Category Archives: Tips

05.18.17
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Never Been Sued? Congratulations! Here’s Why You Should Re-Evaluate Your Use of Independent Contractors Now.

IMG_1072Have you ever heard someone say, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result“? That’s just wrong. No, it’s insanely wrong. (Irony! Actual definition, click here).

  • If you flip a coin 5 times and it comes up heads each time, is it insane to think it might come up tails next time?
  • If you play golf in a lightning storm five times and never get hit, is it insane to think you might get a nice electrical jolt next time?
  • If you root for the Browns to win a football game and they never do, is it insane to think they never will? [Note to self: Delete that. Bad example. It is true that they might never win a game. Shameful admission: I am a Browns fan.]

My consistent advice to companies that use independent contractors is to be proactive. Review your policies, practices, and documents now — before you get sued or audited. Many take this advice. Those who do not generally give two reasons:

  1. We don’t want to spend the money now; and
  2. We’ve always done it this way and have never been sued.

Folks, that kind of thinking is: n. extreme foolishness; folly; senselessness; foolhardiness.

Here are a few quick facts:

  1. Every company that has been sued for independent contractor misclassification had never been sued before the first time it was sued.
  2. Every company that has been audited for independent contractor misclassification had never been audited before the first time it was audited.

Continue reading →

05.11.17
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Can an Intern be an Independent Contractor? (Answers revealed in James Bond movies)

IMG_1068Among James Bond films, Rotten Tomatoes ranks Never Say Never Again 18th out of 26, with a mediocre 63% rating. (Bond movie quiz at the end of this post, for patient readers.)

It’s a cliche saying, I know, but my first reaction when asked this question was, “I’d never say never, but it’s hard to imagine a scenario where that would work.” (That was also my second reaction and my third. Let’s just say that’s my reaction.)

Let’s run this through the gauntlet. Remember, it’s not your choice whether an intern is an independent contractor or an employee. The law decides that for you, based on the nature of the relationship.

Test #1: Economic Realities Test. Under federal wage and hour laws, an independent Continue reading →

05.08.17
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Today’s Tip: Avoid Telling Contractors How to Perform the Work (with Stones lyrics)

IMG_1066The great scholar Mick Jagger reminds his followers that you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes well you might find you get what you need. This is good advice, not just for Mr. Jimmy (who did look pretty ill), but also for companies who use independent contractors.

In a true independent contractor relationship, the hiring entity knows what it needs. It needs results, but the details about how, when, and where to work toward those results are left to the contractor’s discretion. There is no oversight or supervision.

The more direction a company provides a contractor on how to perform the work, the more likely the contractor is misclassified and the relationship will be deemed employment. You might want to control these things, but if they are not necessary to get what you need, then you should try sometimes and you might find you can get what you need without exerting extra control over the contractor. Continue reading →

05.01.17
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Trump’s Tax Plan Is Great News for Independent Contractors! Here’s Why.

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[Important Note to Readers, 1/15/18: This post is dated May 2017, before the final tax plan was passed, and the final version is slightly different than described in this post. For a revised 2018 analysis based on the final tax bill, click here.]

President Trump’s tax plan, released last week, is great news for independent contractors. Contractors may be able to cut their tax rates by half (or more) by creating an entity, instead of contracting as an individual. Indirectly, this would help companies who use contractors as well. Here’s why:

Benefit to Individuals:

For individuals, the proposal would reduce personal tax rates modestly. An individual being paid as an independent contractor will likely see a reduction in marginal tax rates, but the range is likely to remain somewhere between 25% and 35%, depending on income level.

For individuals being paid through their homemade entities, however, the proposal could result in substantial savings. Currently, pass-through entities like LLCs pay taxes at the rate of the individual. The sole owner of an LLC would pay taxes on the LLC’s profits at the individual’s personal income tax rate, likely between 25% and 35%.

Under the proposal, however, pass-through entities such as LLCs and partnerships would instead be taxed on pass-through business income at 15%. That’s a sizable savings compared to 25-35%. [Note 9/29/17: Latest proposal would tax entities at 20%, not 15%, but there’s still a long way to go before any of this becomes law.  And it may never become law.  For now, it’s just a proposal.]

If this proposal passes, individual independent contractors will have a strong financial incentive to incorporate. Creating an LLC is relatively inexpensive. If it leads to Continue reading →

04.27.17
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Avoid this ADA Trap When Using Staffing Agency Workers

ADA staffing agency reasonable accommodation ambulance-2166079_1280ADA Quick Quiz: Your company uses staffing agency workers. A staffing agency worker discloses a medical need and asks for a reasonable accommodation — maybe a computer screen reading program, or an ergonomic chair, or a modified work schedule.

1. Which company must have the interactive conversation to determine what reasonable accommodation is appropriate?

(A) Your company
(B) The staffing agency
(C) Both

2. Which company is obligated to provide the reasonable accommodation?

(A) Your company
(B) The staffing agency
(C) Both

3. Which company is obligated today for the reasonable accommodation?

(A) Your company
(B) The staffing agency
(C) Both

Answers: Continue reading →

03.23.17
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Today’s Tip: Avoid Blurring Lines Between Independent Contractors and Employees

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This mistake may seem obvious, but companies do it all the time.  When an independent contractor is performing the same work as employees, the contractor is likely to be deemed an employee.

Remember, the determination of whether someone is an independent contractor or an employee is made based on the facts of the relationship, not what the parties call it. If the facts are that a contractor is doing the same work, in the same location, with the same instructions, and under the same supervision as an employee, then the contractor is likely an employee and should be paid as an employee.

I am not suggesting there is any problem using staffing agency workers or temp-to-hire.  Those workers are being paid by the staffing agency as employees. That is, their paychecks show withholdings and deductions, and their pay is reported by the staffing agency on a W-2, not a 1099. These are employees of the staffing agency (and very possibly your joint employees, but that’s a separate issue).

The issue addressed in this post is the use of 1099 independent contractors to perform the same type of work as employees.  If the work performed by an employee is employment, then it is very hard to maintain the position that the same work being performed by a contractor is not employment.

Summary: Avoid assigning contractors to perform the same work as employees.  When individual contractors and employees work side-by-side doing the same thing, the likelihood of misclassification is high.

© 2017 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.

03.20.17
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Are You Protecting Confidential Information When Using Independent Contractors? Try These 2 Tips.

confidential information - independent contractors - top-secret-1076813_1920Do your independent contractors have access to confidential information?  Does your independent contractor agreement provide you with sufficient protection?

Tip #1: Be sure your independent contractor agreement includes a Confidential Information section. It should prohibit the contractor from using or disclosing confidential information at any time, including after the retention is completed.

Be sure, however, to consider these carve-outs to allow disclosure under these limited circumstances:

  1. When a subpoena or court order requires, but consider requiring the contractor to provide advance notice so you have the opportunity to contest the potential disclosure.
  2. To a government agency, as part of a complaint or investigation. The SEC and DOL/OSHA have taken the position that it is a violation of federal whistleblower laws to have a Confidential Information clause that is so broad that it prohibits revealing confidential information to a government agency when whistleblowing. Under this whistleblowing scenario, you cannot require the individual to alert you to the disclosure first.
  3. Under circumstances described in the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), which took effect in 2016. Under DTSA, a company can recover additional damages and attorney fees if an individual improperly discloses the company’s trade secrets if the company provides advance notice to individuals of their DTSA rights.

Here is a sample DTSA disclosure:

You shall not be held criminally or civilly liable under any Federal or State trade secret law for the disclosure of a trade secret that is made (x) in confidence to a Federal, State, or local government official, either directly or indirectly, or to an attorney; and (y) solely for the purpose of reporting or investigating a suspected violation of law. You shall not be held criminally or civilly liable under any Federal or State trade secret law for the disclosure of a trade secret that is made in a complaint or other document filed in a lawsuit or other proceeding, if such filing is made under seal. Furthermore, in the event you file a lawsuit for retaliation by the Company for reporting a suspected violation of law, you may disclose the trade secret to your attorney and use the trade secret information in the court proceeding, if you file any document containing the trade secret under seal and do not disclose the trade secret, except pursuant to court order.

Tip #2: One other point to remember — and this is a common mistake: Make sure that when the agreement expires, the obligation not to disclose confidential information remains in effect. I have seen too many termination clauses where the agreement terminates, not just the relationship. If the entire agreement terminates, you may accidentally be terminating the contractor’s obligation to preserve confidential information after the engagement ends.

When you end an engagement, you probably want to terminate the engagement, not the entire agreement.

Have fun out there!

© 2017 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.

02.28.17
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Tip of the Day: Beware of the Million Dollar Unemployment Claim

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If your former contractor files for unemployment, pay attention!

When a former employee files for unemployment, it hardly matters to the business whether the individual gets unemployment coverage. Unless the individual had voluntarily quit, benefits are usually allowed. No big deal.

When an independent contractor files for unemployment, however, beware. Unemployment insurance coverage is available only to employees, not to independent contractors. For a contractor to obtain coverage, the state must first determine that the contractor was an employee.

This determination can have far-reaching economic consequences to the business, extending well beyond the individual contractor.

First, if your contractor was misclassified and is deemed an employee, you were not paying into the state unemployment insurance pool for that contractor — or for all contractors who are similarly situated. The state wants your money and may issue back assessments (and penalties and interest) for having failed to pay into the system — not just for that individual but for all other individual contractors who performed the same type of work.

Back assessments can stretch back years and can add up quickly, particularly for businesses that retain a large number of individual contractors.

Second, the impact of a misclassification finding can quickly snowball beyond the land of unemployment insurance.

Continue reading →

02.23.17
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Sticks & Stones: What Not to Call Your Independent Contractors

sticks-and-stones-names-independent-contractor

“Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” Au contraire. That old adage may have rang true on the playground — or more likely, it probably got you beat up if you actually said it on the playground — but it does not ring true when speaking  about your independent contractors. Words matter. A lot.

Remember, any court or agency evaluating whether your independent contractor relationship is properly classified (and is not employment) will look to the facts. The facts include whether the parties refer to the relationship in ways that resemble employment. Avoid using terms that sound like employment.

Here are 14 things not to say about your independent contractors: Continue reading →

02.13.17
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Why Your Standard Agreements with Staffing Agencies Are Risky Business (Starring Tom Cruise)

broken-glass-joint-employment-agreementIt’s Valentine’s Day. You and your sweetie want to get away for the weekend. Your high school offspring will stay home. They seem responsible, promise not to break the law, and promise if they break anything they will pay for it. So you’re good, right?

Come on, wake up. Have you seen Risky Business? American Pie? House Party (very underrated movie, by the way)? Continue reading →