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Contractors on Salary?
An anonymous reader asks: "I recently got a new job (yes I am one of the lucky few) as a contract programmer. In part of the contract negotiations, the company would not allow me to work on an hourly rate, but instead placed me on salary. I have run into problems in the past where I have had to work an absurd number of hours as a programmer, and am curious where to draw the line. Obviously it is not ok to just leave at the end of an 8 hour shift if there is still lots to be done, but what if the poor project management is not your fault, and heavy deadlines are coming up? Can the company legally make you work 10-16 hour days? I would consider myself new to the industry but not unexperienced. At the company I used to work at, I worked crazy hours and didn't know it was OK to say that the hours are too much. What do you all think?"
For contract work, I would guess it would be a bit different. You probably should negotiate both the expected number of hours and the expected calendar time for the project, because otherwise, they will work you as much as they can, and will claim contract breach if you don't work what they want.
And, don't trust HR. They are not on your side. Get everything in writing, and assume any nonwritten verbal agreement to not go in your favor if it comes down to it.
Being educated is 1000 times better than being in a union. This is your livelihood, so you have to take control of it and not let yourself get jerked around. Most employers are not "evil" and aren't out to screw you, but the will operate to their advantage (and why shouldn't they?), so be smart, informed and careful.
http://www.naildrivin5.com/davec
If you are being paid a salary, I don't think you are a contractor, at least according to the Feds. Are they going to take taxes out? If they treat you like an employee and pay you like one, then you are an employee.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
It doesn't sound to me like you're really doing contract work. Do you have a contract with the company saying they're going to pay you X dollars a month for unlimited work? It sounds like the company has hired you as an employee but is pretending you're a contractor to avoid paying you benefits. The IRS may consider you an employee for tax purposes, I'd check into this with a tax accountant if I were you.
1) Why won't they hire you on an hourly basis? Or, at least, why did they claim that salary was their preference? (Maybe they want to exploit; maybe they don't want you doing one hour of work, seven of minesweeper and then billing for all eight.)
2) If you are signing a *contract*, why don't you put an hours-per-week clause?
Joe
Joe
http://www.joegrossberg.com
>>No, no one will force you to work twelve hours a >>day. They can easily find someone else who will >>*willingly* do so, to feed their family and pay >>their debts.
I'm sorry, but that's a load. You should know going into a job what the work environment is like. As an exempt employee (one who's pay is not tied to hours worked, only to days worked) you have a right to know what the company expects from you.
Look around and make a judgement call. Say, "I will willingly work a 45 hour week, plus more on occasion" or some other reasonable standard. Companies, or at least good managers, realize that most people have lives outside of work. If you are good at your job then chances are they will want to keep you happy rather than work you until burn out and then watch you leave. (Yes, even in this shitty job market the upper quartile in any field rarely wants for work for any length of time.)
And those co-workers who are *willingly* putting 12 hour days without request or compensation are workaholics or naive or both. If you love your job enough to gladly work boku hours, or maybe if you're gunning for a promotion then maybe its ok. Otherwise don't waste your time (IMHO, of course).
www.avacal.com -- the home page of pete shaw
As a former IT Director I am somewhat familiar with federal labor laws. It all depends on your salary range here is an exerpt from a labor site online:
" The federal salary level for professional employees remains at $170 per week, exclusive of board, lodging or other facilities; and the short test for professionals also uses a salary of just $250 per week. Computer professionals are treated somewhat differently, however. In 1990 the U.S. Congress passed legislation specifically to address the computer field. The exemption is applied only to "highly-skilled employees who have achieved a level of proficiency in the theoretical and practical application of a body of highly-specialized knowledge in computer systems analysis, programming, and software engineering." These computer professionals must receive a salary of at least $1,105 per week, which breaks down to an hourly wage of $27.35 for a 40-hour workweek; and is an annual salary of $57,460 - a far higher salary than most bona fide exempt EAPemployees receive in the human services field."
Bad Panda! No Bamboo for you! In matters of importance ACs will not be responded to. Want to say something critical,OK
Like everyone else has said, it sounds like they hired you as an employee, as contractors usually are paid for the completion of work, not by the hour or salary. At any rate, any company over a certain size (I think it's over 50 employees here in PA) MUST pay overtime of one and a half times salary (1.5x) for all hours over 40 in a week. The company is probably trying to get around this by calling it's employees "contractors" (my company used to do the same). You already have a contract so don't be afraid to be pushy about it. Don't let yourself get screwed.
Play hardball.
Specify that perdiem (ie per day) rates are $xxx/day. A normal day is 7 or 8 hours and does not start before 6:30AM or after 7 PM. A maximum of xx extra hours may be worked per week, with reasonable notice.
After-hours rates are $xx/hr and oncall rates are $xx/hr. Payment terms are Net 30 with a 2% discount if paid within 14 days. There will be a 5% fee for invoices not paid within 60 days, and a 1.5% fee per 30 days thereafter.
If they do not agree to a contract like that, they are looking for someone to exploit, and will probaly be slow in producing money.
My advice is to go out and find another place to work.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
A: Yes. Well, technically no, but you are not an employee so yes. You see, an employee has to be given a total of 30 minutes rest for 8 hours of work, and while I can demand that the employee stay over 8hrs/day -or- 40hrs/wk, The state law makes sure that I compensate them with breaks, food, sometimes lodging. It gets to expensive for me to hold my employees longer than normal. I once figured the breaking point is at 9.5 to 10 hours a day. If I require my people to stay 9.5hr/day, I'm not really losing anything. However, at 10hr/day, I lose my butt. On the other hand, my lawyers have written our contracts such that when I hire a developer to work on a contract, they agree:
- Work in the office on business days (M-F): This means that the contactor can't work from home or decide to work tue, wed, thu. (of course they each have a set number of sick days, and vaca, etc...
- Work at the "corporate" pace: This is requirement very arbitrary. It's purpose is two fold. One, it allows me to get out of the contract with poor performers, and two, it allows me to squeeze late nights out of any contractor. It states that the contractor(s) must perform his/her/their tasks at such a pace as to not delay the development of the companies staff.
I know that it doesn't seem fair, but my view point on it is like this. If you hire a mechanic to fix your car, and they say that for $300 they can get it done in 4 days. If it take seven days, the total cost to you is greater than the price your agreed on for the service that you got. So in effect the mechanic broke your contract. I pay my contactors for end results, not time spent creating results. The Company that I hire contractors for, expects that for $300 they can get their car fixed, and if that doesn't happen it looses money.So yes, a company can require the entity that it contracts with to what ever it takes to provide the end product on time and with a certain level of quality. And my company also requires that all work done... be done inside the confines of our building. But no, it can get really expensive the keep regular employees.
I'm not a contractor, but am an IT Director for a small association.
Recently, our director mentioned that she expected at least 50-60 hours per week, every week from all professional, salaried staff (we have about 20-25 people in that category. Our "official" workday is 7.5 hours. In essence, we're being told that we have to work a minimum of 10-12 hour days every week of the year and more when we have critical needs.
As you might imagine, people are somewhat displeased by this and, unfortunately, many of the employable ones are beginning to look elsewhere. Life's too short to be dragged into a situation like this bad economy or not.
After the IRS has determined what the status is from the SS-8 you can stick to it or dispute it. Sometimes its nice just to know that they've made their decision one way or the other rather than sit in never-never land.
Absolutely. Anytime I hear something like that (and I've heard it a few times--fortunately, never anywhere that I have personally been working) I think "clueless boss" (is that an oxymoron? ;) ). Hours worked means nothing--it's what you get accomplished that is important. This is especially true in IT or programming, where a single inspirational flash in the shower one morning can more than equal a week's worth of toiling fruitlessly away behind the desk. Knowledge work is not like industrial piece-work--managers who can't get that shouldn't be managing knowledge workers.
No relation to Happy Monkey
1. If you're receiving a salary, you're an employee.
2. Nobody can make you work more hours than you want to. If your employer thinks you aren't doing enough work to justify your salary, they may fire you. But I have to say that in my 30 years in the IT industry, about half of it in the USA and about half in Europe, I have never come across a case of somebody being fired for refusing to work more than 40 hours per week.
3. A lot of young people seem to be very susceptible to peer-group pressure. You see a bunch of people working long hours, and you feel you can't just walk out of the office at 5pm, leaving them all beavering away. When you grow up, you'll realise that you can. Nothing bad will happen to you. You'll just get into the habit of wasting less time during the working day. And you may develop some independence of thought, which will be good for you.