Many state unemployment insurance laws provide a three-fold test, frequently interpreted more broadly than the common law test, for determining whether a worker's services constitute employment. Under this test, service for remuneration is considered employment unless:
- the worker is free from control or direction of the performance of his work both under his contract of service and in fact,
- the service is either outside the usual course of the business for which such service is performed, or it is performed outside of all the places of business of the enterprise for which such service is performed, and
- the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business.
The burden of proving satisfaction of the three conditions is on the employer. In most states, all three conditions must be present before a worker's services may be deemed excluded from coverage under unemployment insurance laws.
See the following article for details.
