Because the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act does not apply to independent contractors, business owners have formulated many creative ways to avoid employee status. An experienced workers’ compensation attorney may help any worker determine if any applicable circumstances make him an employee rather than an independent contractor for purposes of coverage for workers’ compensation. Whether these inventive arrangements are actually effective and legal is often requires a complex legal analysis.

Pennsylvania law considers a worker to be an employee unless proven otherwise. For Pennsylvania law to consider a person to be an independent contractor, two facts must be proven. First, the individual has been and will continue to be free from control or direction over the performance of the services involved, both under the contract of service and in fact. Second, regarding the services provided, the individual is customarily engaged in this trade and it is an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has pinpointed certain indicative factors to be considered when determining employee/independent contractor status:
• Control of manner and how work is to be done;
• responsibility for result only;
• terms of agreement between the parties;
• the nature of the work or occupation;
• skill required for performance;
• whether one is engaged in a distinct occupation or business;
• which party supplied the tools;
• whether payment is by the time or by the job;
• whether work is part of the regular business of the employer; and
• whether there is a right to terminate the employment at any time.