Dynamex

Dynamex Operations West, Inc. is a courier and logistics company known in North America for on-demand, same-day delivery. The company is best known for the 2018 California Supreme Court case Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, which challenged whether its drivers were properly classified as independent contractors or as employees for wage‑order purposes.

In the suit, Dynamex employed drivers as independent contractors, while the drivers sought employee status and the attendant protections and benefits. The court addressed the standard for determining worker classification under California wage‑and‑hour law and aimed to clarify how independent contractor relationships should be evaluated.

Decision and impact: The court adopted the ABC test as the standard to determine employee status for wage orders, replacing the prior “suffer or permit” test. Under the ABC test, a worker is considered an employee unless the hiring business can prove all three conditions: A) the worker is free from control and direction of the hiring entity in performance of the work; B) the work performed is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and C) the worker is engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business similar to the work performed. The ruling had wide implications for the classification of workers in California, particularly in the gig economy.

Legacy and aftermath: The Dynamex decision helped spur legislative and regulatory changes, most notably the passage of AB5 in 2019–2020 to codify the ABC test. It also influenced voter-approved Prop 22 in 2020, which provided an exemption for app-based drivers from AB5’s scope. The decision remains a central reference in debates over worker classification and gig‑economy regulation.