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If you were hurt on the job and your employer says you are an independent contractor with no workers’ comp, do not take that as the final word. Many Philadelphia workers are wrongly labeled as contractors to cut costs, and Pennsylvania law looks at how you actually worked, not the label on your paycheck. The team at Lerner, Steinberg & Associates fights to prove employee status and recover the Philadelphia workers’ compensation benefits injured workers are owed.
Pennsylvania requires almost every employer to carry workers’ compensation insurance for its employees. To avoid that cost, some employers wrongly classify workers as independent contractors, often handing them a 1099 instead of a W-2. When one of those workers is injured, the employer or its insurer denies the claim by saying the worker was never an employee at all.
That denial is frequently wrong. Under Pennsylvania law, your job title and the paperwork you signed do not decide whether you are an employee. What matters is the reality of the working relationship. If you functioned as an employee, you may be entitled to full workers’ comp benefits no matter what your employer called you.
Pennsylvania courts look past the label and weigh the real facts of the relationship. The most important question is how much control the employer had over your work. Judges also consider a range of practical factors, including the following.
No single factor decides the case. Our attorneys gather the evidence, such as pay records, texts, schedules, and job assignments, that shows you were treated as an employee in everything but name.
Misclassification is so common in construction that Pennsylvania passed a specific law to address it, the Construction Workplace Misclassification Act. Under this law, a construction worker is presumed to be an employee unless strict conditions are met, and employers who misclassify workers can face penalties. For injured Philadelphia construction workers who were handed a 1099, this law is a powerful tool for establishing the right to benefits.
We see wrongful classification across many Philadelphia industries, including construction and the trades, delivery and gig work, trucking and warehousing, home health care, landscaping, and staffing-agency placements. These are physically demanding jobs where injuries are common, which makes the denial of benefits especially harmful. Wherever you work, if you were hurt and told you are not covered, it is worth having a lawyer review your status.
Protect yourself the same way any injured worker should. Get medical treatment right away, report the injury to the company in writing even if they say you are not covered, and keep every document that shows how you actually worked. Then call a workers’ compensation lawyer before you accept a denial. The sooner we get involved, the more evidence we can preserve to prove your employee status.
Being labeled a contractor does not stop your workers’ comp deadlines from running, so acting quickly is critical.
You can review the state’s official program through the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. If your claim was already denied, learn more about how we handle denied claims.
For more than three decades, Mike Lerner and Ben Steinberg have handled workers’ compensation and injury cases for people across Philadelphia, and they work on every misclassification case personally. You deal directly with an attorney, never a case file. They know the tactics employers use to dodge coverage, and they know how to prove the truth of the working relationship.
We work on a contingency basis, so you owe no fee unless we win. If you were hurt on the job in Philadelphia and told you are not covered because you are a contractor, contact our office for a free consultation and an honest review of your claim.
