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A 1099 contractor is a legal and tax-related term used in the United States to refer to the type of worker who contracts his services out to a business or businesses. These contractors exist in multiple fields — from hospital planners, to marketing consultants, to building contractors, to freelance writers. The "1099" refers to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) form that an independent contractor receives stating his income from a given business during a given tax year. A 1099 contractor is not an employee of the business or businesses with which he works; instead he is an independent contractor, or consultant, who is considered to be self-employed. Like most self-employed workers, they do not typically receive employee benefits, such as health insurance or retirement benefits, but they may have more flexible work schedules and locations.

The 1099 contractor is usually not protected by minimum wage laws; in fact, some independent contractors work below minimum wage. His payment is typically assessed by the completion of a job, not by the hours worked — when a job takes more time than expected, earnings may fall below minimum wage. On the other hand, a skilled independent contractor can work for far above minimum wage, particularly those who have expertise in a specific field and work on a consultant basis.