Employers are always looking for ways to save on their bottom line, and in many industries, one of the common solutions is misclassifying employees to avoid certain employer responsibilities or circumvent wage laws. Countless lawsuits have focused on employee misclassification, and the issue has become so widespread that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has allocated resources to investigating companies it suspects of large-scale misclassification in recent years.
If you suspect that you are misclassified by your employer, even if they say “this is standard in our industry,” you should not hesitate to speak to an attorney to review your rights and the specifics of employment laws that may apply to you. If you have been misclassified, you may be entitled to a number of remedies, like up to three years of retroactive pay and reclassification to give you access to full employee benefits like health insurance.
The details of each misclassification case are different, so it is important to consult about your situation individually with an experienced attorney. In some cases, your employer may have the right to deny you certain benefits, even if this seems intuitively wrong.
Fighting for fair treatment in the workplace is an important responsibility for any employee. When you choose to stand up to unfair employment practices, you’re not only standing up for yourself, you’re standing up for hundreds or even thousands of employees who suffer similar mistreatment, both from the same employer and also throughout your industry as a whole. Do not wait to be standing up for your rights as a worker, to protect your future and the future of countless other workers. An experienced attorney can walk with you through this process and help you stand up for justice in the workplace.
Source: Findlaw, “Independent Contractors: Beware Worker Misclassification Traps,” Stephanie Rabiner, accessed June 23, 2017