No. The majority of "contractors" in America are really just employees of subcontracting firms who have way fewer rights, don't get benefits, and have to pay applicable employment taxes themselves instead of the company taking care of it.
Employer pays subcontracting company $30-$35/hr, subcontracting company pays the employee $15/hr or lower and pockets the rest. Subcontracting company offers benefits at almost 1/2 of your paycheck every month, and nothing else. Subcontracting company offers you nothing of benefit except for the job you could've gotten without them if the parent employer posted the jobs but they don't because then it would be FTE. Parent employer only provides the job openings to the subcontractor. This is all done so the parent employer can avoid paying any benefits.
It should be illegal in my opinion. A lot of lower level tech jobs and now even software development are going this direction. It's very big in Seattle and in my field it's impossible to move jobs unless you're willing to drop your salary $40k/year and wait for a potential FTE opening in which that company will hire you FTE, but you don't know how long you'll be making minimum wage.
