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General Rules Determining The Employment Relationship Under Social Security Laws: After Twenty Years An Unsolved Problem, Thomas F. Broden

Journal Articles

The present statutory language—"the usual common law rules"—is based upon the Status Quo Resolution of 1948. The relevant part of that Resolution provided that the term "employee" in the social security laws should not include "(1) any individual who, under the usual common-law rules applicable in determining the employer-employee relationship, has the status of an independent contractor or (2) any individual (except an officer of a corporation) who is not an employee under such common-law rules." To understand the meaning of the present statutory language one must study the governmental battle from which the Status Quo Resolution emerged. This battle …

General Rules Determining The Employment Relationship Under Social Laws: After Twenty Years An Unsolved Problem, Thomas F. Broden

Journal Articles

Twenty-four years ago the Social Security Act was adopted. Whereas in its inception it covered about half the labor force, now it applies to nearly 90% of American workers. One would expect that the basic rules of law applicable to such a vast program would, by now a generation later, be rather well settled. Yet, in one very important area of Social Security law, this is not true. This article discusses that unsettled part of the law. It deals with the general rules applicable in determining the employer-employee relationship under the Federal Social Security laws, with greatest emphasis on the …

Foreword, Joseph O'Meara

Journal Articles

Power to bring the nation's economy to a virtual standstill cannot be immune from legal accountability. That such power is lodged in some, at least, of the great national and international labor unions has been demonstrated repeatedly, most recently by the United Steelworkers. One can be wholly sympathetic with labor's aspirations and still reject the notion that the nation's economic health and safety should be dependent upon unilateral decisions by a group of private individuals—union members and their leaders—decisions taken for their own ends, however legitimate. So vast a power—terrifying in its potentialities—must be brought under reasonable legal controls.

The …