18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies · Notable · Needs Congress
Enact a bright-line employee vs. independent contractor test
Printed page 591 18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies
“Congress should establish a bright-line test—based on the level of control an individual exercises over his or her work—to determine whether a payee is an employee or an independent contractor, across all relevant laws.”
What has happened
- Not started
The Modern Worker Empowerment Act (H.R. 1319 / S. 2228) would set a statutory test for independent contractor status "for the purposes of federal labor laws that address issues such as the federal minimum wage, overtime compensation, and collective bargaining", turning on whether another party exercises significant control over the details of the work and whether the individual bears entrepreneurial opportunity and risk — the bright-line control test the Quote asks for. H.R. 1319 was reported and placed on the Union Calendar (Calendar No. 431) on 2026-02-20 and has had no floor vote; S. 2228 was referred to the HELP Committee on 2025-07-09. Under the Requires-Congress ladder, reported and calendared is still `not-started`.
No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- §3b: committee action and calendar placement are not rungs on the ladder.
- The bill reaches “all relevant laws” only in part — federal labor laws, not the Internal Revenue Code — so even enactment would be partial on this Quote’s “across all relevant laws”. Recorded here so a later pass does not over-level it.
- Action
- create
- Object
- Statutory employee/independent contractor test
- ID
- 1625