
The gig worker’s lament - petethomas
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gig-workers-lament/2018/12/26/085fce64-cd76-11e8-920f-dd52e1ae4570_story.html
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lsc
What I find interesting is that at the higher end, contractors used to get
paid more than full-timers. I've got about two decades of sysadmin work under
my belt, both contract and direct hire. I mean, I've probably worked more as a
contractor than as a direct hire? and I've turned down a bunch of "promotions"
to direct hire 'cause I was making really good money, and the direct-hire job
usually meant a pay cut. I mean, sure, people with kids and people who valued
stability would still switch over to full time when given the opportunity, but
if you were a gambler like me, you'd stick with the contract gig.

But it seems like something changed this decade. Of the contract and direct
hire jobs available to me? the direct-hire jobs just pay a whole lot more;
like now? even if I only plan on sticking around another year, it totally
makes sense to accept when they offer me the full time position.

I mean, it could all be unique differences that have to do with my own
situation, but I also think that the prestige has changed; contractors are
looked down upon more than they were (I assume that prestige follows money)

~~~
alkonaut
Contract should _always_ pay significantly more than direct hire, since there
is less security and benefits.

It simply shouldn’t be possible to enter a contract for less than direct hire
wages and benefits, in cases where the contract is obviously a way of
circumventing employment. Laws should be written such that circumventing the
spirit of the law is also circumventing the letter.

~~~
icebraining
As far as I know, that's exactly what the law in many (most?) places says. In
the US, multiple states - most recently California, after a case regarding
delivery drivers - apply the ABC Test[1], and the IRS has its own
classification as well.

I mean, it's not that the contractor can't get paid less, it's that they can't
be contractors at all, even if the employer claims so.

[1]
[https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/abc_test](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/abc_test)

~~~
bsenftner
According to the ABC Test, my entire visual effects career (15 years) was
illegal.

~~~
lsc
this is... well, yeah, a surface reading of the test is clearly not how it
legally plays out, 'cause from a surface reading, almost all "contract" jobs
are not.

I think this is legally dealt with where I am by ensuring that everyone is an
actual employee of someone... if you are a "contractor" you are actually an
employee of the body shop. You get paid on a w2, and thus aren't legally a
"contractor"

From what i see, the body shops charge the employer 30-50% more than what they
pay the employee (the range depends entirely on how good the employee is at
negotiating, and tends to start closer to 50%, and move towards 30% as said
employee is in the same position for a while)

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pdkl95
From the game _Night In The Woods_ :

    
    
        "There's No Reception in Possum Springs"
    
        No reception here
        I wave my black phone
        In the air like a flare
        like a prayer
        but no reception
    
        I read on the Internet
        baby face boy billionaire
        phone app sold made more money in one day
        than my family over 100 generations
        More than my whole world ever has
        world where house-buying jobs
        became rent-paying job
        became living with family jobs
    
        Boy billionaires
        Money is access
        access to politicians
        waiting for us to die
        lead in our water
        alcohol and painkillers
    
        replace my job with an app
        replace my dreams of a house and a yard
        With a couch in the basement
        "The future is yours!"
        Forced 24-7 entrepreneurs.
    
        I just want a paycheck and my own life
        i'm on the couch in the basement
        they're in the house and the yard
        some night I will catch a bus out to the west coast
        and burn their silicon city to the ground

------
StudentStuff
Wow, did not realize how far behind California is on minimum wage, its only at
$10.50/hr. Oregon is already at $10.75/hr in most rural counties, and $12 in
Portland and surrounding areas. Meanwhile up here in Washington we're at
$11.50, and Seattle proper is $15/hr here in a few days.

How does the state justify letting businesses pull a fast one on contractors
at $10/hr? Sounds like an end run around the law.

~~~
jessriedel
Why would everywhere be expected to have the same minimum wage?

SF is $15/hr.

~~~
metildaa
Living in LA on $10hr as a contractor (below state minimum wage) is only
possible by corporations breaking the law. They are stealing from the worker,
to the tune of at least $2/hr in this case as minimum wage in LA County is
$12/hr: [https://www.lacounty.gov/minimum-
wage/](https://www.lacounty.gov/minimum-wage/)

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dehrmann
Is this just the result of companies still having a fear of commitment after
the great recession? Because using contractors to save money isn't new. I
remember a Simpsons episode where Homer was laid off(?) from the nuclear power
plant, then hired back on as an independent contractor without benefits.

~~~
lotsofpulp
Also less demand for labor overall allowing the purchases of labor to be able
to make demands such as requiring the labor to work as contractors.

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amriksohata
@lsc also noticed the same in the UK an average contract developer ten years
ago outside of London was paid £350 a day, today it's still the same, whilst
permanent jobs have gone up by 25% annually. In development atleast
contracting is looked down upon

~~~
adav
> In development atleast contracting is looked down upon

Would you mind elaborating on why you think contractors are looked down upon?
In my experience – as a full-time and contract developer working in London –
the opposite seems true.

Contractors on a team are usually senior developers and when the best of them
move contracts (or aren't extended), I've seen full-timers leave (or switch
teams) shortly after. More junior developers lose the person they were most
learning from. Teams looking after specific projects have died because of
this.

I have heard snarky comments about pay though. If a contractor is talking
about going out for lunch, it's often followed by an insinuation that they're
more loaded.

~~~
CM30
Depends on the contractor and the team. If the contractor is a senior
developer with actual experience who genuinely knows how to code, people will
treat them well.

However, for every one of those, there seem to be about ten terrible
developers working on a contract or freelance basis. People whose knowledge of
web development has mostly frozen in the mid 00s, who end up causing more bugs
than they fix, who leave security holes everywhere and end up causing untold
amounts of grief as clients rightfully get hacked off and yell down the phone
at the people working with them.

These types of people are who a decent percentage of UK developers and
companies think of, and they don't exactly paint a rosy picture of the work
style.

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PhantomGremlin
Interesting that this is allowed to appear in the Washington Post. Apparently
not everyone there has drunk the Amazon/Bezos Kool-Aid.

Around here there are plenty of poorly paid gig workers driving around in
their own cars, delivering counterfeit crap bought on Amazon.

But that's OK. Jeff needs all the money he can get so he can continue to fund
Blue Origin. Soon we will all be getting on those rockets and heading out to
Mars and the Asteroid Belt. What's the minimum wage out there?

I'm getting too old for this. It really doesn't affect me much any more, but I
don't think my kids will be living in a better world. Back in the "good old
days" all we had to worry about was the Red Menace and the Chicoms.

Merry Christmas.

