#WorkforceWednesday: New AB5 Exemptions, EEOC COVID-19 Updates, Joint-Employer Rule Partially Struck Down - Employment Law This Week®
Episode 13: NYC's New Freelancer Protection Law And The Future Of The On-Demand Economy
On April 3, 2025, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (“DOL”) filed proposed new rules codifying its interpretation of the statutory ABC test to determine whether an individual is considered an...more
Last month, the most significant legal development in the area of independent contractor (IC) compliance and misclassification was on Capitol Hill. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a Senate Republican who chairs the Senate Health,...more
The U.S. Department of Labor re-issued an Opinion Letter on the issue of independent contractor (IC) status of an on-demand virtual marketplace company (VMC) that refers end-market consumers to service providers who offer...more
Businesses that rely on freelancers or the “gig economy” have cause for optimism now that the Department of Labor just announced it will no longer enforce a Biden-era final rule that made it harder to classify workers as...more
The New Jersey Department of Labor and Industry (the Department) announced on April 28, 2025, that it was filing a notice of a proposed regulation addressing the test for independent contractor (IC) status under New Jersey...more
The European Union took a big step last year towards regulating digital labor platforms – and member states will need to adopt the new directive before the end of 2026. The directive seeks to curb worker misclassification,...more
The most significant development last month in the law of independent contractors was not one of the four cases we summarize below but rather a bill passed by the New York Senate. ...more
Few federal regulations over the past five years have produced more needless concern by stakeholders than the independent contractor rules under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) issued by the different...more
Recent amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) establishing a new "whole-of-relationship test" increase the likelihood that Australian businesses will face claims of "sham contracting" by misclassifying employees as...more
On June 12, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued a new Determination Pursuant to Section 1 (a)(ii) of Executive Order 14071 (the “Determination”) that prohibits U.S....more
Several States and major U.S. Cities, including California, New York City and Seattle, have passed laws aimed at classifying “gig workers” as employees as opposed to independent contractors in recent years. Challenges to...more
Governor Tim Walz has signed into law significant changes to Minnesota’s independent contractor and employment laws. Effective July 1, all employers, as well as their owners, risk significantly increased penalties for...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
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
On January 10, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (“Department”) published a final rule (“Final Rule”) for determining independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The Final Rule rescinds the...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
Despite previously vetoing the legislation, Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Freelance Isn’t Free Act (the “Act”) into law on November 22, 2023. The Act is similar to New York City’s law bearing the same name, which has been...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 9, 2024, the United States Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) announced a final rule regarding how to determine whether a worker qualifies as an employee or may be considered an independent...more
The Department of Labor’s final rule for classifying independent contractors replaces the previous Trump-era rule that emphasized two factors – control over the work performed and the worker’s opportunity for profit or loss –...more
The new Department of Labor (DOL) Final Rule provides the following non-exhaustive six-factor test regarding whether a worker should be classified as an employee or an independent contractor for wage payment purposes...more
This past week, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule for the classification of workers as employees or independent contractors. The changes in regulations pertaining to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)...more
Recently, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a new rule redefining how workers are classified under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The final rule, which will make it more challenging to classify workers as...more
On January 2, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a hotly anticipated final rule, which establishes a six-factor test for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor for purposes of...more
On January 9, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced a final rule that revises the DOL’s interpretation of worker classification (employees versus independent contractors) under the Fair Labor...more