Employee classification

What does “employee classification” mean?

Employee classification is the set of decisions about how a worker is treated for wage and hour purposes: exempt or non-exempt, and employee or independent contractor.

Both questions are answered by the work actually performed. Titles, salaries and signed agreements are evidence of what the parties intended, and intent is not the standard.

Because a classification applies to a role rather than a person, an error affects everyone who has held it, which is what turns classification into the most expensive category of wage and hour problem.