Congress expands civil-rights law to cover independent contractors
H.R. 10035 — Protecting Independent Contractors from Discrimination Act of 2026 · Filed by Eleanor Norton (D-DC) · Introduced Aug 3, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill expands six major federal employment-discrimination laws to cover independent contractors, not just traditional employees. Currently, workers classified as independent contractors are excluded from protections against discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, and wage/hour violations. The bill reclassifies independent contractors as 'employees' under these statutes, giving them the same legal protections as W-2 workers.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to extend existing civil-rights and labor-standards protections to a class of workers (independent contractors) currently excluded from them. It is a straightforward expansion of statutory coverage, not a new regulatory regime or carve-out.
What the text implies
- Shifts classification disputes from contract law into employment law: employers may face increased litigation over whether a worker is truly independent or misclassified, since the stakes now include discrimination liability.
- May accelerate reclassification of gig-economy workers (rideshare, delivery, freelance platforms) if platforms choose to convert contractors to employees to avoid discrimination-law exposure, or conversely, may incentivize stricter contractor-status enforcement.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
employment-law attorneys and plaintiff's counsel (increased discrimination litigation); workers classified as independent contractors (access to statutory remedies)