Stanley Forman Reed

“ Silk, supra, we held that the relationship of employer-employee, which determines the liability for employment taxes under the Social Security Act was not to be determined solely by the idea of control which an alleged employer may or could exercise over the details of the service rendered to his business by the worker or workers. Obviously control is characteristically associated with the employer-employee relationship but in the application of social legislation employees are those who as a matter of economic reality are dependent upon the business to which they render service. ”

“ In the absence of such a contract, that is, in reality, the absence of the control clause of 'Form B,' the entertainers, 'with short-term engagements for a number of different operators' of amusement places, would be considered 'independent contractors.' The argument of respondents to support the administrative interpretation of the regulations is that the Government may accept the voluntary contractual arrangements of the amusement operators and entertainers to shift the tax burden from the band leaders to the operators. ”

“ This brings us then to a determination of whether the members of a 'name band' under the circumstances heretofore detailed are employees of the operator of the dance hall or of the leader. If the operator is the employer, the leader is also his employee. ”