Texas Business Law Blog

A recent article in the American Bar Association's "Business Law Today" discusses in depth the problems many companies are facing today defining employees and independent contractors. Robert W. Wood, an attorney with Wood & Porter in San Francisco and the author of "The Legal Guide to Independent Contractor Status" notes in his article that "incentives for treating workers as independent contractors instead of employees have led to an epidemic of mischaracterized independent contractors who do not necessarily function the way they are supposed to."

Distinguishing whether or not someone should be regarded as an employee or an independent contractor is important for many reasons. A worker's status can have implications regarding eligibility for federal unemployment, state workers' compensation and pension benefits. A worker must be classified as an employee to be eligible to sue under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the National Labor Relations Act and others.

At Ross Law Group, we represent clients who have been wrongly classified as independent contractors by their employers. Many times, an employer will classify a worker as an independent contract to avoid compensating the worker for overtime. A worker must meet certain criteria to be regarded as an independent contractor.

If you believe that you may have denied overtime compensation as a result of being miscategorized as an independent contractor, contact our Austin, Texas based law firm today.