# First hires for founders

Roles, contracts and day-one paperwork for the first person a software company hires, from public United States federal sources.

Canonical URL: https://worldenterprise.org/briefs/first-hires/
Last updated: 2026-10-11
Publisher: World Enterprise, run by World Enterprise Group Incorporated

The first person a software company brings on raises questions that a job post does not answer: whether the person is an employee or a contractor, what has to be signed, and what has to be on file before the first day. This brief takes them one at a time, as a founder tends to meet them.

It sets out what United States federal agencies and statutes say about telling an employee from a contractor, about overtime, about work authorization and tax forms, and about who owns software a worker writes. It separates those reports from analysis, and it recommends no pay level, role type or hiring plan.

It covers federal rules only. State and local rules can differ and add to them, so the brief ends with questions to take to an employment lawyer and a list of what it cannot tell you.

The brief is general information for founders, not legal advice.

## What is inside

- The question this brief answers
- About the evidence
- Choose the role before the contract
- Employee or contractor
- Overtime and how the job is classified
- What the written agreement covers
- The paperwork on the first day
- Paying a contractor
- Onboarding the first hire
- Questions to ask counsel
- What this brief cannot tell you
- Sources