Common law employees are California workers who have been classified as employees through legal tests that come from California Supreme Court decisions, rather than from statutes. These common law tests aim to differentiate employees from independent contractors. There are two of them in California: the ABC test, and the “manner and means” test. While recent wage orders have created numerous exceptions to these tests, they both look to the practical realities of the employment relationship. If the hiring entity has more than a certain amount of control over the worker, the worker is classified as an employee. If there is not enough control over the worker, then the worker is classified as an independent contractor under the common law rules.