Re: [PLUG] [OT] Career opportunities

["William H. Magill" <magill@mcgillsociety.org>]

On 07 Dec, 2005, at 14:19, Michael C. Toren wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 07, 2005 at 11:58:18AM -0500, Mike Ciul wrote:
> > but after my wife looked into the situation, this appears to be
> > illegal - contractors are supposed to advertise and the clients are
> > supposed to come to them. They are paid by the job, not by the hour.
>
> I'm by no means an expect, and ofcourse anyone with a large financial
> stake in the matter would want to speak with an accountant or  
> attorney,
> but I believe the situation is a bit more complicated.  For example,
> when the Department of Labor and Industry attempts to determine if a
> worker should be classified as an employee or contractor, one factor
> they examine is what level of control the worker has in the "direction
> over the performance of his services".  Another factor is whether the
> employer, or the worker is responsible for defining the hours during
> which work takes place, and so on.

The "contractor" must also have more than one employer. (Not  
necessarily concurrently, but serially, such as with a consultant, or  
otherwise be obviously "self employed.")

The "employer" may not define who is and who is not a contractor,  
unless they are
advertising for bids. Any individual "hired" by a company is an  
employee. To be a contractor, there must be a bidding process.

The "direction over the performance of his services" and definition  
of hours determines
weather or not the individual is an "exempt employee." That is to  
say, someone who is NOT subject to the wage hour laws which dictate  
the payment of overtime, mandatory coffee breaks and the like.

This 1099 ploy has been used by shyster organizations -- both profit  
and non-profit for many years to avoid paying Social Security and  
other Wage related taxes (as well as minimum wage, and other wage  
hour issues).

It's been pretty easy to "break" employers who try to use the 1099  
ploy in the for-profit sector (including Education). I don't have any  
experience with the rest of the non-profit world. In general, the  
interest of the Labor and Industry folks is directly related to the  
amount of Tax not being paid by the entity.

T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
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magill@mcgillsociety.org
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whmagill@gmail.com


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