Employee or independent contractor? Big difference

You might call them independent contractors, but are they employees instead? For employers and workers alike, misclassification of workers has important state and federal consequences. As the U.S. Department of Labor points out, misclassified employees can lose benefits and protections such as family and medical leave, overtime pay, minimum wage and unemployment insurance. Further, such misclassifications reduce payments to the U.S. Treasury and the Social Security and Medicare funds, as well as to state unemployment insurance and workers compensation funds.

Colorado has entered into a Memorandum of…