Suppose that following the resignation of a W-2 employee, the employer replaces them with an independent contractor. The contractor does the exact same work the W-2 employee was doing. Would this be a clear-cut case of employee misclassification? Is there any obvious caveat that would prevent it from being so? For the purposes of this hypothetical, assume it occurs in a state with fairly strong labor laws.
Thank you for participating in my thought experiment!
If they dictate where and when you work, that’s clear cut misclassification.
Like if they were to have a specific route starting and ending at a specific time, with various stops to make during?
pretty much misclassification, is my understanding.
the fact that someone else was in the exact role classified as a W-2 wage employee should seemingly make it a slam dunk, if you can get copies of the job description and any payroll paperwork, i should think that’s a smoking gun because it shows they know the law and are willfully breaking it. a lot of small business tyrants pull the “i forgot to carry the one” when caught redhanded.
anecdotally, the amount of 1099s in the US that should actually be W-2s must be mind boggling. the only people i have ever known not to have experienced it directly are like fast-track to PMC academics and foreign service weirdos that have only worked government jobs.