

Silicon Valley’s Contract-Worker Problem - smacktoward
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/silicon-valleys-contract-worker-problem.html

======
mattchen
Quite an insightful piece...my 2 cents If your homejoy cleaner still resides
in the shelter, but is actively trying to seek to get his or her life together
through working, doesn't these "middle-men" startups provide some sort of
social value (of course, one can always debate about the wages of these
labors)?

~~~
forgottenpass
_... (of course, one can always debate about the wages of these labors)_

Yes, if you ignore the part of the employment/"contract work" relationship
being criticized, it doesn't sound bad at all. There are upsides and downside
to everything, and passing judgment on a labor relationship (or anything) does
not require being at one end of the spectrum or the other.

The 1099 runaround has been around for ages. Just because it's relatively new
(at least publicly) for the bay area tech startup scene, that probably isn't
going to change society's views on the practice (though I'm sure we'll get
some delicious "stifling innovation" rants trying anyway).

------
ilaksh
This really isn't limited to manual labor or any class of jobs. It affects
high-tech workers as well. I have done quite a lot of programming work as a
contractor. And I know the companies I was working for were doing it that way
to control costs, regardless of whether they were large or small companies.

I think the economy is being squeezed at all levels. Even companies that have
cash often are hard pressed to turn a profit. The employment situation is such
that there are plenty of highly skilled workers available. So companies don't
have to offer "full time" work or benefits in order to find good candidates.
And even if they wanted to, most of them can't.

