Witnesses before a U.S. House Education and Labor subcommittee alleged that employers are increasingly misclassifying employees as “independent contractors,” thereby denying them their rights under workplace laws. Carolyn Ruckelshaus, Litigation Director for the National Employment Law Project, urged the panel to make the U.S. Dept. of Labor more effective in its enforcement by adding more to its budget, earmarking the added funds for more targeted industry audits and investigations.