The California state senate is closing in on final consideration of AB-5, which will codify the Dynamex decision of the California Supreme Court. That decision, rendered in early 2018, established the “ABC Test” for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor as opposed to the historically-accepted Economic Realities Test. Whereas the Economic Realities Test allowed for flexibility in the balancing of several considerations, the ABC test” is uncompromisingly rigid. As imposed by the court, the “ABC test” provides that a worker must be categorized as an employee unless (A.) the worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work; (B) the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and (C) the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed.” Failing any of these tests requires that the worker be classified as an employee. The ABC test is lifted almost verbatim from Massachusetts law, which codified it back in 2006. AB-5, which has already been passed by the California state assembly, is currently pending in the Senate Appropriations Committee, where a hearing on the bill will be held August 30.