The distinction between employees and independent contractors is one that still confounds employers. It is a vitally important distinction, because key employment laws, such as anti-discrimination laws, wage and hour laws, and labor laws do not apply to independent contractors.
In 2014, in FedEx Home Delivery [pdf], the National Labor Relations Board significantly limited the coverage of which workers qualify as independent contractor under federal labor laws. The Board reversed decades of precedent by concluding that workers only qualify as independent contractors if they are “rendering services as part of an independent business.” This narrow test subjected myriad workers to coverage as
