The recent California Supreme Court ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles has effectively eliminated the gray area between “employee” and “independent contractor” and has caused a notable disruption in the way many companies will do business going forward. Specifically, individual workers will be presumed to be employees unless three separate factors providing independent contractor status can be proven. However, knowing that workers are employees rather than independent contractors does not end the confusion for many employers.

Particularly in the creative industries, many companies have historically used temporary talent that is commonly referred to as “freelancers”. Because the term does not have a specific legal meaning in employment law, it has been loosely used to apply to everyone from a one-time composer, to a digital media project designer, to a location manager. Regardless of the specifics, the term is almost always referencing the inevitable use of the temporary employee, which is also an often-misunderstood category of employment.