> facilitate an effective 7.5% pay cut (employer paid Social Security / Medicare / Medicaid tax)

The employer skipping out on taxes is not a "pay cut".

And the employee also gets to skip out on taxes.

The employee, under current laws, does not get to skip out on taxes; they have to pay the self employment tax rate of 15%; We're talking about 40 hour weeks, that kind of regular pay doesn't go un noticed by revenue offices.

Yes, the employee must file and pay taxes, even if they've reported their employer to the IRS for mis-classification.

Then they're not a shadow worker at that point. The comment was about shadow workers.