Just my opinion, but it seems to me that this may turn out to be a watershed moment. Some states have already been trying to reclassify ICs and gig workers as employees. They say it's for our benefit but it's really about getting tax revenue from the MSCs, Uber, etc.

But they don't really need to reclassify us. All they need to do is pass a law bringing us into the UC system and Presto, we are paying UC taxes. And now that we have, or will have, received UC benefits, it will seem to some of them to be an obvious move. And there is little if anything that we could do about stopping it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2020 12:25AM by panama18.

In the only state that currently classifies mystery shoppers as employees, it has been nothing but better for the shoppers.

That's a different thing, and it isn't going to happen in most states. But they can pull gig workers into the UC system without reclassifying them and some states will at least try.

@AZwolfman wrote:

In the only state that currently classifies mystery shoppers as employees, it has been nothing but better for the shoppers.

UC?

Unemployment Compensation

@ceasesmith wrote:

UC?

I would happily pay standard rates for Unemployment Insurance and Worker's Comp, if I could get covered. (By "standard rates", I mean the rates an employer would pay, not the inflated, outrageous rates charged to ICs.)

Be careful what you wish for. The rates an employer pays are variable and experience based. A minor claim on an employers' UC account can send the rate through the roof, where they may stay for a couple of years.

It's been years since I had employees but as best i remember it would vary from like a half a percent to over 20 percent. It started modest, like 3%, and if you had no claims it would periodically drop a bit until it got to like a half percent. There it would stay until there was a claim, with everything collected from you placed in a reserve set aside for your claims. If you ever overdrew your reserve, the rate would soar and stay high until you again had an adequate reserve.

They made all decisions about whose claim was paid and for how long, and they decided what was an adequate reserve for you.. So if you're accustomed to paying the half percent and all of a sudden it soars to 8% or 15% of payroll that will mess up your budget real quick.

It's only insurance in the sense that if you go out of business your employees still get paid their UC even though you no longer pay in. And any reserve that exists in your name when you no longer have payroll is a forfeited to the program. In all other day to day circumstances, it is just a government administered forced savings account that your employees can make claims against. Your actual claims are paid from funds you contributed in the past or will contribute in the future,.

@ceasesmith wrote:

I would happily pay standard rates for Unemployment Insurance and Worker's Comp, if I could get covered. (By "standard rates", I mean the rates an employer would pay, not the inflated, outrageous rates charged to ICs.)

In 2008, I worked in a truck stop off I-10 in New Mexico. Worker's Comp was deducted from my check every week.

My employer made me climb up on a chair to change a lightbulb. I told him I wouldn't, couldn't; he said if I did not, I was fired. So I climbed up on the chair, raised my hands up to the bulb -- and the chair collapsed. I didn't fall off the chair; the chair broke in half under me. I fell, and hit my head on the counter, really, really hard.

About 3 AM, I woke up, nauseated, seeing double, and a ferocious headache. To the ER.
Concussed. My friend called my boss, boss said, don't worry, we pay hospital bill. Six hours in the ER, $3500.

A few months later, I was sued for the $3500.

Turns out employer never paid the WC; he was putting all that money in his own pocket. I hired a lawyer, he hired a private investigator. My boss could not be found; he disappeared into some ethnic ("Christian" Armenian) enclave in southern California.

The fraud case against my employer let me off the hook for the hospital bill.

At least if I were paying my own WC insurance, I would be sure the funds were actually going to pay for WC!!!!

Well what a horrible experience.

WC is different than UC. WC is straight up insurance. In most states, the state will kick their behind for not having WC in place. The guy must have slipped through the cracks somehow.

If my WC policy ever lapsed for even 10 minutes, the state was sending me a nasty-gram that said (paraphrasing) "fix this and prove it to us, or we'll expect you in our office in person in 3 days at 10:00am. Have a good day."

@ceasesmith wrote:

In 2008, I worked in a truck stop off I-10 in New Mexico. Worker's Comp was deducted from my check every week.

My employer made me climb up on a chair to change a lightbulb. I told him I wouldn't, couldn't; he said if I did not, I was fired. So I climbed up on the chair, raised my hands up to the bulb -- and the chair collapsed. I didn't fall off the chair; the chair broke in half under me. I fell, and hit my head on the counter, really, really hard.

About 3 AM, I woke up, nauseated, seeing double, and a ferocious headache. To the ER.
Concussed. My friend called my boss, boss said, don't worry, we pay hospital bill. Six hours in the ER, $3500.

A few months later, I was sued for the $3500.

Turns out employer never paid the WC; he was putting all that money in his own pocket. I hired a lawyer, he hired a private investigator. My boss could not be found; he disappeared into some ethnic ("Christian" Armenian) enclave in southern California.

The fraud case against my employer let me off the hook for the hospital bill.

At least if I were paying my own WC insurance, I would be sure the funds were actually going to pay for WC!!!!

I think they are going to start that in Oklahoma because one of the requirements to get the $600 a week is a business license. Which most of us do not get because of taxes that need to be paid to the state, county, and or city, and in really rare cases the HOA.

@2stepps wrote:

I think they are going to start that in Oklahoma because one of the requirements to get the $600 a week is a business license. Which most of us do not get because of taxes that need to be paid to the state, county, and or city, and in really rare cases the HOA.

It's amazing how each of the states impose different requirements to limit the people who can quality for the PUA money. I say this because in some states, "business licenses" are not required to do single-proprietor work like consulting and mystery shopping. They are intended for business that work with the public--beauty salons, stores, boutiques, day care centers, doctors, movie theaters, etc.--or businesses that will accept and hold onto funds from customers (wedding planners, convention planners) or bring in large amounts of revenue, like law firms, real estate agencies, etc. Some of those have to be licensed by the state as well, and this licensing may or may not count as a "business license;" I think even this varies state to state.

And now, a word from the State of California. They've realized the cost of misclassification of gig workers, and are now suing Uber and Lyft for misclassifying their workers:

[www.wsj.com]

I am personally very thankful for the weekly Pandemic payout to me. Although denied by my state, I am happy to have had the support federally. The lump sum I received as first payout was so helpful and to know I'll receive two checks a week through July and one check for 39 weeks is a blessing. I'm actually making more right now than I was struggling for work as our area had been slow this year. I really appreciate the support of 1099 workers for comp.