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The United States Department Of Labor

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The use of contingent workers is an ever increasing practice in today’s business world. The United States Department of Labor (2013) views the same as both sound advancement and reason for worry. This paper will explore the history, theories, implications for leaders, and relative trends of this class of workers.
Businessdictionary.com (2015) states that a contingent worker is a "Temporary employee who is (1) hired for contingent work, (2) paid according to hours worked, and (3) draws no benefits that are commonly available to the regular employees”. The contingent workforce consists of temporary, part-time, independent contractors, seasonal, college interns, and leased workers. Often confusion is present in labeling employees and independent contractors accurately. According to the IRS (2015) an individual is an independent contractor if the payer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not what will be done and how it will be done. Under common-law rules, anyone who performs services for you is your employee if you can control what will be done and how it will be done (IRS, 2015).
The employing of contingent workers is an intentional business decision by companies. The search for greater flexibility, in terms of numbers of employees and in terms of the skills those employees possess, is the main reason reported by companies for the increasing use of contingent workers. (Daly, 2013) According to the Department of Labor (2015), employers

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