> Personally I think the category "employee" should be forbidden. It is a pure social construct.
Don't know where you are, but in the US, the category of employee has different tax implications for both the individual and the employer. In addition, depending on the industry and role, employee status is often correlated with significantly better benefits.
> It's still a social construct - all the laws, even nations, are social constructs.
So? Social constructs have a lot of teeth in the real world, and always have. Wishing them away won't have any effect.
> I'm saying there should be no special benefits for employees
So are you arguing that those benefits (i.e. health insurance) should be universal? Or are you making the argument that only those in a position to pay should have access to those things?
I don't which is why I support socialized single-payer medicine.
However, to address your question more directly, contractors are employees as well. It's not the job site's responsibility to provide health insurance, it's their employers. Contractors still have employers, you know.
Actually, your point reminded me that a great many employees don't receive health insurance through their employer. Those people are disproportionately low wage workers. Before Obamacare, they had no option but the very expensive individual health insurance market.
In your terms then, just let everybody be self-employed and contract them, rather than employ them. That's the same result I want, that people are responsible for themselves and making a contract with somebody to do some work for you doesn't come with any additional baggage. Just plain money for work.
That would be doable if the U.S. had a robust social safety net for all these contract workers, namely health insurance for those in between jobs. Right now relying on employers for insurance has been a terrible hassle.
A manager can terminate a work contract. In most parts of the world, the worker on the other side of this contract also has that same ability to terminate the work contract, so I'm not sure if I would consider that a "special benefit."
Don't know where you are, but in the US, the category of employee has different tax implications for both the individual and the employer. In addition, depending on the industry and role, employee status is often correlated with significantly better benefits.