Maryland: 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 | ABC | Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 8-205 |
| Federal income tax, FICA, FUTA | IRS common-law test | IRS |
| Federal minimum wage and overtime | Economic reality test (FLSA) | DOL |
The ABC test
Under Maryland's unemployment law, a worker is an employee unless all three parts are met:
(1) free from control and direction over its performance both in fact and under the contract; (2) customarily is engaged in an independent business or occupation of the same nature as that involved in the work; (3) the work is outside of the usual course of business of the person for whom the work is performed, or performed outside of any place of business of that person.
Details and exceptions
- effective_date is the DOL table baseline (in effect on or before 2023-01-01); the enactment date was not checked.
- Workers' comp test not checked in this pass (Business insurance lane).
Law: Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 8-205
Running payroll in Maryland?
Recent changes
Last verified against the official source on October 9, 2026.
No changes recorded since we started tracking this page.
Sources
- Maryland General Assembly (Annotated Code of Maryland) · 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.