Louisiana Independent Contractor Agreement Template

Q: Why is a standard termination clause a problem in a Louisiana contractor agreement?

Because Louisiana treats the power to end the relationship as a marker of which contract the parties formed. In Hickman v. Southern Pacific Transport Co., 262 La. 102, 119 (1972), the Louisiana Supreme Court said that a right to terminate the relationship without cause, where no term of employment is prescribed, is characteristic of the master and servant or employer and employee relationship and is at the same time antagonistic to the independent contractor relationship. A termination for convenience clause therefore supplies affirmative evidence of employment.

Q: What should a Louisiana agreement say about termination instead?

It should set a fixed duration tied to completion of a defined body of work and confine termination to material breach, with the party that walks away early bearing liability for the resulting damages. Hickman describes the contractor arrangement as one whose duration is for a specific time and not subject to termination or discontinuance at the will of either side without a corresponding liability for its breach, so retaining the consequence for early exit is as important as removing the at will language.

Q: Is Louisiana an ABC test state?

For unemployment insurance, yes. La. R.S. 23:1472(12)(E) deems services performed for wages or under any contract of hire to be employment unless the employing unit shows freedom from control both under the contract and in fact, that the service is either outside the usual course of the business or performed outside all of the places of business of the enterprise, and that the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business. The three prongs are conjunctive and the burden is on the employing unit. Other Louisiana laws use different standards.

Q: How hard is the second prong in Louisiana?

Easier than in the strictest ABC states, because it is written in the alternative. The service qualifies if it is either outside the usual course of the business or performed outside all of the places of business of the enterprise. A contractor performing work central to a client's business can satisfy the prong by working from the contractor's own premises, which would not help under a single clause version that asks only whether the work is outside the usual course of business.

Q: Can a Louisiana agreement keep a contractor outside workers' compensation?

Not where the work is physical. La. R.S. 23:1021(7) excludes independent contractors from the chapter unless a substantial part of the work time of the independent contractor is spent in manual labor in carrying out the terms of the contract, in which case the independent contractor is expressly covered. The test looks at what the work consists of rather than at the structure of the relationship, so contract drafting cannot defeat it and the sensible response is to require coverage rather than to disclaim it.

Q: Does driving a truck count as manual labor in Louisiana?

The statute says it does not. La. R.S. 23:1021(7) provides that the operation of a truck tractor or truck tractor trailer, including fueling, driving, connecting and disconnecting electrical lines and air hoses, hooking and unhooking trailers, and vehicle inspections, is not manual labor within the meaning of the chapter. That is a legislative carve-out for one occupation and should not be read as a general principle about physical work.

Q: Does Louisiana require a written independent contractor agreement?

Not generally, and no statute prescribes clause wording for ordinary engagements. The trucking owner operator exclusion does depend on the paper. La. R.S. 23:1021(10) defines an owner operator as a person providing trucking transportation services under written contract, and provides that the owner operator and its drivers are not employees of the carrier or exempt hauler for purposes of the chapter if the owner operator has entered into a written agreement evidencing a relationship in which the owner operator identifies itself as an independent contractor. The statute also excludes a driver who buys equipment from the carrier and leases it back.

Q: What law covers unpaid amounts if a Louisiana contractor is reclassified?

The Louisiana Wage Payment Act. La. R.S. 23:631 requires that upon the discharge of any laborer or other employee of any kind whatever, the person employing them pay the amount then due under the terms of employment on or before the next regular payday or no later than fifteen days following the date of discharge, whichever occurs first. Louisiana has no state minimum wage act or overtime act, and La. R.S. 23:642 bars local governments from creating a minimum wage, so the exposure is concentrated in payment timing and penalty wages rather than in wage rates.

Q: Does the common law control test apply in Louisiana?

Only loosely, and it is worth not assuming it. Louisiana is a civil law jurisdiction, and outside the unemployment chapter the question is analyzed as which nominate contract the parties formed, the hire of labor or services on one hand and the contract to do a specified work on the other, under La. Civil Code article 2746 as elaborated in Hickman. The operative markers are a specified price for the whole undertaking, a fixed term, and the absence of an at will exit, which are contract structure questions rather than supervision questions.

The at will termination clause sitting in almost every independent contractor template is, in Louisiana, affirmative evidence that the relationship is employment.

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Introduction

An Independent Contractor Agreement is a contract between a business and a self-employed worker covering scope of work, payment, ownership of the work product, and how the engagement ends. In Louisiana, that last item deserves attention before anything else, because the clause most templates use to handle it works against the classification. Louisiana is a civil law state, and outside the unemployment chapter it decides contractor status as a question of which contract the parties actually formed rather than by a common law control test. In Hickman v. Southern Pacific Transport Co., 262 La. 102 (1972), the Louisiana Supreme Court said that a contractor arrangement calls for specific piecework as a unit to be done according to the contractor's own methods, that a specific price for the overall undertaking must be agreed, and that its duration must be for a specific time and not subject to termination or discontinuance at the will of either side without a corresponding liability for its breach. It then added that a right to terminate the relationship without cause, where no term of employment is prescribed, is characteristic of the employer and employee relationship and is at the same time antagonistic to the independent contractor relationship. A boilerplate clause allowing either party to walk away on thirty days notice is therefore not neutral drafting in Louisiana. Unemployment insurance runs on a separate track, a genuine three prong ABC test at La. R.S. 23:1472(12)(E). And workers' compensation ignores drafting altogether in favor of what the work physically involves.

Key Things to Know

1
Termination language is the first thing to fix. Hickman holds that a right to terminate the relationship without cause, where no term of employment is prescribed, is characteristic of the master and servant or employer and employee relationship and is at the same time antagonistic to the independent contractor relationship, citing La. Civil Code article 2746. The convenience termination clause carried by most national templates therefore supplies evidence against contractor status in Louisiana rather than protecting the arrangement.
2
Hickman also describes what a Louisiana contractor engagement should look like on paper. The contract should call for specific piecework as a unit to be done according to the contractor's own methods, without being subject to the control and direction of the other party except as to the result. A specific price for the overall undertaking should be agreed, and the duration should be for a specific time and not subject to termination or discontinuance at the will of either side without a corresponding liability for its breach.
3
Louisiana has no state minimum wage act and no state overtime act. Wage claims run through the Louisiana Wage Payment Act at La. R.S. 23:631, which requires an employer to pay the amount then due on discharge by the next regular payday or within fifteen days, whichever comes first, and which reaches any laborer or other employee of any kind whatever without defining the term. La. R.S. 23:642 also forbids a local governmental subdivision from establishing a minimum wage rate a private employer would be required to pay.
4
Unemployment insurance is the one place Louisiana applies a recognizable ABC test, and it is a real one. La. R.S. 23:1472(12)(E) deems services performed for wages or under any contract of hire to be employment unless the employing unit shows to the satisfaction of the administrator that the individual is free from control both under the contract and in fact, that the service is either outside the usual course of the business or performed outside all of the places of business of the enterprise, and that the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business. All three must be met.
5
The second prong is the disjunctive version, which matters. Because prong two is satisfied either by work outside the usual course of the business or by work performed outside all of the enterprise's places of business, a Louisiana contractor doing work central to the client's business can still satisfy it by working from the contractor's own premises. That is materially easier than the single clause version used in the strictest ABC states.
6
Workers' compensation asks what the work physically involves, not how the contract is structured. La. R.S. 23:1021(7) defines an independent contractor as a person rendering service, other than manual labor, for a specified recompense for a specified result, under the principal's control as to results only, and expressly excludes such a person from the chapter unless a substantial part of the work time is spent in manual labor in carrying out the terms of the contract, in which case the independent contractor is expressly covered. No drafting defeats that clause.
7
The legislature has also carved a specific occupation out of manual labor by statute and extended the rule down one level. The same provision states that the operation of a truck tractor or truck tractor trailer, including fueling, driving, connecting and disconnecting electrical lines and air hoses, hooking and unhooking trailers, and vehicle inspections, is not manual labor within the meaning of the chapter. Separately, 2026 La. Acts No. 133 amended and reenacted La. R.S. 23:1021(7) to provide that an independent contractor substantially engaged in manual labor and expressly covered by the chapter also includes the employees of that independent contractor who are also substantially engaged in manual labor.

Key decisions before you file

Before you file a Independent Contractor Agreement in Louisiana, a few decisions shape the document: which option to choose and what each one means. The Independent Contractor Agreement guide walks through them.

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Louisiana Independent Contractor Agreement (Compact State Terms)

These are the Louisiana terms only. Read them alongside the national Independent Contractor Agreement, which supplies the parties, services, fees and payment, ownership of work product, confidentiality, indemnity, and general provisions. Where a Louisiana term below differs from the national form, use the Louisiana term for work performed in Louisiana. The termination section below replaces the national termination clause rather than sitting beside it.

1. Governing law and place of performance. This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Louisiana, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. The Services are performed principally at [LOCATION IN LOUISIANA].

2. Specified work and specified price. Contractor undertakes the completed work described in the national form as a unit, to be performed according to Contractor's own methods. Company directs the result only and not the means by which it is accomplished. The price for the overall undertaking is $______, fixed for the whole of the work rather than measured by time spent.

3. Fixed term and termination. This Agreement runs from ______ until the work is completed and accepted, and no later than ______. Neither party may terminate before completion at will. Either party may terminate for the other party's material breach that remains uncured for [NUMBER] days after written notice. A party that discontinues the work before completion for any other reason remains liable to the other party for damages caused by that breach. This section is drafted because a right to terminate without cause is treated in Louisiana as antagonistic to the independent contractor relationship.

4. Freedom from control and independent business (La. R.S. 23:1472(12)(E)). Contractor has been and will continue to be free from any control or direction over the performance of the Services, both under this Agreement and in fact. The Services are either outside the usual course of Company's business or are performed outside all of Company's places of business. Contractor is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business, and offers the same services to other customers.

5. Manual labor and workers' compensation (La. R.S. 23:1021(7)). No term of this Agreement determines coverage under the Louisiana Workers' Compensation Act. Where a substantial part of Contractor's work time is spent in manual labor in carrying out this Agreement, Contractor is expressly covered whatever this Agreement says. Contractor shall maintain workers' compensation coverage for Contractor and for every person Contractor engages, and shall deliver certificates to Company before work begins.

6. Owner operator recital (La. R.S. 23:1021(10)). Use only where Contractor provides trucking transportation services as an owner operator. This is a written agreement evidencing a relationship in which Contractor identifies itself as an independent contractor. Contractor did not purchase the equipment used in the Services from Company and lease it back to Company.

7. Wage payment (La. R.S. 23:631). If any amount under this Agreement is later determined to be wages, it is due on or before the next regular payday or no later than fifteen days after the engagement ends, whichever occurs first.

This Louisiana set is general information, not legal advice. Attorney review is available.

Louisiana Requirements for Independent Contractor Agreement

Louisiana Termination Without Cause Is Evidence of Employment (Hickman v. Southern Pacific Transport Co., 262 La. 102 (1972))
The Louisiana Supreme Court held that a right to terminate the relationship without cause, where no term of employment is prescribed, is characteristic of the employer and employee relationship and is at the same time antagonistic to the independent contractor relationship. Replace any termination for convenience clause with a fixed duration, termination limited to material breach, and liability for damages where a party discontinues the work early.
Louisiana Specified Price for the Overall Undertaking (Hickman v. Southern Pacific Transport Co., 262 La. 102 (1972))
The contract should call for specific piecework as a unit to be done according to the contractor's own methods, without being subject to control and direction in the performance of the service except as to the result, and a specific price for the overall undertaking should be agreed. Hourly and time based compensation structures cut against the classification because they describe the hire of labor rather than a contract to do a specified work.
Louisiana Unemployment Insurance Three Prong ABC Test (La. R.S. 23:1472(12)(E))
Services performed for wages or under any contract of hire, written or oral, express or implied, are deemed employment unless the employing unit shows to the satisfaction of the administrator that the individual is and will remain free from control both under the contract and in fact, that the service is either outside the usual course of the business or performed outside all of the places of business of the enterprise, and that the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business.
Louisiana Second Prong Is Satisfied by Place of Performance (La. R.S. 23:1472(12)(E)(II))
The second prong is disjunctive: the service must be either outside the usual course of the business for which it is performed or performed outside of all the places of business of the enterprise for which it is performed. Recording an off site place of performance in the agreement, and honoring it in practice, is therefore a direct route through the prong for work that sits inside the client's usual business.
Louisiana Workers' Compensation Manual Labor Coverage (La. R.S. 23:1021(7))
An independent contractor means a person who renders service, other than manual labor, for a specified recompense for a specified result, under the control of the principal as to results only, and such persons are expressly excluded from the chapter unless a substantial part of the work time of the independent contractor is spent in manual labor in carrying out the terms of the contract, in which case the independent contractor is expressly covered. Contract language cannot alter this, so require coverage rather than disclaim it.
Louisiana Truck Tractor Operation Is Not Manual Labor (La. R.S. 23:1021(7))
The statute declares that the operation of a truck tractor or truck tractor trailer, including fueling, driving, connecting and disconnecting electrical lines and air hoses, hooking and unhooking trailers, and vehicle inspections, is not manual labor within the meaning of the chapter. This is an occupation specific legislative carve-out and does not generalize to other physical work.
Louisiana Coverage Extended to a Manual Labor Contractor's Own Employees (2026 La. Acts No. 133)
Act 133 amended and reenacted La. R.S. 23:1021(7), providing that an independent contractor who is substantially engaged in manual labor and expressly covered by the chapter also includes the employees of that independent contractor who are also substantially engaged in manual labor. Check the current text of the statute as amended when assessing coverage obligations on a manual labor engagement.
Louisiana Owner Operator Written Contract and Self-Identification (La. R.S. 23:1021(10))
An owner operator provides trucking transportation services under written contract, and the owner operator and its drivers are not employees of the common carrier or exempt hauler for purposes of the chapter if the owner operator has entered into a written agreement with the carrier or hauler that evidences a relationship in which the owner operator identifies itself as an independent contractor. The definition excludes an individual driver who purchases equipment from the carrier and then leases it back.
Louisiana Wage Payment Timing on Separation (La. R.S. 23:631 and 23:642)
Upon the discharge of any laborer or other employee of any kind whatever, the person employing them must pay the amount then due under the terms of employment on or before the next regular payday or no later than fifteen days following the date of discharge, whichever occurs first. Louisiana has no state minimum wage or overtime act, and La. R.S. 23:642 bars a local governmental subdivision from establishing a minimum wage rate a private employer would be required to pay.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is a standard termination clause a problem in a Louisiana contractor agreement?

What should a Louisiana agreement say about termination instead?

Is Louisiana an ABC test state?

How hard is the second prong in Louisiana?

Can a Louisiana agreement keep a contractor outside workers' compensation?

Does driving a truck count as manual labor in Louisiana?

Does Louisiana require a written independent contractor agreement?

What law covers unpaid amounts if a Louisiana contractor is reclassified?

Does the common law control test apply in Louisiana?

Find out where you stand in Louisiana

Introduction

Key Things to Know

Key decisions before you file

Customize your Independent Contractor Agreement Template with DocDraft

Louisiana Independent Contractor Agreement (Compact State Terms)

Louisiana Requirements for Independent Contractor Agreement

Louisiana Termination Without Cause Is Evidence of Employment (Hickman v. Southern Pacific Transport Co., 262 La. 102 (1972))

Louisiana Specified Price for the Overall Undertaking (Hickman v. Southern Pacific Transport Co., 262 La. 102 (1972))

Louisiana Unemployment Insurance Three Prong ABC Test (La. R.S. 23:1472(12)(E))

Louisiana Second Prong Is Satisfied by Place of Performance (La. R.S. 23:1472(12)(E)(II))

Louisiana Workers' Compensation Manual Labor Coverage (La. R.S. 23:1021(7))

Louisiana Truck Tractor Operation Is Not Manual Labor (La. R.S. 23:1021(7))

Louisiana Coverage Extended to a Manual Labor Contractor's Own Employees (2026 La. Acts No. 133)

Louisiana Owner Operator Written Contract and Self-Identification (La. R.S. 23:1021(10))

Louisiana Wage Payment Timing on Separation (La. R.S. 23:631 and 23:642)

Frequently Asked Questions