DoL Updates Independent Contractor Classification

Say it with me: AI #2015-1. What is that, you ask? That's the U. S. Department of Labor's (DoL) latest guidance on how to classify independent contractors (ICs). And if you're a company who works with ICs, you're not going to like this guidance any more than you liked the latest Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) update. This AI, or Administrator's Interpretation, is a fuzzy one at best, and promises to cloud what had once been one of the most clear AIs. At worst, this AI promises to force some companies to reclassify some of their vendors from IC to EE (employee), and non-exempt EEs at that--meaning overtime-eligible.

As of July 15, 2015, the DoL narrowed the IC classification. As written, it looks as though more workers may be entitled to overtime and must be reclassified as employees. One portion of the AI is key, and that is the part that de-emphasizes the degree to which a business controls an individual's work. Now, companies need to focus on the "economic realities test," which reveals whether an individual is economically dependent on them or whether that person is truly in business for h/herself.

Classification Challenge

It's no secret that many companies have mis-classified employees as ICs currently and in the past. This new guidance will at least force a re-evaluation of IC relationships so companies have an opportunity to get things straight. It will also force some new recordkeeping habits. For instance, now, at the beginning of a vendor relationship, business licenses should be shown, if not copied and kept in the vendor file, if vendors are to be paid on a 1099 basis.

The challenge for companies is the narrow focus on "economic dependence." As written, the elements of the "economic realities test" seem understandable, but read carefully, you can see that there are no bright-line rules on which anyone can rely. The same person could be considered an IC or an EE simply based on the business at hand. The AI restricts the use of ICs to very few specific situations. No single factor listed in the AI can be relied on to tip the balance of classification one way or the other. As a result, executives (or even in-house counsels) will not always know what factor the DoL or a reviewing court will deem most important.

Economic Realities Test--Six Factors

The DoL has laid out six factors that need to be considered when conducting the economic realities test:

1. The extent to which the work performed is an integral part of the company's business.
2. The vendor's opportunity for profit or loss depending upon h/her managerial skills.
3. The extent of the relative investments of the company and the vendor.
4. Whether the work performed requires special skills and initiative.
5. The permanency of the relationship.
6. The degree of control exercised or retained by the company.

As guidance, the DoL writes, "In undertaking this analysis, each factor is examined and analyzed in relation to one another, and no single factor is determinative. The 'control' factor, for example, should not be given undue weight."

"The factors should not be applied as a checklist," the DoL continued, "but rather the outcome must be determined by a qualitative rather than a quantitative analysis."

Qualitative rather than quantitative. What does that mean? It means you have to look at the task being performed and you have to ask yourself if what's being performed is an employee function. Take, for example, a freelance carpenter who's highly skilled. Say she has been contracted by a construction firm, but the carpenter does not independently exercise her skills. She doesn't determine the sequence of work or order materials or think about bidding for the next job; rather, she is told what work to perform, where, and in what sequence. This carpenter, though highly skilled, is merely performing skilled labor. She isn't thinking independently, and she's not demonstrating the skill and initiative of an IC  (e.g. managerial or business skills). As such, she is an employee (and a non-exempt one at that).

In contrast, the DoL notes that "a highly skilled carpenter who provides a specialized service for a variety of construction companies (for example, custom, hand-crafted cabinets that are made-to-order) may be demonstrating the skill and initiative of an IC if the carpenter markets her services, determines when to order materials and the quantity of materials to order, and determines which orders to fill."

Monitor Classifications

So, who should be responsible for monitoring the IC classifications? Human Resources? Finance? Executive secretary? Someone is going to have to own this issue. Moving forward, the DoL expects companies to make clear which department is responsible to understand the law, know which contractors have been engaged, and monitor compliance. Companies will have to maintain basic records based on the IC determination process, and the facts used to make the determination should be clear.

What should be kept on record? Copies of business licenses, business cards, tax records (1099s, not their filings), project work plans showing limited engagements, and correspondence from the contractor.

Key Points

• The DoL believes most work should be performed by employees and IC should be used sparingly.
• Entering into IC agreements or hiring a business entity (rather than a person) does not necessarily protect you from liability under the FLSA.
• Before engaging the services of any non-employee, carefully review the type and scope of work to be performed.
• When entering into agreements with other service providers, ensure that you obtain appropriate indemnification provisions to protect your company from wage-and-hour claims of service provider's workers.

Other things to consider:

• Avoid giving contractors rights or access that cut against contractor determination, e.g. internal e-mail accounts, server access, invitations to employee functions.
• Periodically audit existing contractors to ensure they have not inadvertently become employees. (If an otherwise valid contractor arrangement becomes economically dependent on the work, then the relationship may convert to an employee entitled to overtime).

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed attorney. My blogs are based on my own experiences, interviews (where credited), and loads of research, and do not represent legal advice.

Proposed Changes to FLSA (a.k.a. Fair Labor Standards Act or Wage & Hour)

The U. S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division finally released its 295-page long Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) that proposes changes to the executive, professional, highly-compensated, and administrative employee exemptions from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime requirements. The release, which was posted June 30, 2015, was accompanied by a Fact Sheet and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list.

Employers should be aware of the following key sections:

SALARY TEST CHANGES

There are basically two changes that stand out. One is the weekly salary that must be paid for an employee to qualify for the executive, professional, or administrative exemptions from the FLSA overtime rule. The other is the annual compensation that must be paid for an employee to qualify for the highly-compensated exemption.

Since the last update in 2004, the current salary threshold for the executive, professional, and administrative exemptions is $455 a week, which translates into $23,660 a year. The proposed minimum weekly salary is set at the 40th percentile of weekly earnings for all full-time salaried employees. Since the Final Rule is expected to be issued in 2016, the projected new figure is $970 a week ($50,440 a year). Yes, that's more than double the current threshold.

The effect? A dramatically increased number of salaried employees will qualify for overtime pay. In fact, in his editorial about the proposed rule, President Obama noted that approximately five million employees in the United States will qualify for overtime pay if the proposed rule is adopted.

The surprise in the NPR is the proposal to automatically increase the minimum weekly salary requirement each year based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This marks the first time since FLSA was passed in 1938 that such a requirement has been suggested. How to index the figures has not yet been chosen. Two different indexing methods have been studied and the Department is soliciting comments on the process.

Similarly, the Department has proposed to increase the minimum annual compensation for the highly-compensated employee exemption. Currently, the figure is $100,00. The proposed figure is, in 2016 dollars, $122,148.  This figure, too, is proposed to be increased annually based on the same index that would apply to the weekly salary requirement.

NO DUTIES TEST CHANGES

Though Duties Test changes were predicted for the executive, professional, and administrative exemptions, even adoption of a California-style requirement that 50 percent of an exempt employee's time each week be devoted to performing exempt tasks, no changes are forthcoming. Rather, the Department is soliciting comments about the respective Duties Tests. No specific regulatory changes have been proposed at this time.

What will the Department do regarding the Duties Tests? There are two trains of thought: by not proposing changes, commentators believe the Department may have foreclosed its ability to make regulatory changes without further notice and comment; and, the solicitation for comments may indicate that the Department is considering issuing a second round of proposed amendments and opening up a second comment period at a more opportune time.

GOING FORWARD

In the next few days, the NPR is expected to be formally published in the Federal Register, and President Obama is scheduled to publicly comment on July 1st. The Federal Register will provide the timeframe during which written comments will be accepted, which should be at least 60 days. Comments may be submitted at regulations.gov.


Disclaimer I am not a licensed attorney. My blogs are based on my own experiences, interviews (where credited), and loads of research, and do not represent legal advice.

COMP ME! Comp-time and you . . or not

Compensatory time is a beautiful thing . . . but you may not be able to use it or grant it; and if you do, you could be setting up yourself - and your company - for major trouble.

What is Comp-time?

According to the Office of Personnel Management site at www.opm.gov, comp-time is:

"Time off with pay in lieu of overtime pay for irregular or occasional overtime work,

or

When permitted under agency flexible work schedule programs, time off with pay in lieu of overtime pay for regularly scheduled or irregular or occasional overtime work."

Key phrase: Agency

All employers are not eligible to offer compensatory time, only government agencies as in actual government offices, not companies that simply do business under or have a government contract. Federal, state, county, city, township, village, as long as the IRS defines a payroll is defined as a government payroll, compensatory time may be granted if the agency has a defined flexible work schedule program.

. . . but, I own my own business

Uncle Sam doesn't really care - at least, not in this instance. All businesses - private, public; small, large; government, utility, railroad - you name the employer type - each must follow the payroll rules outlined in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA).

Under the current rules, which were updated as recently as the first administration in the second Bush era, all positions that do not meet the overtime exemption rule (see later blog for definitions and explanations) are to be paid at no less than the prevailing minimum wage for up to forty work hours in a seven-day period. Any time worked over forty hours in a seven-day period must be paid at one-and-a-half times the employee's regular hourly wage.

Key phrase: Any work

"Any work," is defined as anything done to benefit the employer, whether or not the activity is described within a person's job description.

Let's say you're an employer and you hold mandatory employee meetings of any kind every Wednesday during the lunch hour. You buy everyone pizza and have drinks available for everyone, but you don't pay them for the lunch hour. Are you violating FLSA?

Oh, yeah.

The meeting, any meeting, especially any kind of meeting, party, whatever, you make mandatory is considered "work suffered" under FLSA and is compensable at the same rate as regular "work suffered".  If that meeting time adds an extra hour to the forty everyone has already put in during your policy-defined workweek, then you owe all your non-exempt staff time-and-one-half pay for that extra hour.

Let's say your office needs to be painted, but you don't have painters budgeted for this year and you ask for volunteers to help you paint over the weekend. You'll provide the food and soft drinks, they need only come dressed to get dirty. Do you owe these "volunteers" time-and-one-half?

You bet you do: though the work is done on the weekend, it's still work, and under FLSA, it's work "suffered" for the benefit of the company. Do you owe overtime for both Saturday and Sunday?

Maybe not: Whether you owe overtime for both days depends upon how your policy book defines your work-week. If your workweek is defined as Monday through Sunday, then, yes, you would owe two days' worth of overtime. If your workweek is defined as Sunday through Saturday, then you would only owe overtime for Saturday, but still owe regular wages for Sunday.

Companies that require employees to come in early to punch in, make coffee, open up, or whatever, as well as those that require people to stay after hours to close up in any way, must also pay people for their time.

On-call time is also compensated at the same rate as regular work time. If on-call time exceeds the forty-hours in one week timeframe, then they, too, are paid at the premium rate.

. . . but, I can't afford to pay overtime

Again, I say: Uncle Sam doesn't care; and let me just add: tough. The rules are clear. They've been around for a long time. Since 1938, in fact. You have the Internet. As a fully-grown human, capable of owning a business - or at least running a business - you are expected to have done your "due diligence".

In other words, the OFCCP, DoL, or any other investigating agency will not accept excuses for what you didn't know you should know. (I know this, because my first HR job was with an employer who was audited by the OFCCP -- two weeks after I started -- and let's just say my predecessors were all let go for good reason).

Is there any way around the rule?

Well, of course there is.

Sort of.

The best way to "get around" this rule is to work within the rule. If you know you must have weekly meetings, one thing you could do is hold the same meeting at least twice and stagger the attendants. This, way, the office stays open, but you will be short coverage for the length of the meeting.

If you must have full coverage, you could have the meeting after hours, as in, immediately after closing, one day a week, and then allow the same amount of time off during the same seven-day work period as the meeting to all non-exempt employees.  Exempt employees are not paid by the hour, so no other compensation is needed for them -- money or time, unless specified in the company's policies.

Key phrase: seven-day work period

Notice I've never denoted a pay-period. I've always described a seven-day period, and this is because FLSA dictates seven consecutive days as a work period.

If you want to grant a form of comp-time, it must be done the same week during which the extra activity occurs. Technically, this is not comp-time as defined by FLSA, so I always advise not to refer to this time off as "comp-time". If you're ever audited by the government, know that employees are always interviewed. Their phrasing and understanding can get you into trouble. Save yourself at the start, and take my advice: don't ever call this time off "comp-time".

What if I break the rules?

Well, it'll cost you, regardless your intent. According to the DoL site, the penalties are:

"Employers who willfully or repeatedly violate the minimum wage or overtime pay requirements are subject to a civil money penalty of up to $1,000 for each such violation.

Willful violations of the FLSA may result in criminal prosecution and the violator fined up to $10,000. A second conviction may result in imprisonment."

Yikes!

The audit process is not fun, though I guarantee you'll learn A LOT. I know I did. If you're interested, take a look at the process on the DoL site. It is every bit as grueling as it reads.

If you're starting a business, learn the rules and follow them. Teach everyone the rules and their rights and responsibilities, even if everyone is non-exempt and has no supervisory role.

If you've already started your business and you know you are in violation in some way, change what you're doing N-O-W. Note when you learned what you were supposed to do. Note each phase of your correction. Note when the total correction is in place. Keep these notes in a special notebook along with your new policy, any training material, and training proof. Never lose a shred of this notebook and make certain it's the first thing you hand an auditor if, by any chance, you get audited.

What are the chances of an audit?

Well, from what I've been able to find, the DoL hired five hundred auditors to keep up with all the new businesses. When I contacted my local federal DoL auditor, she told me that it may take years for her to get to a business, but once she's there, she'll return every two years for the life of the company; because rules change, and people generally cannot keep up with every change. The government always needs money, and fines are a wonderful way to generate some extra cash.

For more information on different employee statuses, audits, and fines, speak to a local labor attorney or go on-line to www.dol.gov/wage & hour.

Disclaimer I am not a licensed attorney or certified accountant. My blogs are based on my own experiences, interviews (where credited), and loads of research.

Copyright © 2009-2012 Diane Faulkner

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Reproduction or transmission of any part of this work by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, beyond that permitted by Copyright Law, without the express permission of the author, is prohibited.

Contract employee, independent contractor...there's a difference? (Part 2 of 3)

--> Independent contractors have clients; temporaries and temp-to-perms do not
An independent contractor (IC) is independent of any other person or company than h/her own, which could be made up of one person, and is bound only by h/her own company's policies and procedures, not yours. An IC seeks out work, negotiates contracts for work, is free to sub-contract work, sets the time schedule for work to be completed, is responsible for h/her own taxes, benefits, pension, and behavior. The contract between an IC and a company is solely for a result by a particular date, not, unless otherwise negotiated, for a particular person to perform work directed in any form by the client company.

The contract must be able to be terminated at any time and for any reason, or no reason at all, by either party. The IC must also be free to obtain other contracts - and work them - simultaneously. "Full-time" is not a phrase associated with an IC contract. Specified number of hours, hourly wage, salary, all these words imply "employee."

In the former example, if I contracted an IC to be my credit union manager, I would not be able to do a background check or skills test. I would, of course, ask for and call on references to elicit the same type of information, but in the end, I don't have the control to be any more thorough. If appropriate, though, I can ask for work samples. I can interview the person to determine fit, and I can also directly negotiate contract length and price. In short, I set my company up as the IC's client.

The contract is everything

As a potential client, I need to think of everything I need and negotiate those needs into the contract. The key here is to be aware of contract law as applied to ICs under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Unless there is some sort of regulating body that states a particular job must be done by a set procedure, I cannot write any procedure into a contract. If I do, then I create a regular employee under FLSA. Even if there is a particular person under the IC's employ who has specialized skills necessary to complete the contract, I cannot write in who is to work the project. To do so creates an employee. An IC must be free to subcontract anyone s/he deems qualified to do the work.

Behavioral control

Where companies get into trouble working with an IC is control. Behavioral control of both the IC, but more so with its own employees, especially managers, who may not be schooled in working with a person who represents an entirely different company, but works alongside or for h/her.

The moment a manager has a counseling session with an IC is the moment the IC becomes an employee (EE). The moment a company requires an IC wear a particular outfit to represent the client company and not the contractor is the moment the IC becomes an EE. In the same vein, when a manager requests or demands a particular procedure from an IC solely because the procedure is customary or spelled out in the client company's procedure manual, the IC becomes an EE.

But what if the IC is doing something wrong?

It is up to the client company to have a provision written into the contract that any of its employees can stop work on a contract project when it is apparent or suspected that an IC's procedure will cause harm to a person, place, thing, or financially adversely affect the client company. Otherwise, the person who notices the potential harmful procedure must bring the person or matter to the attention to whomever is responsible for administering the contract, usually a top-level manager or a human resource contact, to make the IC stop work. At that time, the sub-contractor is to the IC for counseling or termination, or the client company can discuss the matter with the contracting IC or terminate the contract.

That's actually the beauty of working with an IC: there doesn't have to be any counseling, you can just terminate the contract and find someone else to complete the job, and you don't have to worry about anyone filing unemployment credits against you.

And that's the bad part of working with an IC: if you have to terminate a contract with a person with a special skill-set and experience level, it can be difficult to replace that person from within the company. You pretty much have to seek out another IC.

For more information on different employee statuses, audits, and fines, speak to a local labor attorney or go on-line to www.dol.gov/wage &  hour.

Disclaimer I am not a licensed attorney or certified accountant. My blogs are based on my own experiences, interviews (where credited), and loads of research.

Copyright © 2009 Diane Faulkner

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Reproduction or transmission of any part of this work by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, beyond that permitted by Copyright Law, without the express permission of the author, is prohibited.