Employers not subject to the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act

Certain employers are not subject to the act. First, to be subject to the Act, the employer must have three or more employees. If the employer has fewer than three employees, it is not subject to Georgia Workers’ Compensation.

Moreover, employees not subject to the Act include farm laborers, domestic servants, railroad workers, and independent contractors.

The most controversy involves the definition of independent contractor. Often, an employer will attempt to classify an employee as an independent contractor to avoid paying workers’ compensation insurance or benefits. However, often the State Board will find the employee is misclassified and subject the employer to workers’ compensation coverage for said employee.

The factors that the Board looks at to determine if a worker is indeed an independent contractor include the following:
-does the worker have control over his work; that is, does the worker exercise control over the time, manner and method of his/her work;
– is the worker paid on a set price per job or a unit basis rather than a salary basis.

Generally, if the employer, rather than the employee, controls the hours to be worked and pays the worker on an hourly or salary basis, the worker is said to be an employee and the employer must provide workers’ compensation insurance and benefits (provided other criteria are met).