The Aztec Death Whistle is shaped like a human skull and produces a hideous shrieking sound, as if conjuring up 1000 piercing human screams. These whistles have been discovered in burial site excavations. Scholars believe that they played a role in warfare or burial ceremonies.
Either way, they make a pretty awful sound. Here’s a youtube video demonstration. Enjoy! 
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) hopes that two new bills will sound a death whistle to the confusing morass of independent contractor tests.
The Modern Worker Empowerment Act (MWEA) would codify the test for employee status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The new test would create a two-part test. It would be a blend of the Right to Control Test and the Economic Realities Test.
An individual would be deemed an independent contractor if (1) the hiring party does not exercise significant control over how the work is performed, and (2) the person performing the work has the opportunities and risks inherent to entrepreneurship.
The bill would also prohibit consideration of certain facts, such as any requirement to comply with legal and safety standards.
The Modern Worker Security Act (MWSA) would create a safe harbor so that companies could provide portable benefits to independent contractors.
These laws would apply only to classification under the FLSA and NLRA. The bills do not attempt to modify the IRS’s Right to Control standard or any state law tests.
So are these bills a death whistle for the current IC tests?
Probably not. My Aztec-themed prediction device says the bills are not likely to become law. But I like the thinking. Any increase in clarity for the IC tests would be helpful to the business community.
Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about Aztec death whistles, there’s an actual study published in Nature that investigates the “Psychoacoustic and Archeoacoustic nature of ancient Aztec death whistle.” Here’s the link.
© 2025 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.
