Starting in 2014, employers with fifty or more employees must offer health insurance benefits that meet federal minimum standards. This is due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act, which President Obama signed into law on March 23, 2010. Whether an employer meets this 50 employee threshold is not entirely simple: It will be judged according to whether or not, in 2013, the employer averages 50 employees or more, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Journal also predicts that small employers on the cusp of the law may begin hiring independent contractors to avoid hitting this trigger number: 50 employees. In fact, the recession has led to an increase in employers' use of independent contractors. Independent contractors were 3.5% of the workforce at small companies in December 2007, and now are 6.7% as of December 2012, reports the Journal. Just because an employer calls someone an independent contractor, does not make it so. An independent contractor often manages their own work in ways an employee does not. The issue is more complicated than that, of course. Workers should educate themselves on the pros and cons of "independent contractor" versus "employee" status, and what it means. The IRS has published good materials on this subject. Being an employee or independent contractor affects not just rights under the Affordable Healthcare Act, but taxes, and other rights and obligations of all involved. L&N has represented hundreds of employees who have been denied proper wages, overtime and employee benefits because of being misclassified as independent contractors. Call us if you think you have.
