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Cleaning is one of the sectors where workers are most often presented as independent contractors, sometimes through franchise or unit-owner arrangements layered over what functions as ordinary employment. The IRS is direct that correctly determining whether workers are employees or independent contractors is critical, since an employer generally must withhold and deposit income, Social Security and Medicare taxes on employee wages, pay the matching employer share and pay unemployment tax.

The common-law analysis turns on the degree of control and independence, grouped into three categories of evidence: behavioural, meaning whether the business controls or has the right to control what the worker does and how they do it; financial, meaning who controls the business aspects such as how the worker is paid, whether expenses are reimbursed and who supplies tools; and the type of relationship, meaning written contracts, employee-type benefits, whether the relationship continues and whether the work is a key aspect of the business. No single factor decides it, and the IRS advises weighing the whole relationship and documenting the reasoning. Where a determination is genuinely unclear, Form SS-8 asks the IRS to make one.

Sources: OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1200 - Hazard Communication · OSHA - Hazard Communication, safety data sheets and labelling · OSHA - Bloodborne Pathogens and Needlestick Prevention · IRS - Independent contractor (self-employed) or employee? · IRS - About Form SS-8, Determination of Worker Status