The Burr Broadcast: New Independent Contractor Rule
On February 27, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance (Corp Fin) published a new staff statement intended to clarify the application of federal securities laws to meme coins....more
On January 14, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled in Walkingstick Dixon v. Oklahoma Regional University System Board of Regents that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) permits actions against...more
Approximately one year ago, we discussed the impact of the final rule from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) regarding whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act...more
In a landmark decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rejected the NCAA’s argument that, because student-athletes voluntarily participate in college athletics, they cannot simultaneously be students and...more
The issue of whether student athletes are “employees” and subject to FLSA coverage has been hotly contested for a number of years. The colleges assert the players are amateurs and thus not subject to coverage. The Third...more
In its Alston decision in 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the legal assumption that NCAA athletes were pure amateurs, exempt from a range of legal protections extended to workers. Since that decision, courts have faced a...more
U.S. college athletes may soon be considered employees entitled to minimum wage under federal law. In a recent decision, the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that college athletes could theoretically be considered...more
Although companies may be tempted to classify workers as contractors to circumvent wage and hour rules, this is the classic example of penny-wise and pound foolish. Misclassification of employees as contractors can lead to...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division issued final regulations, effective March 11, 2024, which are intended to serve as a practical guide to employers on how the DOL determines whether a worker is an employee...more
On January 10, 2024, the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) published a final rule (the “Final Rule”), which became effective on March 11, 2024, modifying the DOL’s guidance on how to...more
On March 11, 2024, after many months of anticipation, the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) final rule on independent contractor status went into effect. Meanwhile, on March 8, 2024, a revised joint employer rule announced by the...more
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division updated its regulation concerning Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standard Act, with changes effective March 11, 2024. The...more
This post is a summary of a more detailed Client Alert prepared by Gray Reed’s labor and employment practice group. Recall our recent post on the Department of Labor’s new “Economic Realities Test” for classifying...more
In recent years, employment status has been an evolving topic globally as various jurisdictions grapple with how to properly categorise increasingly flexible forms of working. A regulatory change in the United States by the...more
As discussed in our QuickStudy of January 9, the U.S. Department of Labor has issued its long-awaited final rule setting forth its version of the test for independent contractor status under the federal Fair Labor Standards...more
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a final rule on how employers should properly determine whether a worker is to be classified as an employee or an independent contractor under the Fair Labor...more
Introduction - After receiving over 55,000 comments regarding the proposed rule introduced in 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) finalized a new independent contractor test under the Fair Labor Standards Act...more
Following multiple delays, and after ongoing litigation stalled its previous rulemaking attempts, the U.S. Department of Labor issued its long-anticipated independent contractor final rule on Tuesday, January 10, 2024,...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) began 2024 by announcing a new rule for analyzing independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Whether or not a worker is considered an employee determines that worker’s...more
The latest final rule on independent contractors issued by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) returns to the economics reality test effective March 11, 2024. This final rule rescinds the rule published at the end of the Trump...more
In early 2015, New Jersey borrowed the state’s strict ABC test under its unemployment law and adopted it as the new test for independent contractor status under its wage laws. That change in the law was not an act by the...more
Independent contractors are not entitled to minimum-wage and overtime-pay protections that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) affords to employees. Therefore, classifying workers as employees or independent contractors can...more
The Department of Labor recently made key changes to its rules in a way that will affect the oil and gas sector. The new rule rescinds a Trump Administration rule that had simplified the process of classifying workers as...more
Fulfilling a campaign promise for President Joe Biden, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) sent employers New Year’s greetings by opening 2024 with a new final rule on independent contractor classifications, revising...more
On January 10, 2024, the US Department of Labor (DOL) published its final rule for modifying its existing test to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act...more