On 30 April 2018, the California Supreme Court issued the seminal decision in
Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, adopting the “A-B-C Test” for determining independent contractor status in the state. The A-B-C Test, which superseded the prior, less stringent common law
Borello test,
1 was later codified by the state legislature in California Assembly Bill 5 (AB-5). Under AB-5, a worker is presumed to be an employee and not an independent contractor unless the entity can establish the following three elements:
(A) The person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact; (B) The person performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; (C) The person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.