Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 601. Section 601.
“Employment” means service, including service in interstate commerce, performed by an employee for wages or under any contract of hire, written or oral, express or implied.
ARTICLE 1. Employment [601. - 611.]
Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC 1.
in effectCal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 601.5. Section 601.5.
For the purpose of this division only, “employment” includes any service in an artistic or literary capacity performed by an individual pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement between an employer and a labor organization in the motion picture, radio or television industry where the employer has the right to control and direct the services to be performed and the individual is defined as an employee under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.
Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 602. Section 602.
“Employment” includes an individual’s entire service, performed within, or both within and without, the state if one of the following is met:
(a)
The service is localized in the state.
(b)
The service is not localized in any state, but some of the service is performed in the state and one of the following is met:
(1)
The base of operations, or, if there is no base of operations, then the place from which that service is directed or controlled is in the state.
(2)
The base of operations or place from which the service is directed or controlled is not in any
state in which some part of the service is performed, but the individual’s residence is in the state.
(c)
For the purposes of subdivision (b), employment of an individual who is a motion picture production worker, as defined in paragraph (6) of subdivision (f) of Section 679, includes the individual’s entire service if their residence is in the state.
Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 603. Section 603.
Service is localized within a state if either of the following apply:
(a)
The service is performed entirely within the state.
(b)
(1)
The service is performed both within and without the state, but the service performed without the state is incidental to the individual’s service within the state; for example, is temporary or transitory in nature, or consists of isolated transactions.
(2)
For purposes of this subdivision, the service outside the state of an individual who is a motion picture production worker, as defined in paragraph (6) of subdivision (f) of Section 679, is temporary or transitory if
all of the following are met:
(A)
The worker is a resident of the state.
(B)
The worker is hired and dispatched from the state.
(C)
The worker intends to return to the state to seek reemployment at the conclusion of the assignment outside the state.
Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 603.5. Section 603.5.
“Employment” includes an individual’s entire service, wherever performed within the United States or Canada, if such service is not covered under the unemployment compensation law of any other state or Canada, and the place from which the service is directed or controlled is in this state.
Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 604. Section 604.
“Employment” includes an individual’s entire service, if such service is deemed performed in this State by virtue of an arrangement made pursuant to this division and does not include any service which by virtue of such an arrangement is deemed performed in another state.
Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 605. Section 605.
(a)
Except as provided by Section 634.5, “employment” for the purposes of this part and Parts 3 (commencing with Section 3501) and 4 (commencing with Section 4001) includes all service performed by an individual (including blind and otherwise disabled individuals) for any public entity or Indian tribe, if the service is excluded from “employment” under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act solely by reason of Section 3306(c)(7) of Title 26 of the United States Code.
(b)
For purposes of this section, both of the following definitions apply:
(1)
“Public entity” means the State of California (including the Trustees of the California State University and Colleges, and the California Industries for the Blind), an
instrumentality of this state (including the Regents of the University of California), a political subdivision of this state or any of its instrumentalities, a county, city, district (including the governing board of a school district or community college district, a county board of education, a county superintendent of schools, or a personnel commission of a school district or community college district that has a merit system pursuant to the Education Code), entities conducting fairs as identified in Sections 3101 to 3104, inclusive, of the Food and Agricultural Code, a public authority, public agency, or public corporation of this state, an instrumentality of more than one of the foregoing, and an instrumentality of any of the foregoing and one or more other states or political subdivisions.
(2)
“Indian tribe” means an Indian tribe described by Section 3306(u) of Title 26 of the United States Code.
Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 606. Section 606.
Each individual employed to perform or to assist in performing the work of any individual employed by an employing unit shall be deemed to be employed by that employing unit for all the purposes of this division, whether or not he was hired or paid directly by the employing unit if the employing unit had actual or constructive knowledge of the work.
Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 606.5. Section 606.5.
(a)
Whether an individual or entity is the employer of specific employees shall be determined pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 621, except as provided in subdivisions (b) and (c).
(b)
As used in this section, a “temporary services employer” and a “leasing employer” is an employing unit that contracts with clients or customers to supply workers to perform services for the client or customer and performs all of the following functions:
(1)
Negotiates with clients or customers for such matters as time, place, type of work, working conditions, quality, and price of the services.
(2)
Determines
assignments or reassignments of workers, even though workers retain the right to refuse specific assignments.
(3)
Retains the authority to assign or reassign a worker to other clients or customers when a worker is determined unacceptable by a specific client or customer.
(4)
Assigns or reassigns the worker to perform services for a client or customer.
(5)
Sets the rate of pay of the worker, whether or not through negotiation.
(6)
Pays the worker from its own account or accounts.
(7)
Retains the right to hire and terminate workers.
(c)
If an individual or entity contracts to supply an employee to perform services for a
customer or client, and is a leasing employer or a temporary services employer, the individual or entity is the employer of the employee who performs the services. If an individual or entity contracts to supply an employee to perform services for a client or customer and is not a leasing employer or a temporary services employer, the client or customer is the employer of the employee who performs the services. An individual or entity that contracts to supply an employee to perform services for a customer or client and pays wages to the employee for the services, but is not a leasing employer or a temporary services employer, pays the wages as the agent of the employer.
(d)
In circumstances which are in essence the loan of an employee from one employer to another employer wherein direction and control of the manner and means of performing the services changes to the employer to whom the employee is loaned, the loaning employer shall continue to
be the employer of the employee if the loaning employer continues to pay remuneration to the employee, whether or not reimbursed by the other employer. If the employer to whom the employee is loaned pays remuneration to the employee for the services performed, that employer shall be considered the employer for the purposes of any remuneration paid to the employee by the employer, regardless of whether the loaning employer also pays remuneration to the employee.
Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 607. Section 607.
If the services performed during one-half or more of any pay period by an employee for the person employing him constitute employment, all the services of the employee for that period shall be deemed to be employment; but if the services performed during more than one-half of any pay period by an employee for the person employing him do not constitute employment, then none of the services of the employee for that period shall be deemed to be employment.
As used in this section “pay period” means a period of not more than 31 consecutive days for which a payment of remuneration is ordinarily made to the employee by the person employing him.
Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 608. Section 608.
“Employment”, except as provided by Section 634.5, includes service excluded from “employment” under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act solely by reason of paragraph (8) of Section 3306(c) of that act because it is service performed in the employ of a religious, charitable, educational, or other nonprofit organization described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 which is exempt from income tax under Section 501(a) of that code.
Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 609. Section 609.
(a)
“Employment” includes service performed for an employing unit on or in connection with an American vessel operating on navigable waters within or within and without the United States or on or in connection with an American aircraft operating within or within and without the United States, if the employing unit maintains in this state an operating office from which the operations of the American vessel or American aircraft are ordinarily and regularly supervised, managed, directed, and controlled, and such services are included in “employment” under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act.
(b)
All of the provisions of this division shall be applicable to an employing unit and to service performed in “employment” under this section in the same manner and to the same extent as to all other employers, and the wage credits given to, and the payment of benefits to, any employee of an employing unit under this section shall be in the same amount, on the same terms, and subject to the same conditions as applied to employees of other employers under this division.
Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 610. Section 610.
“Employment” shall include the service of an individual who is a citizen of the United States, performed outside the United States (except in Canada), after December 31, 1971, in the employ of an American employer as defined in Section 125.4 other than service that is deemed “employment” under Section 602 or 603 or the equivalent provisions of another state’s unemployment compensation law, if:
(a)
The employer’s principal place of business in the United States is located in this state; or
(b)
The employer has no place of business in the United States, but:
(1)
The employer is an individual who is a resident of this state; or
(2)
The employer is a corporation or limited liability company that is organized under the laws of this state; or
(3)
The employer is a partnership or a trust and the number of the partners or trustees who are residents of this state is greater than the number who are residents of any one other state; or
(c)
None of the criteria of subdivisions (a) and (b) of this section is met but the employer has elected coverage in this state or, the employer having failed to elect coverage in any state, the individual has filed a claim for benefits, based on such service, under this division.
Cal. Unemployment Insurance Code - UIC § 611. Section 611.
“Employment” includes agricultural labor.
Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026