> If you can't provide your main business without this set of people, then those people are probably your employees?
That's not the case. A home builder may exclusively hire various sub-contracting companies to assemble a home, put in electricity, add finishings, etc. Those sub-contractors contract for many other home builders or landlords and are not employees of the home builders. That is the case, even though a home builder would go out of business without the sub-contractors.
Here is a different example. If a programmer works for one tech firm which calls the programmer a contractor, then if the programmer also create a personal website or side project for income, they may have established themselves as contractors.
I think there's a distinction here, which is often lost due to similarity of the language.
One class is "contract employee". These people are basically treated as second-class employees (with just enough arbitrary restrictions to enforce that) of the company they effectively work for.
The other class is "employee of a contractor". These people are real employees of a company that hires them and provides them benefits. The company they work for then sub-contracts to various other companies and uses those people to fulfill the work under that contract.
Since both cases use the term "contractor", and the former is far more common in the minds of everyone here, its easy to get the two distinctions confused.
In my experience "contract employees" normally work for a third party company that gets contracted by the hiring company. Then, the third party contracting company pays their employees after deductions and taxes. Otherwise, if not working for a third party company those individuals may be classified as independent contractors. When they are classified as independent contractors there already are limits on the number of hours that can be worked before they get turned into employees.
> even though a home builder would go out of business without the sub-contractors. //
They wouldn't, because they could drop in a replacement contractor. In your example the house builder relies on contractors but not the specific set of people doing the contracting (as in the parent), so any contractor can be replaced readily from the pool of contractors.
In theory a contractor can send someone else in to do the work, as long as the work in the contract is completed. If you demand a specific person to do work then they're likely an employee.
> In your example the house builder relies on contractors but not the specific set of people doing the contracting (as in the parent), so any contractor can be replaced readily from the pool of contractors.
All you've done is restate my comment.
> In theory a contractor can send someone else in to do the work, as long as the work in the contract is completed. If you demand a specific person to do work then they're likely an employee.
That theory is wrong. If Business A depends upon the specific person B, and B does other work outside of A, then B is not necessarily an employee of A. There are many people with specialized knowledge that others do not have. The acquisition of that knowledge doesn't make them employees. It makes them valuable.
That's not the case. A home builder may exclusively hire various sub-contracting companies to assemble a home, put in electricity, add finishings, etc. Those sub-contractors contract for many other home builders or landlords and are not employees of the home builders. That is the case, even though a home builder would go out of business without the sub-contractors.
Here is a different example. If a programmer works for one tech firm which calls the programmer a contractor, then if the programmer also create a personal website or side project for income, they may have established themselves as contractors.