Under the new proposal, the DOL said it will consider workers’ opportunity for profit or loss, how permanent their jobs are and the degree of control a company exercises over a worker, among other factors when making classification determinations.
U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said in an earlier statement that businesses often misclassify vulnerable workers as independent contractors. “Misclassification deprives workers of their federal labor protections, including their right to be paid their full, legally-earned wages,” Walsh said.
Back in the 1990s, the independent broker-dealer industry fought a similar battle with the Internal Revenue Service and eventually prevailed. Since then, a number of independent B-Ds, like LPL Financial and Raymond James, have created a separate employee model for wirehouse reps who want to leave their firms, but remain employees at another B-D with corporate benefits and expenses like rent paid for by the B-D.
Nearly 60 million people, or one-third of all workers, performed some form of freelance work in the past 12 months, according to an Upwork survey.