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The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

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11–20 of 304 posts

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#11
post #2

People who use Uber, AirBnB, Deliveroo and similar companies are only fuelling this race to the bottom. Maybe one day it will catch up to them, and then it will be too late. Use your leverage while you still have it, Comrades.

It's not a race to the bottom. It's a correction. Why should your health care be determined by your employer? It's a ludicrous system that should have died decades ago.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#12
post #5

> Within a decade, contractors and freelancers could make up half of the American workforce. This is pretty shocking to me. With recent trends you can easily see that the other half of the population will be people in IT and health care (home service providers, nurses, etc.) I've never had a contract job, I'm not sure if part-time college jobs count, are contract employees getting work via an agency or are they on th…

Agencies goals are to negotiate for themselves while keeping compensation of the contractor negotiated to ensure the highest profit margin. Many companies use contract agencies because it shields them from the burden of dealing with unemployment.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#13

   Being on your own in the workforce often means you don't have the safety net of benefits and other forms of support that traditional workers do.  
Even the first sentence is kinda stupid. Benefits are a form of salary. Independent have the freedom to buy the benefits they want and spend their income as they please. What's wrong with that ?

  The best antidote to fear, she says, is to create a new social safety net where freelancers can rely on each other
I fear people like her trying to force us "for our own good"

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#14
post #6

Good (edit: in the long run). The services they list, like health insurance, retirement, or pensions, should be decoupled from your employer.

Ideally they would be coupled to our government, but since they aren't providing that, our employers should be obligated to ensure they are providing us with the means to keep ourselves healthy.

My government takes a 20% cut from my salary for the exact same reason. Nevertheless, our public health care is so shitty that every self-respecting employer includes private healthcare in their package. So the government is basically forcing me to pay for something that I don’t intend to use (because I don’t want to die from nosocomial infections in a moldy hospital room).

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#15
post #6

Good (edit: in the long run). The services they list, like health insurance, retirement, or pensions, should be decoupled from your employer.

Ideally they would be coupled to our government, but since they aren't providing that, our employers should be obligated to ensure they are providing us with the means to keep ourselves healthy.

That's historically the way it has been but it's absurd in general. Would you argue the same thing about housing, food, and water (they should all be provided by the employer)?

Really what we need is an expectation of being able to buy healthcare on our own with regular incomes.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#18
post #13

Being on your own in the workforce often means you don't have the safety net of benefits and other forms of support that traditional workers do. Even the first sentence is kinda stupid. Benefits are a form of salary. Independent have the freedom to buy the benefits they want and spend their income as they please. What's wrong with that ? The best antidote to fear, she says, is to create a new social safety net where…

Unfortunately cash is not as efficient in procuring the sorts of services that are normally provided by benefits, due to the advantages of structured negotiation.

You are unlikely to get as good a deal from health insurance providers as your employer.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#19
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideally they would be coupled to our government, but since they aren't providing that, our employers should be obligated to ensure they are providing us with the means to keep ourselves healthy.

That's historically the way it has been but it's absurd in general. Would you argue the same thing about housing, food, and water (they should all be provided by the employer)? Really what we need is an expectation of being able to buy healthcare on our own with regular incomes.

No, the american approach is beyond absurd. Of course my employer should pay into(government ran) healthcare on my behalf. Of course they should pay into a pension plan. And yes, currently, if I stay beyond my mandated 7.5 hours, my employer has to provide food during that time. My employer also has to provide water during working hours. If my employer asks me to go somewhere on company business, they have to provide housing.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#20
post #11
post #2

People who use Uber, AirBnB, Deliveroo and similar companies are only fuelling this race to the bottom. Maybe one day it will catch up to them, and then it will be too late. Use your leverage while you still have it, Comrades.

It's not a race to the bottom. It's a correction. Why should your health care be determined by your employer? It's a ludicrous system that should have died decades ago.

Why should your health care be determined by your employer?

In the UK it’s provided by the NHS but these companies systematically dodge employer’s NI.

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