The Word That Moved

The narrative claiming “widespread misclassification” of employees takes yet another hit in this New Jersey AFL-CIO press release.

I’ve written a lot about how this narrative we’ve all been hearing for years about rampant, widespread employee misclassification seems to have an awful lot of holes in it.

We keep being told that we need extreme, unprecedented new laws and regulations to crack down on the business practice of independent contracting because:

• a task force report in 2019 said misclassification rose 40% in New Jersey (based on wholly mischaracterized data and research that then found its way into nationwide research that I refuted in 2025 while testifying before Congress)

• unionists in high-ranking elected and appointed government jobs keep saying “billions of dollars” are being lost (still waiting on proof of that claim to materialize, not just in New Jersey but also in California)

• independent contractors from all kinds of professions in New Jersey are applying for unemployment and being stunned that they’re not eligible (turns out it’s only about 700 a year, and almost all of them are rideshare and delivery drivers)

• employee misclassification is so out of control that regulators can’t possibly deal with it unless laws and regulations change (that hasn’t been true since at least the federal Planmatics report that referenced New Jersey auditors stopping misclassification by using language called the IRS Test more than a quarter century ago)

And without question, here in my home state of New Jersey, the AFL-CIO has been the loudest voice spreading this narrative about employee misclassification being a massive, widespread problem.

Here’s the New Jersey AFL-CIO pushing the narrative in 2019:

“The issue of worker misclassification, where workers are intentionally classified as independent contractors rather than as employees, has been a significant problem in New Jersey and throughout the nation for over 20 years and continues to grow.”

Here’s a more recent example from the New Jersey AFL-CIO in a 2025 written public comment:

“Despite the significant amount of work done to address the misclassification of workers as independent contractors, certain industries continue to see widespread, rampant, intentional misclassification. For this reason, the job is far from over. Heightened enforcement by the State Department of Labor and Workforce Development is essential and the adoption of these rules are important steps that should be approved to accomplish this.”

And here’s New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech in May 2026:

“The intentional misclassification of workers by unscrupulous business negatively impacts workers in all sectors of our economy. From app-based transportation companies to health care to construction to public sector to trucking and entertainment production, among others, workers are being cheated out of earned benefits and wages, and that must end.”

Given all of the above, you can imagine how surprised I was to read the following press release that the New Jersey AFL-CIO put out last week:

Did you notice which word they moved?

Apparently, it’s no longer a campaign against “widespread misclassification.”

It’s now a “widespread campaign” to prevent the misclassification of employees as independent contractors.

And I must stress, because the chutzpah of it is truly incredible, that the New Jersey AFL-CIO wrote this in a press release promoting an easily dissected article where acting Labor Commissioner Kevin Jarvis—a former New Jersey AFL-CIO employee himself—all but accuses the 99% of the state that stands united in opposition to this madness of being the ones who are spreading misinformation.

Four Days Left to Stop This Lunacy

October 1 is this Thursday. That’s the day when the independent-contractor rule that Jarvis’ Labor Department adopted is scheduled to take effect.

Everyone from the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce to the New Jersey Bar Association and the state Senate President is trying to talk some sense into Governor Mikie Sherrill so that her administration will give the Legislature more time to act.

This rulemaking never should have gone forward in the first place. At this point, I sincerely hope that its implementation date will be delayed, and that our elected officials will listen to the request that is in front of them to create a balanced task force.

We need a real task force this time, one with participants who are actual independent contractors and who represent the broader business community, so that this policy disaster can be straightened out before we are forced to endure the same kinds of results that the acting U.S. Labor Commissioner called “catastrophic” in California.

Everyone has always agreed that employee misclassification is wrong. But pretty much nobody other than unionists—whom the law prevents from unionizing anyone other than people classified as employees—believes anymore that misclassification is a rampant, widespread problem across hundreds of professions.

What we need are ways to target the handful of bad actors who are misclassifying employees while ensuring that strong guardrails are in place to protect the vast majority of legitimately operating businesses and the livelihoods of New Jersey’s estimated 1.7 million independent contractors.

Our elected officials have four days left to make that happen in my home state.

It never should have come to this, and whatever solution ultimately gets put in place should never allow it to come to this again.