jeff f
New Member
oh, where to begin...Let's get some real life in this thread. Hating on rich people is so abstract, most of this discussion is based on bs. Most people do work for a living. There are not throngs of people sitting around waiting for a handout from the rich, that's just silly.
I've been at the same place for going on two and a half years. My boss is a republican. We all had to sign 1099 forms to work for the guy, that makes us independent contractors, he pays no taxes on us, yet he treats us as his employees. We don't bid on the work, he pays us all an hourly wage. He provides our tools and clothes. To sum it up, he is our employer. He wants all the benefits of having us as employees without any of the responsibility. He has no workman's comp insurance on us, he pays nothing into our social security and he also cheats the government out of their fair share.
I work five sometimes six days a week. I have missed a total of four days in over two years and have never taken a vacation. I also have not had a raise in over two years. I'm dependable, on time and I actually care about the quality of work I produce, yet a raise in nowhere in sight. Instead of a raise we get the line, you should be happy you have a job.
That's the real world of business.
econ 101. your boss puts you on the books, thats what you want? for the sake of discussion i am going to say you make 10/hour to keep the math simple.
your boss pays you 10 becuase a/thats what he can afford or b/there is help available at those wages. its one of the two.
as soon as he puts you on the payroll. he has to immediately get insurance on you. minimum construction insurance is about 500/worker/year for liability.specialty insurance, often required, gets eceedingly higher. he will directly deduct these from your hourly wage unless he is exceedingly nice. and your boss doesnt sound that way.
he then has to provide workmans comp which varies by area but it usually runs over 30% and i have paid as much as 38%.
then he has to take unemplyment fund money from your check and in some places, not all, the employer has to match that.
then he gets hit for 3.5 percent social security and so do you.
so take that wage of yours and figure out all the things that are going to have to come off your check. and depending on the size of the company and what state, he may have to provide you with health insurance. if so, he wont take that out of your wage cuz it is 2 expensive. he will more than likely add up the total bill, divide the number by average salary and then lay off that many of your fellow workers.
and worst case scenario, he will close his company, take what money he can get out of it and close. on a company of 10 or less "employees" i can tell ya this is the most likely scenario.
i been in the business for 30 years. your employer is doing you a huge favor by 1099 you. you should kiss him.
i used to do subbing for another contractor who prefered to pay by the hour. no problem because he was paying me under the table for $15. his accountant told him to put me on the books, dumb because i begged him not to, and it would cost him a group extra. not including the money HE lost in increased taxes and insurance, my take home pay was less than $10/hour and i lost about 15 grand in tax write offs for my equiptment.
next day i said, ho bud, i am putting in my 2 weeks. he begged me to stay, i wanted to but his accountant insisted i stay on the books.
the accountant was last seen in a small innertube about 100 yards above niagra falls...completely duct taped