Independent contractor
An independent contractor is a worker or business that performs a specified result while the principal controls the result rather than the means of the work. Employee-status and workers’ compensation rules are determined under the law that applies to the particular work and jurisdiction.
“Independent contractor” is not established by an invoice or an agreement label. California’s workers’ compensation statutes supply a result-versus-means definition and also presume that a person rendering service for another is an employee unless an exception applies. Other states use their own statutes and tests, so document the actual working relationship before treating a worker as outside the payroll policy.
Sources
- Primary source: California Labor Code § 3353 — California’s workers’ compensation definition of an independent contractor as a person controlled as to the result, not the means, of the work.
- Primary source: California Labor Code § 3357 — California’s statutory presumption that a person rendering service for another is an employee unless an exception applies.