When you hear the term misclassifying workers, you might assume it refers to an employer making a genuine mistake. They make an error and classify someone as an independent contractor when they should be classifying them as an employee. While it can be the other way around – classifying an independent contractor as an employee – that is how it is usually experienced.
Sometimes it is down to a genuine paperwork error or misunderstanding. Often, however, it is not due to a mistake but is a conscious ploy by a business to save itself money.
It’s illegal
Employers have a legal duty to classify workers correctly. Thus, if you believe an employer has misclassified you, you have a legal right to ask them to question them and have them correct the situation if they are indeed in the wrong.
Employees lose out
The savings an employer can make by putting someone down as an independent contractor rather than an employee come at a significant cost to the worker. They could miss out on benefits such as overtime pay, holiday pay, sick leave, pension contributions, health care coverage and more.
Even if an employer tries to offer you a higher rate in exchange for misclassifying you, you should not accept. You’d be helping them break a law — and that law is there for your protection.
If you are unsure whether an employer has correctly classified you, you may want to learn more about how the categories are divided. With experienced guidance to uncover the truth of the matter, you can look at your options to move forward to have any misclassification corrected.