Percentage of Self-Employed IT Workers Increasing 138
dcblogs writes "The tech industry is seeing a shift toward a more independent, contingent IT workforce. About 18% of all IT workers today are self-employed, according to an analysis by Emergent Research, a firm focused on small businesses trends. This independent IT workforce is growing at the rate of about 7% per year, which is faster than the overall growth rate for independent workers generally, at 5.5%. A separate analysis by research firm Computer Economics finds a similar trend. This year, contract workers make up 15% of a typical large organization's IT staff at the median. This is up from a median of just 6% in 2011, said Longwell. The last time there was a similar increase in contract workers was in 1998, during the dot.com boom and the run-up to Y2K remediation efforts."
Well.. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Well.. (Score:5, Insightful)
It is an occupational hazard. When you are good at your job, have a decent architecture, and have at lest the bare minimum of resources, you can pretty often keep things running reasonably smoothly to external appearances. Since things aren't obviously wrong people won't complain, they think you have enough, and think your job is "easy" since nothing big seems to go wrong. What they don't see is you scrambling behind the scenes to compensate for the lack of resources, catching problems and the occasional disaster before they happen, and wishing you had one more person so that you could finally get some real vacation time in. They will be deaf to your resource requests. Then they outsource you and are shocked at the bill.
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Yeah my old boss used to ignore maintenance on non-critical things and let them break pretty much on schedule. That way the bosses saw us as "busy".
Used to drive me nuts, I'd rather do preventative maintenance and use the extra time to improve things.
Sadly I suspect much of IT operates under the broken window fallacy for this reason. Imagine what a non-disfunctional IT policy could do for a company's productivity.
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Or as one president of a *software consulting group* put it, "I don't feel that I owe you a living,and I don't know what you do around here, and I don't care". I had no idea how to answer that other than put out resumes on the job boards.
It's not consistent either .... (Score:2)
The problem I've always seen when working in corporate I.T. is "when it rains, it pours", but just as often, there's not a proverbial cloud in the sky.
Management justifies hiring of additional staff by analyzing how much workload there is, above pretty much everything else. This is usually a pretty sensible way to go about things. After all, if you're talking about people working in, say, your warehouse's shipping department? When they complain they need an additional employee out there? Management is going
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Re:Well.. (Score:4, Insightful)
More importantly, working as an employee often means 60 hour weeks without overtime.
Contracting, I was always paid straight-rate overtime. Not time and a half so as to gouge the customer, but at least compensated for my time. I found contracting kept me in a better headspace about work, too -- I never counted on the company to keep me around. So while my co-workers would be all freaked out at being downsized, I'd just shrug my shoulders and move to the next job with no hard feelings on either side.
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I'm an independent and have been for many years and I'm almost never asked to work overtime. It's funny how companies suddenly care about your time when they have to pay for it. Exempt employee status should be renamed to "exploited employee who doesn't get paid for his work".
Another reason... (Score:2)
As a 1099, you are not an employee and the company is not responsible for any benefits. So the company can on the fines for the ACA.
Re:Another reason... (Score:4, Interesting)
True, but as you being the contractor on the other end of things, you can write off a LOT on your taxes, all work related mileage, you supplies, cell phones, internet...etc.
While it does give you a bit of paperwork to contend with, once you pass that first slightly high part of the learning curve, that part becomes regular rote actions with a little time.
Hire a CPA, and you're likely golden. Sure, its a bit more effort, but how much effort is worth keeping your hard earned money from the IRS as much as possible?
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Presumably the same number of dollars/hour that would be worth it for any other way of obtaining money by wading through accounting paperwork(or doing some other approximately equivalent work).
Re:Another reason... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's rarely for cost savings on the company's side; contractors are almost always more expensive when you've added up the overhead on both sides. Among other things, contractors typically bill at higher rates, and also bill for commute and travel time: if they send a contractor on a business trip, the entire time he or she is on the plane, in the security line, etc. is billable at full engineering rates, while salaried employees don't get any overtime for that.
The main budgetary advantage of contractors is that they're much easier to flex as staffing needs vary.
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More importantly, 100% of a contracting fee is an expense for the client company. They can't necessarily write off all their expenses for an employee -- especially the employer side tax contributions.
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I remember that in the first company I interned for. The IT staff maintained their own comms room with dozen racks of PABX, Internet and WAN connections. This was the time when Digital X.25 networks were state of the art. It was the room they always took visitors to see - racks and racks of red, green and black blinkenlighten everywhere.
The bit people didn't see was the "snake-pit" which was all the cabling under the floor, accessed by special spike grips that lifted up heavy carpet tiles. Miles of yellow,
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Or the company provides the minimum insurance to meet the ACA mandate and forces you out into the private insurance world to get coverage wholly on your own.
I'm not complaining about it mind you, I'm just stating that 1099 isn't the only thing companies are doing to avoid this these days.
my guess is that self-taught people are part (Score:5, Interesting)
It'd be interesting to see statistics, but my guess is that self-taught technologists are over-represented in the self-employed. Many companies make it harder to get hired if you don't have a degree when you're applying as an employee, but if you're an LLC doing contract work it goes through a different route and suddenly degrees aren't even in the equation.
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this is happening in all industries. (Score:1)
The trend is for part-time workers - no benefits and use them only when you need them.
Basically, the trend is to put more business risk on the workers while not compensating them for it.
Is that including "contracters"? (Score:5, Interesting)
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And I'd be willing to bet you're not an FTE for the temp agency either. They refer to us as "full-time employees", but we're still only employed for the length of the contract with their client and are not given the same benefits as those who work in the agency office.
Re:Is that including "contracters"? (Score:5, Insightful)
So, I figure, if you're gonna have the job stability of a contractor, you might as well be a contractor and at least get the bill rate that goes along with it.
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You've got a point. At least with a contract you've got a written, legally binding document that specifies your work terms and duties. (And should contain clauses that prevent your employer from screwing you over.)
Current business culture and employment law makes rake-and-file employees little more than creatively named prostitutes. I'm not kidding. American business management and ownership seems to be infected with a perverse hatred of their employees. - Yet they'll happily spend more to hire a contractor
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Legally Binding HAH! Okay, good luck binding a big company to your deal after their legal department is through with you!!!!
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Back on some older gigs, I was bouncing between W2 and then 1099 corp to corp.
W2 was making about $80K/yr. 1099 was billing about $65/hr.
Others can get
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This is not always a bad deal, I started out at the large organization I work for two years ago. They generally require most, if not all, IT staff to start out on a contract. I did this for a year and got an offered for a full time position last summer, which for this area, is highly competitive.
Oftentimes, theres a light at the end of the tunnel.
I know someone who did that. Then after 20 years or so, they dumped him on the street.
But it wasn't age discrimination, don't you know...
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Ouch! Was he a contractor for 20 years?
No. A "Permanent" full-time employee.
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I'm betting that 18% includes people forced onto contracts because many companies no longer hire full time employees or require "contract" work before making a full time offer.
It includes people who are tired of obtaining a "permanent" position only to have the entire department liquidated 2-3 years later. Repeatedly. As a contractor, I can have multiple clients, which makes it less likely for them to all "fire" me at the same time.
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I'm betting that 18% includes people forced onto contracts because many companies no longer hire full time employees or require "contract" work before making a full time offer.
It includes people who are tired of obtaining a "permanent" position only to have the entire department liquidated 2-3 years later. Repeatedly. As a contractor, I can have multiple clients, which makes it less likely for them to all "fire" me at the same time.
That's fine, I'm not talking about people in your situation. Personally I'd probably do the same if I didn't need a consistent stream of income and health insurance to support my family. But there are a large number of IT workers out there that are on "contract", but are treated as an employee. This is basically labor fraud, and it should be stopped.
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I am a self employed contractor, and it's not a matter of being "forced". It's not for everyone, because you have to manage your own accounting and benefits, but you can make it work just as well or better than working for someone else's company. I have a group health plan (my wife also works for our company), 401k, and my annual income is substantially greater than my last W2 job. I get a couple unsolicited contract offers every week, which is what I view as my income security. I'm pretty good at what I do
IT workers are basically self-employed anyway (Score:5, Insightful)
No training, so people build labs at home.
No laptop, so people BYOD.
Stupid corporate standard desktops, so people do VirtualBox/Cygwin/VMWare/etc/etc
Nobody hires FTEs because of (insert reason here) so people often contract anyway with middlemen pimps.
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I've been consulting for over a decade. I don't expect the company to pay to train me in a formal class, but they should expect project estimates to include "Marco Polo" time when you have to research something cutting edge.
Personally I like have work and personal computer space having a definite air gap. Most places have an IP agreement that stipulate their time and their equipment. Which is fine by me. If you want me to work at home you'll need to provide a laptop. If I'm going to set up a home lab i
good thing for obamacare / aca at least are not (Score:2)
black listed if are / have been sick in the past and can get a plan
how meny are real 1099's in the eyes of the IRS? (Score:2)
A lot of places likely to call some of there workers 1099's but they like to control them like W2 workers.
Also some temps are W2's but are basically self-employed and some temp / staffing agency is just doing payroll / taxes.
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A lot of places likely to call some of there workers 1099's but they like to control them like W2 workers.
Also some temps are W2's but are basically self-employed and some temp / staffing agency is just doing payroll / taxes.
The IRS takes a pretty dim view of this practice, but blowing the whistle can be risky in a small enough environment that they know who did it.
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The first practice is illegal and it is fairly aggressively enforced. Most large companies go to a lot of trouble to ensure this is not happening and that they are demonstrating compliance.
The second practice is perfectly legal.
Verdict - pro or con? (Score:1)
I'm undecided because the article (and my limited awareness) doesn't break down the types of self-employment
We need an union hiring hall system for IT with (Score:3)
We need an union hiring hall system for IT with
real job training
some kind of an apprenticeship system.
workers rights
the power to say no then the boss wants stuff rushed or things like QA passed over.
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We need an union hiring hall system for IT with
real job training
some kind of an apprenticeship system.
workers rights
the power to say no then the boss wants stuff rushed or things like QA passed over.
I vote for something more like trade guilds myself.
If you're a guildsperson, you're independent and can pick and choose who to work for, when, where, and how.
If you're a union member, you're at the mercy of a single employer, and work the location and hours that the employer says. The union can intercede, but the final choice is a compromise between employer and union, not between client and worker.
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And definately stay away from the local government unions (csea for example). Our union has no bargaining power. If the board of supervisors and the union cannot come to an agreement (raises etc), it goes into arbitration. If arbitration fails it goes back to the board for a final decision. Oh, and we are legally only allowed to strike on our own time (read as lunch and breaks). I also imagine the State is pissing my pension away as I type this. Several times now we have received 0% raises while cost
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What we need is to over turn the 'computer workers' exemption from federal overtime laws in the US.
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the power to say no then the boss wants stuff rushed or things like QA passed over.
Just because you don't have the balls to say NO to your boss. People who whine about not having worker rights are the lazy ones that don't provide any benefit to a company, and they KNOW that they will get fired if they speak their mind. Make yourself valuable, and then your voice will be heard. Until then, work harder.
People know so little history? (Score:2)
Miners etc died for taking on needlessly dangerous conditions because they needed the money and "don't have the balls to say NO" which is one of the reasons trade unions exist.
A quote from an employer arguing against gun control from less than a century ago in the USA - "you can't run a mine without machine guns". Try saying no to such an employer. There's one in South Africa that could have said the same thing last year.
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Union trades have enough trouble with rats because so many tradesmen think they are special snowflakes. (Some are.)
Good luck with the cat herding, especially in a physically comfortable field such as IT which can be far more easily outsourced than physically demanding and manually skilled trades such as pipe welding.
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Tired, boilerplate anti-union propaganda needs to be repeated? Okay, if you say so. Problem: the people who earn the most money while working for a living are members of unions. The highest paid actor, director, professional athlete you can name? Union members.
There is nothing about being a member of a union that prevents you from making a good living. Nothing.
Nothing new (Score:1)
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Lack of College Hires (Score:2)
The problem I see is there's not nearly as much college hiring as there used to be. I've been contracting since the 90's. I work with a lot of mid-cap and fortune 500 clients. When I first started we would often have a few college hires on the programming teams. I haven't seen a college hire programmer (or heaven forbid an intern) on a team in 6 years. They don't want to hire a college kid they have to train and mentor when they can get an "experienced" H1B contractor.
Off-shore and visa workers have cr
College has to much skill gaps now days tech (Score:3)
College has to much skill gaps now days tech schools fill them in but still people need real job experience.
it's easy (Score:2)
Or, work for yourself making (in my area) anywhere between 60K-125K per year, (mostly) doing thing
Reality says otherwise and claws back any "increas (Score:1)
All the increases that you claim to have in freedom and pay are clawed back by taxes, benefits(with no benefits related to scale), and general instability(economically equivalent to Fukushima).
That and you dont get the general camaraderie from being in a group over a longer period of time. So, for most people, salary beats contract when everything is put on the table; the only time it doesnt is for the exceptional and rare few.
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All the increases that you claim to have in freedom and pay are clawed back by taxes, benefits(with no benefits related to scale), and general instability(economically equivalent to Fukushima).
I don't know what you mean. When I was working for someone else, I was paying taxes and that. I also never knew when my job was going to get cut out of the picture (I know that this is not the same for many others, but in my case it was).
That and you dont get the general camaraderie from being in a group over a longer period of time.
I think the opposite is true. Rather than work with the same 10 or so people at a job that we all hate, I work with many clients that all love it when I come in.
So, for most people, salary beats contract when everything is put on the table; the only time it doesnt is for the exceptional and rare few.
I agree, but I feel that mindset is fading away for the IT world. There's a point in every company's growth,
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I don't know what you mean. When I was working for someone else, I was paying taxes and that. I also never knew when my job was going to get cut out of the picture (I know that this is not the same for many others, but in my case it was).
When working for a conventional employer under regular arrangements, one typically pays some sort of income tax. In comparison, client-based/indirect employment transfers costs(such as taxes and benefits) onto yourself (or an Employer of Record). That is what I meant.
As for not knowing when your job gets cut, flexibility is not your friend in that regard. It's the upstream employer's friend.
I think the opposite is true. Rather than work with the same 10 or so people at a job that we all hate, I work with many clients that all love it when I come in.
However, you still have the issue that you're viewed as being separate versus being part of the employer. They mig
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Predictably too low (Score:4, Insightful)
Every IT professional's career should go through the following life-cycle:
Employee -> hourly contractor -> freelance/small business ( -> medium/large business)
Which mirrors the typical human life-cycle:
Childhood -> college -> adulthood ( -> own family)
Full-time employment is like childhood, your employer/parents take care of you and in return they control a large portion of your life.
Hourly contracting is like going to college, you still have a lot of constraints on your life but fewer and you have to take care of yourself. In college you have sex, as a contractor you get a big fat pay cheque.
Freelance/small business is like post-graduation life, you're now responsible for every aspect of your business/life and in return you gain a lot of independence, if only you had time to take advantage of your independence, hah.
And if you're lucky, and by that I mean really unlucky, you partner up with a few others and grow your business and start taking care of others. At this point someone will say "you have your own company? Wow, must be nice to be your own boss!" This is your cue to assume the fetal position and sob uncontrolably, again, then ask yourself "is it really worth it?" Damned right it is!
You ignore stability in the general population (Score:1)
Accounting for all the things you ignore(including the fact that not everyone is meant to be in the unstable sector):
Contract work == prostitution writ large. It is something one grows out of to do more stable work.
Regularized, long-term employment ~= monogamy. It is the type of work that represents an adult level of trust between an organization and an individual. It also unlocks benefits of scale not possible in contract/self employment.
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I agree that what I do is high-tech prostitution but thats the way I like it. It allows me to extract the maximum value from my skills and efforts. I also get to choose who I work for and with. I can't imagine going back.
By the way, "long-term employment" is about as common as a long-term marriage these days.
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The problem with that is not everyone is suited to working that way. Many do well when in direct-hire employment relationships based on mutual trust versus employer-side contempt. They see the push towards indirect employment as an effort to treat employees worse.
Realistically, you're in the extreme minority of people that work well with Fukushima levels of instability and more net risk than reward.
It will grow even faster in the US now (Score:4, Insightful)
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When companies were railing against Obamacare, I was wondering if Obamacare might lead to an explosion in enterprenuerialship in the USA. As an IT worker you basically sign away all your right to intellectual property and ideas, but as a contractor you can still do the same job for MegaCorp while developing your own projects and products.
It it too early to tell, but hopefully the explosion is coming. :)
Some real information would be nice (Score:1)
Good? (Score:2)
There needs to be a lot of cross-pollination of ideas and technology between companies. It's far easier these days to get stuck in an IT rut and stick with what you know (since it works) rather than expanding into a different technology. I was at my former employer for 11 years until I got laid off over the summer. Took my knowledge, went elsewhere, and have been able to merge what I leared there with the new place and while my former employer is still struggling, the new place is doing a lot better, tha
Doing contracts since 2007 ... (Score:1)
You're in the minority. (Score:1)
You might be happy for it, but most people see it as a weapon used against them - as flexibility really is employer-benefitting disposability.
Not by choice in my case (Score:2)
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I was able to retire. I have bought art supplies but actually spent more time playing minecraft, extra time with my grandchildren.
IT in the US currently is pretty terrible for the vast majority. Inexpensive offshore labor is the main reason. That's slowly changing towards parity.
But low status and expectation to work nights, weekends, and holidays are also problems with the field. I also found SOX sucked the joy out of programming-- documenting that my last gig, it cost 47 days to make a change of any
I'd rather do the FTE thing (Score:2)
All things considered, I think I want to stay an FTE. I don't really need to be - my wife works and we have much better health coverage through her employer. However, one thing I've noticed with contract work is the lack of stability. Even with the high bill rates and the ability to call just about everything you purchase a business expense, there's something to be said for sticking with a company and building/fixing a product throughout the lifecycle. Also, if you can't sell, drumming up business is a lot
Mod parent up (Score:1)
Good to hear some truth.
You're only leaving money on the table if you dont count all the employer expenses now paid by yourself.
Employers of Record (Score:1)
How many of self-employed (or non-self-employed) out there have to deal with "employers of record"? I'm not in IT, but I am in an industry where predatory third-party employers act as a means for companies to pass their payroll taxes, workers comp insurance, etc. on to their employees. My understanding is that this sort of thing is prevalent in IT as well, so I'm curious how many slashdotters who are in IT have to deal with this.
For those who are unfamiliar, the grift is this: Company A, rather than hiri
Advise (Score:1)
Your contract rate should be around 2x what your salary breaks down to for an hours worth of work. So if you make $100K, that's $50 an hour (include 2 week vacation) x2 = $100 an hour.
Don't shortchange yourself, there will be dry periods and you have to cover expenses like retirement, health and accounting. Get a good accountant so you can expense all your gear, they should more than cover their cost.
Keep networking so you have somewhere to go if your gig runs dry.
Enjoy, you're now the CEO of you, inc.
Yeah who is going to pay 500k a year. (Score:1)
The ammount of systems an IT worker has to manage these days is like running an Aircraft carrier along with launching and landing planes.
If an IT dept. is ran well they start reducing the ammount of employees required to run the company. If things are crashing every other day then the wrath of Khan comes down.
IT administrators hold the keys to the universe but get the dirty end of a used mop. Upper management cries when you are making over 100k a year but if you were to price out each job you are doing it w
36 years on 13 week max period contracts. (Score:1)
1.BBC in UK has for many years 'employed' many 'staff' on 13 week contracts. Renews if necessary , one person worked out 36 years that way. Always 'shedable' at end of 13 weeks , Actor carries his own insurance for health illness and Professional Liability to main company. Its a way of life.
2 As a (non-IT) engineer I am now into seventh year of short term contracts for one UK company. Suits me, I work only the hours I want to work. Life Ok for reward. However I base all things on Salary in year to mysel
Re:Mostly because companies are bastards. (Score:5, Informative)
You avoid double taxation this way....you pay yourself a "reasonable salary" according to the IRS, and you only have to pay employment taxes (SS and medicare) on that portion of income, the rest falls through at EOY, and you don't have to play employment taxes on that, nice way to save your hard earned money.
Do get a CPA for this however.
I'm anxious to see what the individual mandate does to the self employed worker from Obamacare. I'm thinking I'll need to raise my bill rates next gig I do that is 1099 and not W2 to cover that.
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Re:Mostly because companies are bastards. (Score:5, Informative)
I do the S-Corp thing and know many others that do too, as one man band things.
It works this way, let's say you bill out for $100K. You pay yourself a "reasonable salary" as president of the company of $40K.
You only pay employment taxes (SS and medicare) on that $40K.
The remaining $60K, you deduct for expenses, etc....and out of what's left falls through to your personal taxes which you pay normal federal (and state taxes if you live in such a state) on that, but no employment taxes.
It is perfectly legitimate and legal. The trick is to not be too greedy with what you propose a "reasonable" salary is. There is no guideline, but if you figure about 40% of your bill rate, that seems to be reasonable for myself and others I've known that do this.
Again, get a good CPA to help advise you.
But many folks in the IT contracting market do just this type of setup because it is legal and works. Just keep good records, be legal and don't get greedy and you'll be just fine.
I personally have had a number of years experience with this.
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I've formed an S Corporation and worked independently twice, once in the late 90's and around 2005. It is perfectly legal and legit. Both times I worked with an attorney to form the corp, and an accountant to review my books and prepare financial statements. I did the bookkeeping myself using QuickBooks. It is completely legit.
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I've formed an S Corporation and worked independently twice, once in the late 90's and around 2005. It is perfectly legal and legit. Both times I worked with an attorney to form the corp, and an accountant to review my books and prepare financial statements. I did the bookkeeping myself using QuickBooks. It is completely legit.
I formed an S Corporation, but it was because I had shareholders and they wanted the liability protection of a Corporation without the double-taxation of a full corporation.
I don't think that in my locality, at least, I would be gaining any benefit as a single contractor over simply operating as a Sole Proprietorship, drawing a salary from assets accumulated.
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Please DO look into this more. From my understanding, a Sole Proprietorship does NOT give you the legal protection that a corporation does, your personal assets may be in jeopardy if anyone sues you....!!
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Actually, a corp does not usually help much in that regard if your the only employee. The odds of you being able to maintain the corporate veil are really low.
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There is no guideline, but if you figure about 40% of your bill rate, that seems to be reasonable for myself and others I've known that do this.
That's totally reasonable. I'd be really lucky to get 40% of my hours into client work. The rest is prospecting, billing, advertising, taking out the trash, keeping the in-house IT up to snuff, learning new everything every year, etc. That's all overhead as far as the business is concerned.
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Re:Mostly because companies are bastards. (Score:4, Informative)
I'm going to chime in here, as other have.
I'm an S-Corp as well, vs. a LLC for exactly those reasons. Namely I pay myself a standard rate, and bill out at a higher rate. There are several advantages, and caviets.
Let me jump in a say that MOST contract houses run at the 1.8 to 2.1 factor and for good reasons. For example, say I'm at a 2.0 factor. If I want my hourly rate to myself to be $40 I'll charge 2.0 times that to my customer, or $80.
The best reason to stay in that 1.8 to 2.1 range is that it is easy to account for in case of an audit. Most GSA have base * overhead * profit, where profit is supposed to be only 15%. However the overhead side of the equation is big, because it covers all the indirect employees; secretaries, accountants, IT staff, CEO's, etc. So on any given GSA contract, the billing rates will all end up in the 1.8 to 2.1 range.
1) The key here is the IRS knows GSA, so anything in that range is legit, so long story short stay at or ABOVE the 50% mark for your hourly rate vs billing rate if you want to stay off the IRS radar.
2) As much as you'd like to, don't ever write off part of your house on the S-Corp. Yes its legal, but since it is highly abused your more likely to be flagged for an audit.
3) Expense as much as your toys as you can, computers, routers, printers are all valid deductions of the S-Corp income.
4) Use quickbooks and its payroll add-ons. Yes there are other tools, but quickbooks is easy an worth the $300. Wait for a good sale in Feb of almost every year for $100 off.
5) Set everything up hourly, not salary. Set your billing rates, pay rates, vacation rates, even 401K or 408K per hour. This just is much easier to track and bill your clients, and pay yourself and your future employee's!
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...you only have to pay employment taxes (SS and medicare) on that portion of income, the rest falls through at EOY, and you don't have to play employment taxes on that
This can be done for partnerships as well. The IRS does scrutinize the amount subject to payroll taxes, but you have to be stupid greedy to get zapped.
Do get a CPA for this however.
Best advice ever. One of my partners IS an accountant and we still have an outside CPA firm handle the taxes.
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I'm anxious to see what the individual mandate does to the self employed worker from Obamacare. I'm thinking I'll need to raise my bill rates next gig I do that is 1099 and not W2 to cover that.
Presumably the wise self-employed worker was incorporated -- as you suggested -- and already buying him/herself decent tax-deductible health insurance, and already charging rates sufficient to pay his employee's (his) wages and benefits. Otherwise, he was subsidizing the contracting entity as the potential expense of his employee's (again, his own) health.
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Watch out for the "reasonable salary" trick-- it can nuke your social security benefits.
Sure- you may not get them- but if you use the reasonable salary- you definitely won't get them. There's a proper balance.
No it isn't. (Score:1)
Incorporate yourself, or LLC, and get away from all the bull***t. That's the best job security and money.
First of all, getting business. Getting business is hard and if you have one csutomer (worse if it's your old employer) you could find yourself out of work easily - even permanently. Technology is fickle and one year you're pullig 120K as a C++ distributed developer and the next everyone jumps on the Java EE wagon or .NET. Learning on your own doesn't count - you must have ON THE JOB experience and a proven record of development experience in that technology.
Secondly, basically all you're are doing is chang
You only exchange/increase bulls**t, not reduce. (Score:1)
You take on paperwork, payment, scale penalties, and increased instability for going that route.
If it makes sense for someone, they are one of the fortunate few that can factor out at least one of them. The Rest Of Us, on average, do not have that good fortune and will not gain it short of a legislative act or Executive Order.
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I was going to be my own boss, but apparently I'm not hiring right now.
Universal healthcare countries... (Score:1)
Universal healthcare is another way that an employer can justify second-class contractor status and then treat you like shit.
How about eliminating the ability to force said status for any job(where any skill level can choose direct or indirect arrangements)? If you want to be a contractor so badly, you can choose it over the default(and that they cannot simply just can FTE's like contractors to get around the law)
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"If you work for a salary, you're losing at capitalism."
If you work, you're losing at capitalism. Capitalism rewards capital.
Capitalism taxes capital less than it taxes labor, too. There's a reason it's not called "workism". Work is for chumps who didn't choose their parents well.
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No...Capitalism rewards using capital to produce goods and services that people want to buy. Cash is only one kind of capital. The people producing wealth are not the investors. They only benefit by letting someone else do something productive with their capital. Capitalism is much more about work that is it about capital.