During the day to day of your job, it may not seem to matter much whether your boss considers you and your co-workers to be employees, contractors, or something else. The work still needs to get done. The time when these labels matter most tends to be on payday. If your employer has misclassified you, it could affect your benefits like health insurance, time-and-a-half for overtime, and unemployment pay.
Unfortunately, many business owners in Metro Detroit and elsewhere in Michigan deliberately choose to misclassify their workforce to line their pockets. If this is happening to you, the help of an experienced employment law attorney could be your best option for fighting to get what you have earned.
What is Employee Misclassification?
When an employer hires somebody, the law requires them to classify them. What an employer classifies a new-hire as affects how much tax the employer is expected to pay the government – and what the worker gets in benefits. In Michigan, most full-time employees are entitled to things like:
- Workers’ compensation
- Overtime pay
- A minimum wage
- Health insurance
- Workplace safety provisions
Most often, employers misclassify full-time employees as “contractors” or temporary workers. But they still expect these so-called contractors to perform the same job for the same number of hours as their employees. In other words, you could get less compensation for doing the same work as your co-workers.
How do I Know if I Should Be an Employee or Contractor?
The line between employee and independent contractor isn’t always obvious. The IRS has a 20-factor test that Michigan follows for unemployment insurance purposes. These factors can be sorted into three categories:
- Behavioral control
- Financial control
- Relationship factors
For example, the more control a business has over a worker’s day-to-day duties, the more likely it is that the worker is an employee, not a contractor. Another example that tends to suggest an employer-employee relationship is if the employer controls how the worker gets paid, such as by cutting a paycheck.
Each case is different. An employment lawyer can investigate your case and figure out how strong a case you have for a wage and hour claim based on misclassification.
Compensation, and More
Odds are, if you’ve been misclassified at work, you aren’t alone. Many, if not all, of the people you work with could be facing the same problem. Contacting a Metro Detroit employment attorney could start the process of exposing what happened, getting yourself and your co-workers compensated, and forcing the company to start following the law. A lawyer could also help you pursue a claim for retaliation if you’ve been fired for speaking up about being misclassified.
Contact Our Firm
Taking on your current or former employer over benefits you were supposed to get can feel intimidating. But you don’t have to do it alone. At Fagan McManus, P.C., we represent misclassified workers and pursue all avenues of resolution, including litigation. Contact us to schedule your initial consultation.
