Guides › Hiring, Managing & R&D Safety
Hiring, Managing & R&D Safety in progress
Worker classification, hiring mechanics, day-to-day management, and the OSHA / SDS compliance work that comes with running a lab or R&D facility. The full guide is in progress for later this summer — the sections below are a preview, plus a few load-bearing rules that are too important to leave out of a stub.
Worker classification — get this right
How you classify the people working for you isn't a preference. It's a legal test, and getting it wrong is one of the most expensive mistakes an early-stage science company makes — back wages, overtime, penalties, employer-side payroll taxes, and exposure under state wage-theft laws.
W-2 employee — exempt vs. non-exempt
- Non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime (typically 1.5× hourly above 40 hours/week, plus any state rules — some states have daily-overtime triggers). They can be paid hourly or salaried, but overtime applies either way.
- Exempt employees are excluded from overtime under specific federal exemptions (executive, administrative, professional, computer, outside-sales) — and must meet both a salary basis test (paid a fixed salary above the current federal/state threshold) and a duties test (the day-to-day work actually qualifies).
For a small R&D company:
- Lab technicians are almost always non-exempt. They typically don't meet the duties test for the "learned professional" exemption, so they get overtime when they work past 40 hours — even if you'd prefer to pay them a flat salary. Treating a lab tech as exempt-salaried is a common and costly misclassification.
- Engineers and scientists can be either, depending on credentials, duties, and salary level. Many qualify for the "learned professional" exemption (advanced knowledge in a science field, customarily acquired by specialized academic instruction). Some don't — entry-level roles, hourly-billable consulting roles, anything heavily supervised.
Wanting flexibility on schedule and hours does not make a non-exempt role exempt. Misclassification usually surfaces years later — through a state DOL audit, a former employee filing a wage-theft claim, or due-diligence on a fundraise — and you pay back wages plus penalties.
1099 contractor — narrow lane in a lab
A 1099 contractor is independent. The IRS, DOL, and most state agencies apply a multi-factor test (variants of the IRS three-factor framework, the "common law" test, or the ABC test in California, New Jersey, and others) covering:
- Behavioral control — does the company direct how the work gets done, or only what gets delivered?
- Financial control — who provides tools, supplies, and workspace? Who carries the risk of loss?
- Relationship — written contract, benefits, ongoing engagement, work that's a core part of the business?
In a lab environment, almost no one preparing samples can be a 1099. The company provides the lab, the protocols, the SOPs, the reagents, the equipment, the safety procedures, and direct supervision of how the work is done. That's the textbook profile of a W-2 employee, regardless of what either side wants to call the relationship.
1099 may fit for: a consultant developing strategy off-site, a contracted scientific advisor reviewing reports, a freelance writer producing marketing content from their own workspace. It does not fit for anyone in your lab using your equipment, to your protocols, under your safety standards.
OSHA & SDS compliance for R&D labs
The moment you have an employee working in a lab, OSHA's expectations apply — recordkeeping, hazard communication, Safety Data Sheets, training, PPE, and more. Compliance is much less work than it sounds if you start clean.
What else this guide will cover
- Offer letters, IP and confidentiality agreements, and at-will language by state
- I-9 + E-Verify mechanics, plus state new-hire reporting
- Payroll setup and the first-state vs. multi-state payroll registration story
- Benefits a small science company can actually offer (and which ones it shouldn't)
- Performance management for a science team — milestones, 1:1s, the founder-as-PI trap
- Lab-specific safety programs: chemical hygiene, biosafety levels, controlled substances
- Workers' compensation and which carriers underwrite hard-tech labs (general liability and product liability are covered in the Incorporated to Operational guide)
- Subcontractor agreements for university and national-lab collaborations
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