All independent contractors will be paid an hourly rate in alignment with our internal compensation policy, while taking into account typical added overhead expenses for contractors. The goal of this policy is to compensate contractors on an equal footing with staff and remove the latent inequality of market negotiations. This policy shall not limit the pay rate of contractors that have standard or negotiated rates above the minimum defined in this policy. 

The Contractor Pay Rate shall be the hourly pay rate of staff multiplied by 1.3. As of September 18, 2025, the Contractor Pay Rate is $87.33/hour.

Resources & Info for Working with Independent Contractors

This is not part of the policy. This is just here to help SELC staff find the resources they need to work with Independent Contractors. The below assumes that the appropriate Circle(s) has approved the budget allocation and/or authority to hire the Independent Contractor.

Where to find a blank Independent Contractor Agreement to draft your own IC Agreement: Find SELC's template Independent Contractor Agreement in our Google Drive template gallery here.

Where to file the Contractor Agreement: Please add the contract to this Contracts & Agreements folder. If there are multiple independent contractor agreements for a project or individual, please create a subfolder in the Contracts & Agreements folder to add the multiple contracts.

Who to Notify at SELC: No one in our Operations or Admin Circles needs to be notified, as long as the Independent Contractor sends their invoices follow the guidelines below, a W9 along with their first invoice, and identifies which circle hired them and who will be approving their bills.

Please follow the expenditure rules that you can find in our  "SELC Financial Operations" doc, which you can also find on our Expenses, Invoicing, & Reimbursement page in this wiki. 

Invoice Guidelines

Please help us expedite your payment and help us keep our bookkeeping and admin costs low by following these steps:

PAPERWORK & ON-LINE BILL PAYING

All independent contractors providing services and receiving $600 or more in a calendar year must fill out a W9 form and return it to us before they are paid and will  be reported to CA EDD.

Our preferred method of payment is EFT via Bill.com You’ll get an email directly from Bill.com inviting you to set up a free account.  Please let us know if you have questions about W9 forms or our online bill paying platform.

Send your invoice to your main contact at the Law Center and to admin@theselc.org

INVOICE CHECKLIST

Please make sure your invoice includes these elements for easy processing:

• Your full name

• Who a check should be made payable to, if different than your name

• Your full Street address

• Your Email address

• Date of Invoice

• Date payment is due

• SELC’s name as customer or billed-to name

• [Brief] Description of the services

• Expense reimbursements listed separately, if applicable

• Total Amount $ due

• An invoice number

Here’s a Google docs template and here’s a great article about how to use a Gdocs invoice template.