Maine: employee or independent contractor?
The test depends on which law you're dealing with. A worker can be a contractor for one law and an employee for another.
| Law | Test | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Unemployment insurance | other (state statutory test) | 26 M.R.S. § 1043(11)(E) |
| Federal income tax, FICA, FUTA | IRS common-law test | IRS |
| Federal minimum wage and overtime | Economic reality test (FLSA) | DOL |
Details and exceptions
- effective_date is the DOL table baseline (in effect on or before 2023-01-01); the enactment date was not checked.
- Required: right to control means and progress of the work, independently established business, opportunity for profit and loss, hires and pays own assistants, offers services to a client community.
- Plus at least 3 of: substantive investment, not exclusive, responsible for completion, contract with termination rights, pay tied to the work, work outside the usual course of business, IRS independent-contractor determination.
- DOL Table 1-4 marks Maine A, B and C; the statute uses this multi-criteria test (PL 2011, c. 643).
- Workers' comp test not checked in this pass (Business insurance lane).
Running payroll in Maine?
Recent changes
Last verified against the official source on October 9, 2026.
No changes recorded since we started tracking this page.
Sources
- Maine Legislature (Maine Revised Statutes) · data as of October 8, 2026 · last checked October 9, 2026
We copy figures from official sources and re-check them against the source before every update. See our methodology. This is general information, not legal advice.