Chris Nickels Quoted in Business Insurance Article About New U.S. Department of Labor Proposal That Could Increase Litigation
Quarles & Brady partner Chris Nickels, a Milwaukee-based member of the Labor & Employment Practice Group, was quoted in a Business Insurance article about a U.S. Department of Labor proposal that would expand the number of workers who are considered employees rather than independent contractors. This proposal could lead to more employment-related lawsuits and would also return to the standard of evaluation during the Obama administration.
An excerpt:
Regulation on the issue is based on the Fair Labor Standards Act, the 1938 law that requires an employer to pay an employee a minimum wage as well as overtime compensation for hours worked in excess of a 40-hour week.
Observers say in some ways regulation in this area is an effort to adapt a decades-old law to a changing economy.
“It does have a mindset of someone who’s standing in line to punch a timeclock,” as opposed to the gig economy, in which many workers are classified as independent contractors, said Christopher L. Nickels, a partner with Quarles & Brady LLP in Milwaukee.