Self employed vs. Employed: Politics and laws? (unemployment, illegal aliens, illegals)

[BentBow]

A lot of the self employed, who are labeled "subcontractor", are exploited by the people that hire them for their services.
To get their work, or account, you must let them have control over the majority of your so called business(your self employed).
It is a free world and you have the right to say no, but you need to eat.
You go to work, as basically an employee, but holding all the liability.
You are told what your getting paid.
Your told where to work
Your told when to work
Your told how to work
Your told what to use to complete the task.
You cannot work for anyone else.
You get the good at the same pay as the bad.

How and what laws need to be put in place to determine and catch those employers, that choose to mislabel their workforce as subcontractor, to cheat our tax system, both state and federal, our insurance system, our unemployment system and then to be able to exploit and control the worker.
You can end up working 80 hours a week, for no extra compensation, because your your own business.

This is also the way the majority of illegal aliens are hired, taking jobs from Americans. They call them subcontractors, doing many, many of the jobs Americans love to do, but not for the pay dictated by the unscrupulous employers, wanting controllable, cheap labor.

I feel we need to do away with the 1099 form for self employment.
I also feel everyone that is being called a separate business, and "subcontracting" be DBA. No self employed 1099's to Social Security numbers, only verifiable Tax payer ID #'s from a DBA'ed business.

Right now the only recourse for someone being misclassified and abused by exploiting their lack of business knowledge, is to file an IRS form SS-8, which is a joke.

What if their were laws that everyone that worked regardless was employed? I mean someone is always your BOSS, right?

What if their were laws that no one was employed and everyone was their own BOSS, responsible for their own responsibilities?

[HappyTexan]

Well subcontractor is the only way out for some who need the labor but just cannot afford to have them on the books.

There are contracting companies that have pools of people they sub out to other companies.
Why not just make all contractors work through these agencies ? I know some don't want to because what the agency charges per hour is not what they pay the contractor but hey..they need to make a profit as well.

The illegals are another story and shouldn't even be counted in your post.

If you decided to own your own business..then YOU ARE THE BOSS. You don't want to work 80 hours, then don't.

So you want to be your own boss yet not be responsible for the legalities of owning your own business and being your own boss ?

[BentBow]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

Well subcontractor is the only way out for some who need the labor but just cannot afford to have them on the books.

There are contracting companies that have pools of people they sub out to other companies.
Why not just make all contractors work through these agencies ? I know some don't want to because what the agency charges per hour is not what they pay the contractor but hey..they need to make a profit as well.

The illegals are another story and shouldn't even be counted in your post.

If you decided to own your own business..then YOU ARE THE BOSS. You don't want to work 80 hours, then don't.

So you want to be your own boss yet not be responsible for the legalities of owning your own business and being your own boss ?

The first time I was labeled "subcontractor" I didn't want to be my own business. I just wanted a job. Come Friday I was made my own business.
I was by no means the BOSS. I had no clue how to run a business.

Not until I decided to take a few small business classes, did I get a good education what was happening to me in the past, was exploitation of my lack of business knowledge and labor laws.

There are a lot of companies out there, especially in my line of business(construction trades), that do not and will not hire employees, they hire subcontractors.

I'm saying there are no checks & balances to keep a handle on this unscrupulous practice, to exploit the uneducated workforce being labeled "subcontractor" so the employers can cheat the system.

Illegals are brought into the workforce by this practice. Since the mid 1980's House framing was totally illegal labor by 1988, here. Buffalo Framing being a big offender, state wide. By the mid 90's, the housing construction labor was all subcontract and 80% illegal alien labor paid as subcontract labor. Here we are 15 years... and all housing labor is illegal labor, in metropolitan areas of Texas. Have you seen the shoddy construction lately???? I would not buy a home built in the last 10-15 years, here!

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by BentBow

The first time I was labeled "subcontractor" I didn't want to be my own business. I just wanted a job. Come Friday I was made my own business.
I was by no means the BOSS. I had no clue how to run a business.

Not until I decided to take a few small business classes, did I get a good education what was happening to me in the past, was exploitation of my lack of business knowledge and labor laws.

There are a lot of companies out there, especially in my line of business, that do not and will not hire employees, they hire subcontractors.

I'm saying there are no checks & balances to keep a handle on this unscrupulous practice, to exploit the uneducated workforce being labeled "subcontractor" so the employers can cheat the system.

Ok, I will back off some. Yes, I know folks that were in your shoes as well. Yes, I agree with you on your point of all of a sudden becoming a contractor with no education, training, instruction on what to do.

I do agree something should be put in place to help these new "contractor" or "owners" understand what they need to do legal-wise.

Sorry I didn't fully understand your original post. People thrown into their own business vs knowingly operating as their own business are different.

[lifelongMOgal]

I think it depends upon the line of business or industry.

I found being a sub-contractor gave me the freedom to work as hard as I wanted to and to also reap those rewards without the headache of having my own incorporated business and the state/local auditing and potential fines that involves in my business. YMMV

[Mrencouragement]

Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal

I think it depends upon the line of business or industry.

I found being a sub-contractor gave me the freedom to work as hard as I wanted to and to also reap those rewards without the headache of having my own incorporated business and the state/local auditing and potential fines that involves in my business. YMMV

I totally agree with this. For me, being self employed, sub contractor for over 10 years the best thing about it was that the harder I worked, the more I directly benefitted from my hard work. I had worked other jobs where I outshined my coworkers and my superiors, but when it came time for bonuses and promotions, it was always someone else that was rewarded and/or benefitted from my efforts. This always got my goat.

The more efficient I was at fullfulling my contract, the more money I made and this directly resulted in obtaining more lucrative contracts. I was also able to hold on to my taxes and gain interest on that money instead of automatic deductions from my pay check every week or two weeks.