employee
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 322 U.S. 111 - National Labor Relations Board v. Hearst Publications, Inc. · 1944Most cited · 2,559 citing opinions
when the particular situation of employment combines these characteristics, so that the economic facts of the relation make it more nearly one of employment than of independent business enterprise with respect to the ends sought to be accomplished by the legislation, those characteristics may outweigh technical legal classification for purposes unrelated to the statute's objectives and bring the relation within its protections.
How the Supreme Court has restated “employee”
Each Supreme Court definition of “employee,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “employee”
Court decisions citing the 11 opinions that defined “employee” — 11,815 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 11 definitions, chronological · 1938–1971
- 1938·304 U.S. 333 - National Labor Relations Board v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co.[p14]· cited 1,902×ORIGINAL
The term 'employee' shall include * * * any individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, any current labor dispute or because of any unfair labor practice, and who has not obtained any other regular and substantially equivalent employment * * *. Within this definition the strikers remained employees for the purpose of the act and were protected against the unfair labor practices denounced by it.
NLRA — striker retained status · construing 29 U.S.C. § 151 · National Labor Relations Act
A worker is as much an employee when paid by the piece as he is when paid by the hour. The time or mode of compensation, in other words, does not control the determination of whether one is an employee within the meaning of the Act.
The Act's purpose as to wages was to insure that every person whose employment contemplated compensation should not be compelled to sell his services for less than the prescribed minimum wage. . . . broad as they are, they cannot be interpreted so as to make a person whose work serves only his own interest an employee of another person who gives him aid and instruction.
Fair Labor Standards Act · construing 29 U.S.C. § 201 · Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
degrees of control, opportunities for profit or loss, investment in facilities, permanency of relation and skill required in the claimed independent operation are important for decision. No one is controlling nor is the list complete.
Social Security Act · construing 42 U.S.C. § 301 · Social Security Act of 1935
The terms 'employee' and 'employer' in this statute carry with them more than the technical and traditional common law definitions. They also draw substance from the policy and purposes of the Act, the circumstances and background of particular employment relationships, and all the hard facts of industrial life.
NLRA · construing 29 U.S.C. § 151 · National Labor Relations Act
Where the work done, in its essence, follows the usual path of an employee, putting on an 'independent contractor' label does not take the worker from the protection of the Act.
Fair Labor Standards Act · construing 29 U.S.C. § 201 · Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
neither the railroad's communication of its concept of petitioner's status to petitioner, nor his acquiescence therein, if shown, is determinative of the issue. The parties' characterization is but one factor to be considered among others
FELA · construing 45 U.S.C. § 51 · Federal Employers' Liability Act
the terms 'employed' and 'employee' as used in the Act must, in all cases not involving the precise kind of fraud involved in Rock, be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning, and the status of employees who become such through other kinds of fraud, although possibly subject to termination through rescission of the contract of employment, must be recognized for purposes of suits under the Act.
Federal Employers' Liability Act · construing 45 U.S.C. § 51 · Federal Employers' Liability Act
[A]n individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of a labor dispute continues to be an employee if he has not obtained regular and substantially equivalent employment.
striker
The ordinary meaning of 'employee' does not include retired workers; retired employees have ceased to work for another for hire.
NLRA, retired workers · construing 29 U.S.C. § 151 · National Labor Relations Act