Ok, but if you’re an independent contractor in the US and this happens? Find a lawyer, because you might have just gotten a huge payday.
Your position was just referred to as employment. Independent contractors do not have employers; they do not have employment. Congrats, your contact at this company just provided evidence that you were illegally missclassified.
This contact is claiming that you have set hours you’re obligated to fulfill. Unless a work task can only be done at a set time for practical reasons (i.e. you’re an audio freelancer paid to support a live event that occurs at a particular time and requires a certain amount of pre-show setup), a company cannot set an independent contractor’s work hours. This is further evidence that you were missclassified.
The whole exchange establishes that the company is interpreting an employer-employee relationship rather than expecting a service. Discipline and potential for firing (you cannot fire an independent contractor; no longer purchasing their service is not equivalent) establish that this person views themselves as a manager. Independent contractors cannot have managers.
This one text exchange could:
Get you back pay for the full duration you’ve worked there, to bring you up to the compensation that an employee would have gotten
Get you back compensation for lost benefits that an employee would have gotten
Get you back pay for the additional self-employment taxes the company should have covered
Get the company to pay back taxes to the government
Get the company to hire everyone who performed a similar role, or face further penalties and fines
A win would encourage the rest of their missclassified workers to sue for the same, or give them leverage to demand a better deal
If the company is going to screw you over like that, may as well make them pay for it.
Since this is getting a lot of reblogs, here’s a federal source that can help you determine if you’re illegally classified as a contractor:
You can also file a form with the IRS to force the company to correct your classification (assuming you meet the criteria), without necessarily having to sue:
Keep in mind that this is just federal. Most states also prohibit missclassification as an independent contractor; and even if states have more lenient rules, companies still have to comply with this federal law. The rules have largely been bipartisan and existed for decades, so they’re common.
States also have an interest in having regulations about missclassification: it’s a significant loss of tax revenue. Your self employment tax does not fully equal what a company would have paid for you in payroll taxes.
A lawyer can help point you in the right direction if a company is currently missclassifying you.
[image description: a crudely drawn comic strip featuring drawings of merle highchurch and magnus burnsides from the adventure zone balance. merle is first shown holding a brownie up with his mouth open. magnus thinks “oh my god he’s going to eat a weed brownie!!!!” magnus then zooms up and chomps the brownie, leaving merle in shock. the next panel shows merle coddling magnus’s face, saying “WOW MAGNUS did you just eat my FOREVER WEED brownie?????” magnus looks very concerned. the next panel then shows a photograph of travis mcelroy dressed up as magnus, with him saying “the what.” merle is then shown rambling on while magnus stares, mortified. merle says, “yeah my forever weed brownie!!!!! X3 i hope you don’t wanna come down anytime soon cuz you’re gonna be like that for a long time haha !!!!” the last panel shows merle in the corner smiling, saying “also i invited over all of the bureau and IPRE and everyone we’ve ever fought or met and they’re all coming over for hours!!!! hope you can keep a straight face teehee :3 i believe in you haha just” and it cuts off as the text reaches the end of the image. magnus is drawn with downwards hatching as the dread sets in, looking absolutely terrified. end description]
boobs and boob censorship and the point at which boobs are considered nude are so weird. you can see the whole damn boob without seeing the nipple and it’s like wow look at that boob! what a nice, safe boob. as soon as u see that little tiny sliver of darker skin that is part of the nipple everyone freaks out and its like HEY WOAH CONTAIN THAT NIPPLE U NAKED BOOB
