Washington: 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 | RCW 50.04.140 |
| Federal income tax, FICA, FUTA | IRS common-law test | IRS |
| Federal minimum wage and overtime | Economic reality test (FLSA) | DOL |
The ABC test
Under Washington's unemployment law, a worker is an employee unless all three parts are met:
(1)(a) free from control or direction over the performance of such service, both under his or her contract of service and in fact; (b) such service is either outside the usual course of business for which such service is performed, or performed outside of all the places of business of the enterprises; (c) customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business, of the same nature as that involved in the contract of service.
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: RCW 50.04.140
Running payroll in Washington?
Recent changes
Last verified against the official source on October 9, 2026.
No changes recorded since we started tracking this page.
Sources
- Washington State Legislature (Revised Code of Washington) · 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.