Some California employers may soon be joining Elizabeth Pain and her more famous, albeit fictional, sister in shame, Hester Prynne. On October 9, 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 459 (Corbett) into law. Among other things, this bill adds Section 226.8 to the California Labor Code to make it unlawful for any person or employer to engage in the “willful misclassification” of an individual as an independent contractor. Under the statute, “willful misclassification” means “avoiding employee status for an individual by voluntarily and knowingly misclassifying that individual as an independent contractor.” Labor Code § 226.8(i)(4).