An employee is a term for workers and managers working for a company, organization or community. These people are the staff of the organization. In general, any person hired by an employer to do a particular job in exchange for payment is an employee, but there are different kinds of employees. In some countries, employers are required by law to do certain things, like obey minimum wage laws, provide a safe workplace, and sometimes pay a tax. Employers also have to give their official employees benefits, like paying for health insurance. Because of this, some employers like to hire independent contractors to do work instead of regular employees. In the United States, a worker is an employee if their employer gets to tell them what do do, how to do it, and when to do it in a material way and an independent contractor if they get to make their own decisions about how to do what the employer wants.