I work for a small company headquarted in CA with employees scattered around the US.
Everyone's employment status is consultant however those that work 40 hours a week don't turn in time cards and receive a salary. Those of us that work less than 40 hours a week turn in a time card and are paid for hours worked. Currently we are all paid everyother week, although our employer wants to change this to once a month. We receive a 1099 at the end of the year and do not receive any benefits.
Although our sales staff does not have a set work schedule, many of us work in offices with structured hours when we must be available.
It seems my employer wants to call us consultants to avoid the obligations that come with an actual employee, but wants to treat us as an employee with schedules etc. Is he within the law?

Here's what IRS auditors are trained with, to make this determination.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/emporind.pdf

Thanks. That's a pretty hefty document. I scanned quickly and it looks like there is an exception to every rule when making the employee/consultant determination. Is there a government website I can check? I didn't have any luck searching the state of CA website however maybe I shd be searching an IRS website instead?

Try this.
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.html