Employers in Hawaii who use independent contractors are advised to make sure that the Dept. of Labor and Industrial Relations would not view the contractor as an employee.

DLIR has an analytical framework to determine whether someone is an “employee” or “independent contractor” and includes an evaluation of whether employment presumed or appears to exist based on an applicable statute or rule, such as statutory definitions of “employee” or “employment”; and if employment is presumed to exist, using various tests such as Control, Relative Nature of the Work, Economic Reality, and/or the “ABC” test to determine whether the person is an employee. The analysis also covers the relevant case law and fact sheets issued by DLIR.