Independent Contractors & Workers’ Compensation

In May 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) announced that it was returning to its pre-2024 classification of independent contractors. What this means is that the DoL will not enforce a 2024 regulation intended to make it harder to misclassify employees as independent contractors. The reason this matters to Florida employees (and independent contractors!) is that one of the main reasons employers misclassify employees is to avoid having to pay workers’ compensation benefits, and relaxing the rule may lead to issues down the road.

Employee vs Independent Contractor

Workers’ compensation is one of the cornerstone benefits for employees in the United States, but only if a worker meets certain criteria – namely, that they are an employee, as opposed to a temporary worker or independent contractor. An employee is generally a person who has accepted an offer of employment with a certain company, with their job-related functions controlled almost completely by that company.

Independent contractors, by comparison, have much more control over how they do their job – often, they make their own hours, and they pay their own taxes instead of having them taken out of a paycheck by an employer. The trade-off for such relative freedom is being ineligible, in all but the rarest circumstances, for benefits like health insurance and workers’ compensation. Regardless, it is important to keep in mind that it is the worker who chooses their classification, rather than an employer or client.

Exceptions Exist

In general, independent contractors are not considered employees, meaning that whether or not they carry workers’ compensation insurance for themselves is up to them. There are, however, exceptions, and they are industries involving high risk – most commonly, the construction industry. Between the danger involved in the ordinary course of work, and the unusual structure of who works for whom, the distinction between an employee and an independent contractor becomes easily blurred.

If an independent contractor is injured on the job, it may also be possible to just sue the company they are working for. While workers’ compensation benefits are the exclusive remedy for employees (meaning that an employee cannot, except in rare situations, sue their employer for negligence), an independent contractor does not fall into that pattern. If they are injured at work and they believe that negligence played a role, they may simply decide to file suit.

Contact An Orlando Workers’ Compensation Attorney

If an employee is injured at work, they will usually be entitled to workers’ compensation – but if a person is misclassified as an independent contractor, they may be forced to go without. An Orlando workers’ compensation attorney from the Hornsby Law Group will work hard to prevent that outcome for you. Call our office today to schedule a consultation.

Source:

dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20250501