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The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

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Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#161

Post by maxerickson »

korethr wrote: post #69
40acres wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, however our government is not up to the task. Ever since Congress passed Obamacare it has been in a fight to survive, instead of trying to improve the system (which has clear benefits) Republicans have spent the past few years trying to dismantle it along with other "entitlements". The American worker is getting squeezed on both sides, private employers are offering less and less and government is not pickin…

As I recall, Obamacare didn't do much, if anything, to decouple health plans from employment. If anything it made it more tightly coupled, by mandating employers with more than so many full-time employees provide health plans. The individual mandate didn't decouple health plans from employers, it just provided additional insult to injury by causing those whom were un- or under-employed and couldn't afford a now even…

People are talking about guaranteed issue, because for the most part they don't want a system that screws over people with preexisting issues (which is what a market based system without guaranteed issue will tend to do).

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#162

Post by walshemj »

hatsubai wrote: post #110
40acres wrote: 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…

I am a contract employee who gets work via an agency. I have full health benefits (health, vision, dental which costs me about $200/mo), paid holiday, vacation, and even paid overtime (1.5x my hourly rate). All of this was negotiated ahead of time, along with the salary range I was looking for. Any new opportunities that are available, my agency contacts me and asks if I am interested in doing work there, or if I wan…

There is a difference between a body shop and a self employed contractor you are an employee or worker of the agency and not really a self employed contractor.

Are there no umbrella companies in the USA? like we have in the UK to avoid the IR 35 hassles.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#163

Post by Robotbeat »

brudgers wrote: post #108

One aspect of the "gig economy" that I've not seen covered is the way it effects gigsters professional social graphs. At the deep end of Mechanical Turk services where work is dispatched by an algorithm (Uber/Lyft/AirBnB/etc.) there are no upward connections to supervisors and managers and officers and no lateral connections to coworkers. This means that working does not provide insider access to potentially better (…

Perhaps there's not social connection directly in the workplace, but there IS social connection between Uber/Lyft/etc drivers online. It was on HN a week or two ago: https://www.fastcompany.com/40501439/the-network-uber-driver... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16110598

The Network Uber Drivers Built:

Ride-hail drivers work alone, but they’re banding together online to compare notes, uncover new policies, and help each other navigate the rough roads of the gig economy.

Similar online communities exist for Mechanical Turk.

(I don't think your overall point is wrong, just pointing out that contractors often figure out ways to organize online anyway... This is a good trend, and hopefully spreads as a way to counteract the sometimes-isolating world of contract work...)

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#164

Post by kevin_b_er »

brudgers wrote: post #108

One aspect of the "gig economy" that I've not seen covered is the way it effects gigsters professional social graphs. At the deep end of Mechanical Turk services where work is dispatched by an algorithm (Uber/Lyft/AirBnB/etc.) there are no upward connections to supervisors and managers and officers and no lateral connections to coworkers. This means that working does not provide insider access to potentially better (…

Of course, the "workers" are supposed to be disposable commodities. There's no need for professional cooperation between commodities.

Otherwise they might talk too much: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pgkk7b/newbie-dri...

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#165

Post by zardo »

acconrad wrote: post #131
zardo wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you are in the minority. The huge rise in contract work is not in boutique consulting firms or well compensated tech consultants. It's low skill work, groundskeepers, janitors, housekeepers, drivers. Businesses have moved to contracting to effectively lower total compensation.

I guess part of why I posted that is the audience - I imagine in submitting this article to HN, it is meant to resonate with two subsets of people here: 1. Entrepreneurs running gig economy startups and the implications for how they should treat their workforce 2. Tech workers who work in the gig economy (e.g. Gigster developers, PullRequest reviewers, independent developers) So I read this and bring up my point beca…

Yes.

Man is a featherless biped may work to describe the category. But if you give a tax break based on the number of men living in each home, you'll find a lot of people plucking chickens.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#166

Post by maxxxxx »

adventured wrote: post #152
maxxxxx wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just make one big risk pool nationwide. Easy to administer .

The parent was suggesting a superior risk pool. One big risk pool nation-wide isn't superior. The bottom 50% of healthcare consumers represent a mere 3% of all healthcare spending each year. That's the ideal risk pool, we know who that pool consists of: overwhelmingly younger people. 5% of healthcare consumers, are responsible for about 50% of all healthcare costs. That pool consists overwhelmingly of people over the…

Picking risk pools is not smart and I doubt it's economical either in the long run. You can pick young, healthy people first. That works for a while but then these people get older. Now you have to kick them out. This is good for short term profit but you can't run a system like that long term. If you eliminate thinking about risk pools and just insure the whole country the same you can also eliminate a lot of bureaucracy.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#167

Post by seangrogg »

acconrad wrote: post #76

Am I in the minority here for being a contract developer who is happy to be in this place? * I make over 40% more than I did when I was full-time, and I was already in the top band for pay in my title. This far exceeds the 15% markup for self-employment tax. * My wife works full time so she has our back for health insurance * I can save way more for retirement with an SEP IRA than I ever could with a company-sponsore…

For those interested (namely, me) could you describe your current situation?

* What sort of business entity are you using? What considerations did you make when choosing this entity?

* What is your work like? Are you remote/onsite? Do you have one client or multiple?

* What is your staff like? Are you a lone worker? Do you have coworkers in your business? What did you choose to offload onto others?

* How do you manage taxes, insurance (beyond those covered by your wife), and finances?

* What alternatives have you considered in the event that your wife couldn't cover you?

Mostly interested because this seems like a viable career path (to me) but I would definitely want to consider it with eyes wide open and learn from someone else's successes and failures.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#168

Post by sedachv »

korethr wrote: post #69
40acres wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, however our government is not up to the task. Ever since Congress passed Obamacare it has been in a fight to survive, instead of trying to improve the system (which has clear benefits) Republicans have spent the past few years trying to dismantle it along with other "entitlements". The American worker is getting squeezed on both sides, private employers are offering less and less and government is not pickin…

As I recall, Obamacare didn't do much, if anything, to decouple health plans from employment. If anything it made it more tightly coupled, by mandating employers with more than so many full-time employees provide health plans. The individual mandate didn't decouple health plans from employers, it just provided additional insult to injury by causing those whom were un- or under-employed and couldn't afford a now even…

> As I recall, Obamacare didn't do much

Do you have any actual experience purchasing health insurance before ACA, and later through an ACA exchange? I am not sure what exactly you are "recalling." I purchased health insurance for me and my wife through Covered California last year and found the process quick, the comparisons easy to make, and the pricing clear and reasonable. I have not purchased health insurance myself before the ACA, but from what I was told the options for independent contractors were few and expensive, and were difficult to find.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#169

Post by mLuby »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #138
rectang wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the difference is that I factor in structural factors that keep people poor, while you pretend they don't exist.

What structural factors, specifically, stop poor people from attaining the level of "expertise" necessary to buy disability insurance?

Fundamentally it's lack of time due to having to work 2+ gigs likely while juggling child care or elder care. People with money can pay people to do things for them, freeing up time. Even if they do it themselves, they likely have a more comfortable life so it's easier to devote an evening or a weekend to figuring out complicated medical/legal/financial scenarios.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#170

Post by seangrogg »

lev99 wrote: post #136
acconrad wrote: post #76

Am I in the minority here for being a contract developer who is happy to be in this place? * I make over 40% more than I did when I was full-time, and I was already in the top band for pay in my title. This far exceeds the 15% markup for self-employment tax. * My wife works full time so she has our back for health insurance * I can save way more for retirement with an SEP IRA than I ever could with a company-sponsore…

Being a contract developer is a happy place to be. Here are some things you haven't mentioned. * Contract developers have greater flexibility on taxes. "Pass through" entities are big now. * Contract developers are more independent in a lot of ways. Some employees have clauses where they give up all IP they create. * Contract developers often move from project to project more, which gives them a better network effect…

The real question I have is what prospecting looks like, as that is typically the most difficult part of the process. In my experience, many BigCos like contracting through temp staffing agencies.

Are there reliable sources of contract work? I have yet to find any, though I admittedly haven't been looking the hardest.

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