Cite as: 503 U. S. 318 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
tional master-servant relationship as understood by common-law agency doctrine. See, e. g., Kelley v. Southern Pacific Co., 419 U. S. 318, 322-323 (1974); Baker v. Texas & Pacific R. Co., 359 U. S. 227, 228 (1959) (per curiam); Robinson v. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., 237 U. S. 84, 94 (1915)." 490 U. S., at 739-740 (internal quotation marks omitted).
While we supported this reading of the Copyright Act with other observations, the general rule stood as independent authority for the decision.
So too should it stand here. ERISA's nominal definition of "employee" as "any individual employed by an employer," 29 U. S. C. § 1002(6), is completely circular and explains nothing. As for the rest of the Act, Darden does not cite, and we do not find, any provision either giving specific guidance on the term's meaning or suggesting that construing it to incorporate traditional agency law principles would thwart the congressional design or lead to absurd results. Thus, we adopt a common-law test for determining who qualifies as an "employee" under ERISA,3 a test we most recently summarized in Reid:
"In determining whether a hired party is an employee under the general common law of agency, we consider the hiring party's right to control the manner and means by which the product is accomplished. Among the other factors relevant to this inquiry are the skill required; the source of the instrumentalities and tools; the location of the work; the duration of the relationship between the parties; whether the hiring party has the right to assign additional projects to the hired party; the extent of the hired party's discretion over when and how long to work; the method of payment; the hired
3 As in Reid, we construe the term to incorporate "the general common law of agency, rather than . . . the law of any particular State." Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U. S. 730, 740 (1989).
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