- Got tips? Send them to tips (at) r8ny (dot) com
- Blog on Room Eight
- sign-up to receive a daily digest by email
- Advertise on Room Eight
- Login / Sign-up
Permalancer’s Revolt (It’s About Time)
A prior generation of workers preserved rich pensions for itself, while limiting my generation and those after to 401Ks, with the company at first contributing to them, and then stopping. And, I have written elsewhere, younger generations will not get health insurance either. The IRS, in order for health insurance to be excluded from taxable income, requires all company employees to receive it. But employers and employees with seniority have gotten around that by hiring the young as “freelancers” and “contractors,” a category that includes a growing share of the workforce. Now, reported the New York Times, “scores of workers from MTV Networks walked off the job yesterday afternoon, filling the sidewalk outside the headquarters of its corporate parent, Viacom, to protest recent changes in benefits. The walkout highlighted the concerns of a category of workers who are sometimes called permalancers: permanent freelancers who work like full-time employees but do not receive the same benefits.” Hey kids, you might want to turn your attention to public policy. Viacom is a loving parent compared with the federal, state and local governments.
Freelancers are paying two local income taxes (including the Unincorporated Business Tax) while the retired are exempted from both state and local income taxes in New York. The young and workign poor are not receiving health insurance, but their taxes pay for those who receive it from the public sector (seniors, public employees) and offset the taxes lost to the health insurance tax exemption. And that is just two examples of the growing generational inequities. Worse for today’s young than for me, undoubtedly worse for my kids than for today’s young, if something isn’t done. Compared with many of the self employed, these college-educated media workers are in fact well off. Permalancer’s Revolt
How common is the use of permalancers? I've seen anecdotes but few statistics.
reply | email this comment
I know this is old news, but...the young and the working poor are not reliable voters. The young and the working poor are not politically organized. The young and the working poor do not retain lobbyists and do not make political contributions. Therefore, the young and the working poor will continue to be shortchanged in matters of public policy. On the other hand, seniors and retirees are reliable voters and are highly organized (AARP, public employee unions, etc.) As a result, their legislative and fiscal preferences become the law of the land. This is a simple formula and nothing, save the possibility of bankruptcy of the NYS government or greater political participation by the young and the working poor, will change this.(How common is the use of permalancers? I've seen anecdotes but few statistics.)
For those on the books, the best data to track them is from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which reports total employment including the self-employed from a variety of sources, including Schedule C (I think) of the 1040. The self-employed have soared as a share of total employment in recent decades according to this source, especially in NY, LA and similar places. In LA, even manufacturing workers are hired as independent contractors. Others are temps hired out of the Employment Services industry. One can also compare the change in wage and salary employment from the Current Employment Survey with the change in the number of employed residents from the household survey. The former is a survey of businesses benchmarked to unemployment insurance tax data, the latter includes everyone who says they are working including the self-employed.
The "informal sector" is now so big that you cannot really go by the CES to decide if we are in a recession or not. <a href="http://www.mvpsupra.com/ on hot sale now,we carry a large inventory from Supra Footwear, Including Supra Shoes,Supra Skytop And Supra Avenger,Supra Bandit,Supra Bullet.
Great � I should definitely pronounce, impressed with your site. I had no trouble navigating through all tabs and related information ended up being truly simple to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it at all. Reasonably unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or anything, web site theme . a tones way for your client to communicate. Nice task.
Post new comment |
Hot Topics
Gov Wire
Political Update
Google AdsSearchRoom Eight Extras |
delicious
digg