Do you know if you’re an employee or an independent contractor? It seems like something you should automatically know when you’re hired, but the question comes up more often than you’d think. The confusion often arises when the terms of hire or the expectations from the employer are ambiguous or *shudder* not written down. And there are real consequences to not knowing whether you’re an employee or a contractor: it can affect whether you are eligible for employee-sponsored insurance, whether your employment is temporary, and for artists, whether or not you own rights in the work you’re hired to create.