independent contractor

Examples of independent contractor in the following topics:

• Fair Labor Standards Act

  • The FLSA applies to "any individual employed by an employer" but not to independent contractors or volunteers because they are not considered "employees" under the FLSA.
  • Still, an employer cannot simply exempt workers from the FLSA by calling them independent contractors, and many employers have illegally misclassified their workers as independent contractors.
  • Courts will look at the "economic reality" of the relationship between the putative employer and the worker to determine whether the worker is, in fact, an independent contractor.

• Virtual Teams

  • They are typically created by dividing up the work of larger projects and assigning specific pieces to independent contractors or teams of developers.

• US legal issues

  • The sole proprietor may employ workers or engage independent contractors to increase skills available, but the business ceases to exist upon the owner's death.
  • The corporation may employ workers and engage independent contractors as needed to increase skills available.Corporations are required, however, to acknowledge formally (in a written document) the individuals who are approved to engage in financial transactions on behalf of the entity.

• Packaging Considerations

  • Package design may take place within a company or with various degrees of external packaging engineering: independent contractors, consultants, vendor evaluations, independent laboratories, contract packagers, or total outsourcing.

• Introduction to Contracting

  • Ideally, if you hire a contractor you want her work to be accepted by the community and folded into the public distribution.
  • In theory, it wouldn't matter who the contractor is, as long as her work is good and meets the project's guidelines.
  • It also helps to divide the problem into as many small, independent chunks as possible, to increase the predictability of each chunk.
  • For all these reasons, the contractor is best drawn from the ranks of those already involved with the project.
  • At the same time, neither you nor the contractor should act as though others should treat your arrangement as a big deal.

• The Growth of Government

  • While advocates insist that it reduces costs and increases productivity, others argue the opposite, noting that private contractors need to make a profit and asserting that they are not necessarily being more productive.
  • They contend that private contractors in some cases have submitted very low bids in order to win contracts, but later raised prices substantially.
  • As debates over regulation, government spending, and welfare reform all demonstrate, the proper role of government in the nation's economy remains a hot topic for debate more than 200 years after the United States became an independent nation.

• A Periodic Table of Associations

  • Government-as-contractor I enters voluntary associations with non-governmental parties, which may be individuals or associations.
  • When government-as-contractor I buys jet bombers from a private corporation, the other party to the resulting association is itself an association.
  • Another aspect of government, government-as-contractor II, enters into voluntary associations with other governments.
  • Treaties are an example of voluntary associations between coequal, independent governments.
  • These states are equal and independent of each other, but subject to the national government in Washington D.C.

• Affirmative Action

  • In the United States, affirmative action refers to equal opportunity employment measures that Federal contractors and subcontractors are legally required to adopt.
  • A written affirmative action program helps the contractor identify and analyze potential problems in the participation and utilization of women and minorities in the contractor's workforce.
  • If there are problems, the contractor will specify in its AAP the specific procedures it will follow and the good faith efforts it will make to provide equal employment opportunity.
  • OFCCP conducts compliance reviews to investigate the employment practices of government contractors.
  • The investigator also checks to see whether the contractor is making special efforts to achieve equal opportunity through affirmative action.

• Increased Reliance on Contractors and Part-Time Employees

  • Unlike full-time and part-time workers, contractors aren't official employees of the company.
  • Contractors often have more than one client to which they offer similar services, and are therefore specialists.
  • As contractors aren't employees, companies don't have to offer benefits or pay taxes such as payroll or social security.
  • If it is a specialized, short-term task, a contractor or part-timer could be more appropriate.
  • Analyze the value captured through employing contractors and part-time employees as a human resource strategy

• Project Management Audits

  • Best practices of auditing dictate that a regulatory audit must be accurate, objective, and independent while providing oversight and assurance to the organization.
  • Second, auditing ensures that employees and contractors are aware of managerial presence (which motivates better performance) and show support for various elements of the project.