Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Employee or Independent Contractor? - Working In These Times
Here's something hopeful for workers who are stuck in "independent contractor"-land so employers can avoid paying UI and Medicare costs. Adjuncts can certainly relate! Employee or Independent Contractor? - Working In These Times
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Some online schools and even states (ones with totally Jurassic labor laws) classify adjuncts as "contract labor" to avoid paying their share of SS withholding, unemployment, workman's comp, retirement, etc.
ReplyDeleteNot surprising...this is a loophole in the labor law that needs filling! Know any good labor studies adjunct/lawyers?
ReplyDeleteSo much depends on state labor laws, especially for public schools. It can also affect accreditation ~ that might be one approach. Another, regarding for-profits, is the IRS. Increasingly, for-profits are moving away from contract model only because the IRS has threatened to have accreditation reviewed. More than one way to skin... etc
ReplyDeleteAccording to Bertrand M. Harding, author of The Tax Law of Colleges and Universities, IRS agents determined that, "because instruction is such a basic and fundamental component of a college or university, individuals who are hired to provide instruction should always be treated as employees because the school is so interested and involved in what they do that it will always exercise direction and control over their activities (Harding, 2007: 163).
ReplyDelete"IRS auditors have examined enough abuses of the existing employment tax rules occurring in tax exempt organizations to have become sensitized to situations that are unique to higher education. Specifically, the IRS will be scrutinizing payments that are made to the following individuals: "adjunct" faculty and part-time instructors; TAM 9105007 concluded that part-time professors were employees of the college because of the elements of control existing in the relationship between the college and the professors." http://www.tamus.edu/offices/budget-acct/tax/taxmanual/empvsic/
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