On Tuesday May 5, 2026, New Jersey adopted regulations—effective October 1, 2026—that are intended to provide guidance for determining when workers are employees versus independent contractors. The New Jersey statutory test, which is commonly referred to as the “ABC Test,” has been in effect in its current form for several years now (see our prior alerts here and here). The new regulations assert that the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (the Department) will apply the ABC Test uniformly to any legislative program under its jurisdiction, including the State’s Unemployment Compensation Law, Wage and Hour Law, and Wage Payment Law. Before the new regulations, there had been some possibility that different statutes would draw the line differently between employee and independent contractor.
Under the three-pronged ABC Test, workers performing services for remuneration are presumed to be employees unless the putative employer can show that
(A) the individual has been and will continue to be free from control or direction over the performance of services, both under their contract and in fact,
(B) the service is either outside the usual course of the business or outside all the places of business of the enterprise, and
(C) the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business.
Under this additive test, if the putative employer fails to satisfy even one prong, then the person in question will be...
A person in his 30s who demanded compensation for alleged foreign substances in cup noodles and the absence of meat in stir-fried pork was sentenced to prison in both the first trial and the appel...