Misclassification: The Label Doesn't Decide. The Law Does.
California Employee Misclassification Attorneys for Workers
Misclassification is the quiet way employers take money from workers. No one is fired, no one is harassed — someone in HR or legal just picks a label. "Independent contractor." "Exempt." "Salaried manager." Each label strips away overtime, meal and rest breaks, expense reimbursement, sick leave, unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation, and shifts the employer's payroll taxes onto the worker. The label costs the company nothing and can save it thousands per worker per year — which is precisely why it's so common, and why California made it so expensive when caught.
Buchsbaum & Haag litigates both kinds of misclassification — the "1099 contractor" who is really an employee, and the "exempt" salaried employee who is really owed overtime — individually and on a class and PAGA basis, for workers in Long Beach, Los Angeles County, Orange County, and beyond.
Misclassification: The Label Doesn't Decide. The Law Does.
California Employee Misclassification Attorneys for Workers
Misclassification is the quiet way employers take money from workers. No one is fired, no one is harassed — someone in HR or legal just picks a label. "Independent contractor." "Exempt." "Salaried manager." Each label strips away overtime, meal and rest breaks, expense reimbursement, sick leave, unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation, and shifts the employer's payroll taxes onto the worker. The label costs the company nothing and can save it thousands per worker per year — which is precisely why it's so common, and why California made it so expensive when caught.
Buchsbaum & Haag litigates both kinds of misclassification — the "1099 contractor" who is really an employee, and the "exempt" salaried employee who is really owed overtime — individually and on a class and PAGA basis, for workers in Long Beach, Los Angeles County, Orange County, and beyond.
Independent contractor misclassification: the ABC test
Under California’s ABC test (Labor Code § 2775), you are an employee unless the company proves all three of the following:
- (A) You are free from the company’s control and direction in performing the work;
- (B) The work you do is outside the usual course of the company’s business; and
- (C) You are customarily engaged in an independently established trade or business of the same nature.
The company carries the burden on every prong, and prong B is where most contractor arrangements collapse. A delivery company’s drivers, a cleaning company’s cleaners, a staffing platform’s placed workers, a data company’s data workers — each performs the company’s core business. When your work is the product, you are not a contractor to the business; you are the business.
Salaried and exempt misclassification: duties, not titles
A salary doesn’t make you exempt from overtime. To lawfully classify you as exempt, an employer must pay at least twice the state minimum wage — $70,304 per year in 2026 — and prove you spend more than half your time on genuinely exempt duties requiring independent judgment. “Assistant managers” who mostly do the same work as their crews, “coordinators” following checklists, and “analysts” doing routine processing are among the most commonly misclassified employees in Southern California.
What misclassification is worth
Once the label falls, everything the label took comes back — reaching back three to four years:
- Unpaid overtime and minimum wage
- Meal and rest break premiums
- Reimbursement of business expenses — vehicle, phone, internet, equipment (Labor Code § 2802)
- Wage statement penalties and waiting time penalties
- Willful misclassification penalties of $5,000–$25,000 per violation (Labor Code § 226.8), enforceable
through PAGA on behalf of every affected worker
Because these amounts multiply across every worker the company labeled the same way, misclassification cases are natural class and PAGA actions — and the cases most likely to force a company to reclassify its entire workforce.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. You cannot contract away employee status. The ABC test looks at what the relationship actually is, not what the paperwork calls it. The agreement is often the best evidence against the company — it typically reveals how much control it reserved.
Flexibility on prong A doesn’t rescue a company that fails prong B. If the work is the company’s core business, schedule freedom alone doesn’t make you independent. And “flexibility” that comes with deadlines, quality scores, and deactivation for nonperformance isn’t much freedom anyway.
None of these change the analysis. Companies often require these structures precisely to manufacture the appearance of independence.
Only if your actual duties qualify. Salary is the floor, not the finish line. See our article on the salaried-overtime myth.
Location affects which laws apply, not whether you have a claim. Federal law has its own test, and many states follow California’s lead. Ask.
Terminating or “deactivating” a worker for asserting employee status is illegal retaliation, and in class and PAGA cases, the coworkers you help are never identified.
Learn More
The $25,00 Mistake: Willful Misclassification Under Labor Code § 226.8
“I’m Salaried, So I Don’t Get Overtime” – California’s Most Expensive Myth
Class Actions & PAGA: The Power of Numbers
The AI Training Workforce: Misclassification’s New Frontier
Free, confidential consultations: 562.733.2498.
Buchsbaum & Haag, LLP represents misclassified workers throughout California and in nationwide class actions from its Long Beach office. This page is attorney advertising and general information, not legal advice.
Contact Our
Misclassification Lawyers
If you believe you have been misclassified as an independent contractor or exempt salaried employee, Buchsbaum Haag can evaluate your situation and explain your legal options.
Buchsbaum Haag represents employees in misclassification matters throughout California, including Long Beach, Los Angeles, Orange County, and surrounding communities. Our office is located in Long Beach.
To arrange a free confidential consultation, call 562-733-2498. Hablamos español.