Free Hawaii Independent Contractor Agreement Template

A Hawaii independent contractor agreement records what a self-employed worker will deliver, what you will pay, and who ends up owning the result. Nothing about it goes to the state. However, Hawaii’s interest begins one step later, at the question of whether the person doing the work counts as an employee for unemployment insurance.

No rule governs the document itself. The relationship behind it is another matter, because Hawaii applies one of the stricter standards in the country.

The Three-Part Test

Under Hawaii Revised Statutes Section 383-6, work done for wages counts as employment unless the hiring business shows all three of the following to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations:

• The individual is free from control or direction over performance, both under the contract of hire and in fact.
• The service is either outside the usual course of the business, or performed outside all of the places of business of the enterprise.
• The individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business of the same nature as the work in question.

All three prongs have to hold. Missing even one makes the worker an employee.

How the Rules Define Those Terms

Hawaii Administrative Rules Section 12-5-2 fills in the detail, and two definitions carry real weight. Control means general control and need not extend to every detail; moreover, the business does not have to actually exercise it, because the right to do so is enough. The independently established prong asks for a proprietary interest – something with continuity that the individual could sell or give away, and which does not simply end when the relationship with the hiring business ends.

No Filing, Fee, or Notarization

No registry exists, no state form applies, and nothing changes hands. Two signatures therefore complete a Hawaii independent contractor agreement.

Yes, and Hawaii actively recommends it. The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations advises employers to contact its Employer Services Section and request a determination before excluding a worker as an independent contractor. Skipping that step carries a specific consequence: the department warns that failure to do so may result in an assessment of delinquent contributions, plus penalty and interest, applied retroactively.

Statute handles certain roles directly rather than routing them through the test. Real estate salespeople, for example, fall under an exemption at Section 383-7.

1. Write down the deliverables and the deadline for each.
2. Check the arrangement against all three prongs of the state test.
3. Request a determination from the Employer Services Section if the answer is not obvious.
4. Set the rate, invoicing terms, and payment window.
5. Assign ownership of the finished work and any drafts.
6. Sign, date, and keep a copy with your contribution records.

Build your agreement now and have it ready before work starts.

• Deliverables and milestones, described in enough detail to measure.
• Rate, invoice schedule, and payment window.
• A statement that the contractor controls the method and means of the work.
• Ownership of copyright and any materials produced.
• Confidentiality terms.
• Notice period and grounds for ending the engagement.