Congress Mulls Research Fairness Act

The US Congress is considering a bill to ensure federal agencies treat paid research respondents as at most independent contractors, and not as employees of research companies.

The new act was conceived by the Marketing Research Association (MRA) and the Mystery Shopping Providers Association after several research agencies were audited by state and federal labor agencies, to determine whether respondents receiving income from participating in research studies should be treated as employees.

Howard Fienberg (pictured), the MRA's Director of Government Affairs, comments: 'While it might seem obvious that research participants and mystery shoppers are not employees of research companies, the survey and opinion research profession is under growing threat from government agencies challenging the independent contractor status of research participants.'

Republican congressmen Mike Kelly launched the initiative at the request of Colleen Moore Mezler, President of full service research company Moore Research Services and a past-president of the MRA, which is now seeking a Congressional Democrat to sponsor the initiative.

Web site: www.marketingresearch.org .