Congress Re-Introduces Independent Contractor Misclassification Law

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) announced on November 12, 2013 that he had introduced a bill called the Payroll Fraud Prevention Act of 2013 at a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety. The bill is yet another effort to introduce legislation at the federal level to curtail the misclassification of independent contractors (ICs), which the sponsors equate with "payroll fraud."

The bill (S.1687), which is being co-sponsored by Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Al Franken (D-MN), is virtually identical to a bill (S.770) of the same name that was introduced in April 2011 – the Payroll Fraud Prevention Act of 2011.

Casey noted at the outset of the hearing that independent contractors "serve a valuable role in our economy" and that the bill is not an effort "to point fingers at companies that are following the law or law-abiding independent contractors." Instead, Casey focused on the need for Congress to pass new legislation outlawing