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The U.S. Labor Department issued a final rule Wednesday revising its interpretation of independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The final rule explains that independent contractors are workers who are in business for themselves as opposed to being economically dependent on the potential employer for work. The agency said, “The rule sharpens this inquiry into five distinct factors, instead of the five or more overlapping factors used by most courts and previously the department.” The final rule says two of those factors — the nature and degree of the worker’s control over the work and the worker’s opportunity for profit or loss — carry greater weight in the analysis than any others.