“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.
Independent contractor
Definition
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.
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.