
Photo by Wouter van Dijke on Unsplash
The U.S. Department of Labor announced Tuesday a final rule revising its interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s classification provision to determine whether a worker may be considered an independent contractor.
The final rule largely tracks the agency’s October 2022 proposed rule. It retains the multifactor, “totality-of-the-circumstances” framework for analyzing independent contractors’ status included in that proposal.
Under this framework, DOL will consider six nonexhaustive factors when examining the relationship between a worker and a potential employer:
The rule will be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, Jan. 10, and is slated to take effect March 11, officials said.
In a press call Monday, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said the final rule would ensure a level playing field for workers, particularly vulnerable workers who are misclassified and lose out on minimum wage, overtime pay and other protections under the FLSA.
“These labor protections are a floor under which no one should be forced to live and work,” Su said. “In my role, I have traveled and talked to workers across the country who are working full time, year-round and still struggle to make ends meet because of misclassification. They sometimes work side by side with individuals who are properly classified, doing the same work.”
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