Oklahoma Independent Contractor Agreement Template

Services performed by an individual for wages are deemed employment subject to the Employment Security Act of 1980 if the services are performed in an employer-employee relationship with the employer using the twenty-factor test used by the Internal Revenue Service in Revenue Ruling 87-41, 1987-1 C.B. 296. The reference is to a specific named ruling rather than to the common law generally, so the analysis should be run against those twenty factors as stated in that ruling.

The same paragraph provides that the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission shall have the exclusive authority to make a determination of whether an individual is an independent contractor or employee. This allocates the unemployment classification question to a single forum, so a contractual recital of status does not remove the question from the agency's determination.

Employment includes service performed by any individual who, under the usual common-law rules applicable in determining the employer-employee relationship as provided in paragraph 14 of the section, has the status of an employee. The definitional provision therefore does not stand on its own; it points back to the twenty-factor paragraph, which is where the operative test lives.

Employee means any person, including a minor, in the service of an employer under any contract of hire or apprenticeship, written or oral, expressed or implied, excluding one whose employment is casual and not in the course of the trade, business, profession, or occupation of the employer, and excluding certain persons required to perform work after conviction or while incarcerated. Because the definition reaches oral and implied arrangements, the presence or absence of a written contract does not by itself determine coverage.

Two texts of this section are in play. The version in force through October 31, 2026 contains no independent contractor factor test. An amended version effective November 1, 2026 adds one within the agricultural exclusion. Identify which text governs by reference to when the services are performed, and do not carry an analysis run under one text across the effective date without rechecking it.

Effective November 1, 2026, the agriculture, ranching, and horticulture exclusion applies to an independent contractor who meets at least four of five conditions: performing specific services or work for a specific payment while controlling how the work is performed; being able to perform work for others at the contractor's own election without going through an employment process; receiving compensation on a per-job, competitive-bid, or contract basis rather than as an employee; being able to incur profit or loss based on business receipts instead of expenditures; and having continuing business obligations, liabilities, and a chance of profit or loss. This test is scoped to that exemption and is not a general workers' compensation standard.

The Oklahoma Minimum Wage Act defines employ as to suffer or to permit to work and employee as any individual employed by an employer, subject to an enumerated exclusion list. It states no control test, no ABC test, and no economic realities language, and the words independent contractor do not appear in the definitions. A wage classification position should not be built on a state statutory test that the act does not contain.

Employer is limited to those hiring more than ten full-time employees or equivalent at any one location or place of business unless annual gross business exceeds one hundred thousand dollars, and the definition of employee excludes any employee of an employer subject to a federal wage and hour law who is paying the minimum wage under that law. Confirm whether the state act reaches the engagement before treating its silence on classification as the end of the wage analysis.