The Burr Broadcast: New Independent Contractor Rule
Many businesses rely on independent contractors to stay flexible, control costs, and meet fluctuating demand, but misclassifying those workers can carry massive financial consequences. On July 17, 2025, the Fourth Circuit...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
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
Issues related to whether individuals are independent contractors or employees receive significant attention by employers and governmental entities because of the critical impact of misclassification. The U.S. Department of...more
Applying the “economic realities” test, the Fifth Circuit (with jurisdiction over federal courts in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) recently held that a consultant for an oil and gas company was not subject to FLSA...more
What Is the “Gig Economy”? The “gig economy” is the catchall term for an ever-growing range of temporary, flexible, autonomous work arrangements that are often enabled by technology platforms, such as websites or apps that...more
We’ve posted on this topic several times before but the battle between independent contractors and employees continues. Here’s a brief refresher on the basics of why proper classification of employees as independent...more
Last week was a bad week for gig economy companies in Oregon. It wasn’t just the post-holiday malaise that so many suffer from after having to return to work following a long, relaxing weekend that probably included eating...more
Recently, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee) held that a church, which ran a for-profit restaurant, did not need to pay its volunteers under the Fair Labor Standards Act...more
In a significant decision on the status of so-called "gig economy" workers, a California federal judge recently ruled that a former GrubHub Inc. delivery driver was an independent contractor, not an employee....more
Numerous individuals who work in retail stores are actually employed by a company other than the retailer itself. These include vendor employees stocking product, sampling employees who offer customers tasty treats, inventory...more