{
  "name": "State Worker Classification Tests \u2014 Independent Contractor vs Employee",
  "description": "Which legal test each U.S. state uses to distinguish employees from independent contractors (ABC test, common law/right-to-control, or modified ABC), the statutory citation, key exemptions by industry or occupation, and the date the current test took effect.",
  "url": "https://referencesource.org/state-worker-classification-tests/",
  "licence": "public-law",
  "last_verified": "2026-08-17",
  "stale_after": "2027-08-17",
  "sources": [
    "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=2775.",
    "https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXXI/Chapter149/Section148B"
  ],
  "records": [
    {
      "state": "California",
      "test_type": "ABC",
      "test_scope": "wage-and-hour",
      "statutory_citation": "Cal. Lab. Code \u00a7 2775",
      "key_exemptions": "Exceptions expressly made by a provision of the Labor Code, the Unemployment Insurance Code, or in an applicable order of the Industrial Welfare Commission, including the definition of 'employee' in subdivision 2(E) of Wage Order No. 2",
      "last_amended": "September 4, 2020",
      "id": "california",
      "url": "https://referencesource.org/state-worker-classification-tests/california/",
      "source": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=2775.",
      "source_quote": "California Supreme Court\u2019s decision in S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (1989) 48 Cal.3d 341 (Borello). (Added by Stats. 2020, Ch. 38, Sec. 2. (AB 2257) Effective September 4, 2020.)",
      "verified_fields": [
        "last_amended",
        "state"
      ]
    },
    {
      "state": "Massachusetts",
      "test_type": "ABC",
      "test_scope": "wage-and-hour",
      "statutory_citation": "Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 149 \u00a7 148B",
      "key_exemptions": "Services authorized under Chapter 149",
      "misclassification_penalty": "Criminal and civil remedies including debarment as provided in section 27C of this chapter; for workers' compensation violations, punished as provided in section 14 of said chapter 152 and civil remedies including debarment provided in section 27C",
      "id": "massachusetts",
      "url": "https://referencesource.org/state-worker-classification-tests/massachusetts/",
      "source": "https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXXI/Chapter149/Section148B",
      "source_quote": "an individual performing any service, except as authorized under this chapter, shall be considered to be an employee under those chapters unless:— (1) the individual is free from control and direction in connection with the performance of the service, both under his contract for the performance of service and in fact; and (2) the service is performed outside the usual course of the business of the employer; and, (3) the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business of the same nature as that involved in the service performed."
    }
  ]
}