Contractor, or employee?
Ten questions about how the work actually happens, two of them optional. None of them asks for money — classification isn't a shopping decision, and a tool that opened with a price would have already told you it was.
Free, and no card. Two minutes. “Not sure” is a real answer here, and a useful one.
GENERAL INFORMATION ONLY — NOT LEGAL OR TAX ADVICE. Worker classification is decided on the facts of each engagement and varies by state. Confirm with an employment attorney licensed in your state, or file IRS Form SS-8, before acting.
Classification is a facts test, and the facts are about the work, not the paperwork
Most tools that compare a contractor with an employee start with the money: rate on one side, salary plus payroll taxes and benefits on the other, and a difference at the bottom. That framing quietly assumes the choice is yours to make. Very often it is not. Worker classification turns on how the work is actually performed — who directs it, whose equipment is used, whether the person runs a business of their own, and whether the work is the thing the hiring business does. Those questions have answers before any number is entered, and in some states they have only one answer.
So the eight questions here carry no figures. Under the federal common-law test the result is deliberately not a verdict: the IRS states plainly that there is no set number of factors and no factor stands alone, so this tool reports which way each factor points and stops, pointing you at Form SS-8 or at counsel. In a state applying the ABC test the structure is different — all three conditions must be met, the burden sits with the hiring business, and if all three are not met the worker is an employee. That is conjunctive rather than a weighing exercise, so a determination is possible, and an unproven condition is not a middle ground; it is an unmet one.
When the facts point to employee, or when they are genuinely unresolved, this tool shows no cost comparison at all. That is deliberate and it is the most important thing about it. A saving displayed beside a classification that leans employee prices a violation and invites the cheaper column to win — and the cheaper column is the one not lawfully available. Settle the classification first. The numbers only matter once a real choice exists, and then they are worth having.
Frequently asked questions
Why does this tool not ask what each option costs?
The first eight questions ask for no money at all, because classification is decided by how the work actually happens, not by what it costs. A tool that opens with a cost comparison has already told you this is a shopping decision, and it is not one. Costs appear only after the facts show that a genuine choice exists.
Why does it refuse to give a verdict under the federal test?
Because the IRS says it cannot be scored: there is no set number of factors that makes someone an employee or a contractor, and no single factor stands alone. A tool that adds up answers and prints a verdict is doing what the issuing agency says is not possible. This one shows which way each factor points and routes you to Form SS-8 or an employment attorney to settle it.
Why can it reach an answer in California but not elsewhere?
California applies the ABC test, which is conjunctive — all three conditions must be met, and the burden is on the hiring business. If all three are not met, the worker is an employee. That structure supports a determination in a way the federal weighing test does not.
What is the B prong, and why does it decide so many cases?
It asks whether the worker performs work outside the usual course of the hiring entity's business. A plumbing company engaging a plumber fails it no matter how the contract is written; the same company engaging a bookkeeper does not. In an ABC state that question alone often settles the matter.
Does a signed contractor agreement settle it?
No. Every version of this test looks at how the work is actually performed. A contract calling someone a contractor while the business directs their hours, supplies their tools and occupies all their working time does not change what they are — and a reclassification reaches backwards into past periods.