Whether a person is properly classified as an employee or a volunteer is determined by the parties’ intent. If a person intends to volunteer their services for public service, religious or humanitarian objectives, not as an employee and without expecting pay, the person is not an employee of the religious, charitable or similar nonprofit corporation that receives the services.1

• However, the distinction between a volunteer and an employee is often blurry. In a recent decision evaluating a drug rehabilitation work therapy program, a California court of appeal established a two-part standard that nonprofits should use to determine whether a worker may be appropriately classified as a volunteer.2 First, a nonprofit must demonstrate that the worker freely agreed to work for a personal or charitable benefit, not for compensation. Second, it must demonstrate that its use of volunteer labor is not an effort to avoid having to comply with wage and hour laws.

• Though the term “volunteer” is sometimes used loosely in certain contexts, employers cannot label someone a volunteer to evade the requirements of the law.

Particularly during the summer, employers often receive requests from minors who offer to “volunteer” their services to gain work experience. An individual generally cannot “volunteer” to work at a “for-profit” company. A person who offers to work for nothing for the purpose of gaining experience is not a volunteer.

If you are a for-profit entity, people who perform work for you are generally employees, regardless of their age, and you should comply with wage and hour laws, anti-discrimination laws and anti-harassment laws.

1. DLSE Opinion Letter 1988.10.27; DLSE Enforcement Policies and Interpretations Manual sec. 43.6.7

2. Spilman, et al. v. The Salvation Army, 117 Cap.App.5th 913 (2026)