For roughly 200 years, Santa has been retaining seasonal help at his Arctic Circle workshop. His undersized non-union workers toil in an icy land that sits beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. employment laws, a wise move by Mr. Claus and his attorneys.

While children around the world ask silly questions like, Can I visit the elves? and What do elves eat? and How do they work so fast?, this blog asks the serious question that all adult businesspeople want to know: Are elves employees or independent contractors?

Spoiler alert for the children: The answers are No, Caribou, and Amphetamines.

The adult question takes some analysis. Let’s peek behind the wintry curtain.

We know the elves are seasonal workers. The last few months of every year, they work their tiny asses off, manufacturing a few billion toys in a well-hidden workshop. Some small businesses make the mistake of thinking that short-term work means the worker can be classified as an independent contractor, but employment can be short-term too. If the other facts show control, economic reliance, etc., the elves will be employees. Doesn’t matter if the elves go back on the dole every January 1 for lack of work.

What about control? We know Santa gets a long list of demands from children, and many of these are detailed. Kids aren’t making vague requests for any old cell phone. They want the iPhone X with 256 GB of storage and an unlimited data plan. Santa needs to make sure the toys are build to spec. The elves cannot freestyle here. Santa supervises his staff, maintaining the right to control how they do their work.

Looking at other factors in the Right to Control Test, it’s really not a close call. The elves are told where to work (at Santa’s 10 billion sf workshop), when to work (23 hours a day, plus one hour in the yard for exercise), and they’re monitored every step of the way (little known fact: Mrs. C spends most of December knitting in front of a wall of security monitors). If Pete the Elf puts the wrong wheel on Little Johnny’s tricycle, you think Santa would stand for that? Heck no. The elves have no discretion. They work hard and are closely monitored. The only reason Santa’s workshop is not considered a sweatshop is that it’s in the Arctic.

Fortunately for the jolly taskmaster, U.S. wage and hour law doesn’t apply to enterprises at the earth’s geographic poles. Elves would surely be considered employees, not independent contractors, if the Fair Labor Standards Act applied. The Economic Realities Test determines whether elves are employees or contractors for minimum wage and overtime law, and this is an easy call. Elves are economically reliant on St. Nick to earn a living. You don’t see elves earning extra cash selling rasta beads at Jamaican resorts in February, do you? No. Elves earn all their green making toys up north.

Elves are employees, not independent contractors, even though they perform all their work in a few short months. The rest of the year they drink tiny cocktails and surf tiny waves in the tropics.

© 2017 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.

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