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The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
41–50 of 304 posts
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#42Earlier 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.
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).
Would you mind sharing the country name? I am sure (because I've tried it myself) the quality standards differ by orders of magnitude in different countries where it works this way.
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#43There are pros and cons depending on your personal situation. Having that workforce profile can be liberating if you have the right skill set to keep you on track and organized. The freelance/GIG economy has a lot to offer not only younger workers but veteran workers looking to add more tools to their toolbox. https://latechnews.org/los-angeles-gig-economy/
> Having that workforce profile can be liberating if you have the right skill set to keep you on track and organized.
Well yeah, some people are just awesome/lucky/blessed. Given nothing, they know how to build great things. But this is a strong minority of people.
The majority of people are just normal, they may have one or two skill that they are good at, but don't have the skills required to run their own company. A person can be a great employee developer whose capable of building awesome products, but an awful freelance one because they are not good at negotiation, management, finances, etc.
It's a step away from the efficient specialization of a corporate structure, where each employee only needs to be skilled at their particular job, to a guild-like structure where everyone is a worker, manager, accountant, book keeper and politician.
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#44People 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? It's a ludicrous system that should have died decades ago.
Yeah but it's being replaced by insurance that is utterly unaffordable for a lot of contract employees. If we want to decouple health insurance and employers (and we should) then we should be proactively working out what that looks like in the future.
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#45Employer "benefits" are things that are all freely available a la carte. There's no reason contractors can't buy health insurance from a marketplace or contribute to an IRA and wind up with the same end result. You as a contractor just have to factor those additional costs in to your decision-making process when evaluating compensation packages.
The "benefit" portion of that statement is that the employers typically take on a portion of that cost so it's reduced for the employee. Have you ever filed taxes as a freelancer? You nearly pay double because you're both the employer AND employee in that situation... The same goes for other benefits as well like healthcare - There are no group discounts when you're the only one getting coverage.
The government provides incentives (tax exemption) for employer provided insurance, which distorts the market. Seems like extending that benefit to freelancers or eliminating it entirely would be extremely helpful.
https://www.mercatus.org/publication/tax-exemption-employer-...
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#46Being 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…
Employers can provide benefits for cheaper due to economies of scale buying a lot of them from big insurance orgs. Individual contractors, even if they weren’t already being pushed into possibly-exploitative relationships with companies like Uber et al., don’t get those discounts. Life on the other side of the API layer ain’t so rosy.
I don't agree at all, and even if having an employer is better for economies of scale this doesn't mean we should force employers to give benefits (employers could negotiate deals and propose them to their employees).
The economies of scale argument is not always a good argument because you need to specify where does the deal cut comes from. I think it comes from the fact that the overhead in negotiating a huge amount of contracts is more amortized. So we could have this kind of good deals if independents find a way to reunite themselves. Otherwise the economies of scale argument could basically be the answer to everything ("We need a worldwide government because of economies of scale").
Who knows what we people will find to address this issue. Maybe we'll have coworking space packages with benefits ?
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
You didn't really explain how the American approach was absurd. Also, 7.5 hours seems extremely arbitrary. Why pick that number of hours? Why not 4 hours? Why not 9?
For non-salary workers, in your "8 hour" work day there is a certain mandated amount of break time. X minutes per Y hours, for example, plus time for lunch. They might have taken 8 hours and subtracted two 15-minute breaks.
I'm not sure if the 8 hours is intended to be (8h + X break time), or (8h - X break time); I thought it was the former, but but might be mistaken. That's probably where the GP got their 7.5 from.
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I wait with bated breath for the day we can have serious conversations about these topics without these ridiculous posts intentionally misrepresenting the other person's argument.
We can't have a reasonable conversation about it because it's a zero-sum war between labor and capital. It's not possible to decide issues such as benefits on the basis of what's best for the economy because where the benefits come from doesn't have a big macro-economic impact. What this argument is about is who gets how much of the pie.
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
You didn't really explain how the American approach was absurd. Also, 7.5 hours seems extremely arbitrary. Why pick that number of hours? Why not 4 hours? Why not 9?
Look at the history of labor and the 40 hour week. You have to pick a standard, otherwise the pick will default to employers who will choose ever increasing hours for a fixed salary. If we pick one together it's easier than standing as a lone worker saying 7.5 is reasonable.
Modern civilization has advanced, why should the work week stay at 40 (and eroding in many workplaces in America?)
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
We should be able to get health insurance and bargain based on community groups or individually tax-free rather than by employer. If the entire Mormon church could collective bargain for health insurance for its members it would be WAY cheaper than any employer (because they don't drink alcohol or smoke).
Can't it actually do this? Can't a club of people establish a nonprofit and buy insurance collectively somewhat the way corporations do?
Probably not. States set what insurance can allow. If your state blocks small groups from getting insurance, then you’re out in the cold. http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2011/05/02/group-health-...