If you work in health­care, hos­pi­tal­i­ty, or any indus­try that relies on staffing agen­cies, fran­chise mod­els, or shared employ­ment struc­tures, you’ve like­ly encoun­tered the con­cept of joint employ­ment. But what does it actu­al­ly mean? And more impor­tant­ly, how could it affect you or your clients?

Joint employ­ment occurs when mul­ti­ple entities—like a com­pa­ny and a staffing agency, or a fran­chisor and a franchisee—share con­trol over an employee’s work. That shared con­trol can lead to shared lia­bil­i­ty, espe­cial­ly in wage-and-hour dis­putes, dis­crim­i­na­tion claims, and union mat­ters. With recent changes to fed­er­al rules and ongo­ing court deci­sions, under­stand­ing joint employ­ment has nev­er been more important.

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What Is Joint Employment?

Sim­ply put, joint employ­ment hap­pens when two or more enti­ties have sig­nif­i­cant con­trol over the terms and con­di­tions of a worker’s job. That could include con­trol over sched­ules, pay rates, hir­ing, fir­ing, or dai­ly super­vi­sion. For legal pur­pos­es, both enti­ties may be con­sid­ered “employ­ers,” mean­ing they’re both respon­si­ble for com­ply­ing with employ­ment laws.

Con­tin­ue read­ing Under­stand­ing Joint Employ­ment Under Fed­er­al and West Vir­ginia Law →