Independent Contractor Status in Real Estate

A recent wave of litigation is challenging the longstanding practice within the real estate industry of brokers choosing to classifying real estate agents as independent contractors, as opposed to employees. The outcome of these cases could potentially have a wide-reaching impact on the manner in which brokers have traditionally done business, and as a result, the issue of worker classification has garnered the attention and interest of NAR’s membership. However, the real estate industry is not alone, as the issue of worker classification has been raised in several industries in various jurisdictions throughout the country, and the Department of Labor has made it clear that it will aggressively pursue worker misclassification as a top priority.