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Re:Eden (YC S15), On-Demand Tech Help, Switches from Contrac... by lsc on Monday August 03, 2015 @01:38PM (#9998102)
20% more is high, I think, unless they are including health insurance in that 20%, in which case it's low, or unless they are going through a body shop/hr outsorcing scam. Workers comp is pretty minimal for tech workers (though... these people drive to on-site? that could drive up workers comp rates) and the employer side of the payroll taxes are 7.5% Yeah, you've gotta pay someone to figure it out, but that's a job that scales pretty well.

That said, it's an interesting move, I think one we'll see more of. I mean, you provide the end-client a lot more peace of mind if you actually have all the required insurance. That's what I think is so weird about most of the housecleaning "agencies" - most of them 1099 their cleaners... meaning that nobody has worker's comp covering the cleaners, which is a iffy situation for everyone involved.

Re:Eden (YC S15), On-Demand Tech Help, Switches from Contrac... by mcaserta on Monday August 03, 2015 @03:41PM (#9999230)
Not to forget about companies offering warehouse movers for businesses as 1099. That's pretty much criminal.

On health insurance, to be precise the cost is $0.10/hour if a worker reaches a precise threshold in weekly hours, so far below 20%.

Re:Eden (YC S15), On-Demand Tech Help, Switches from Contrac... by lsc on Monday August 03, 2015 @08:30PM (#10000901)
>On health insurance, to be precise the cost is $0.10/hour if a worker reaches a precise threshold in weekly hours, so far below 20%.

If you can get decent insurance for $.10/hr, do let me know, because I'm paying rather a lot more than that right now.

My company has health insurance for all three employees (counting me) - it looks like you are looking at more than $500 and less than $1000 a month, before dependents, for insurance I would consider "not great but good enough" a lot more than $0.10/hr.

But, that varies a lot based on age. Hire some kid in their early '20s, and it will be rather less than $500, and good luck getting a decent plan for someone around 50 for less than a grand a month.

Also, companies will only pay part of the health insurance cost. My company does pay the full cost of the insurance for the worker, for example, but we don't pay anything towards insurance for their dependents. and while the insurance that my company hands out isn't exactly great, there are way shittier health plans available.

Yeah, I'm not getting where you are seeing the $0.10/hr. Maybe you mean if the employer just organizes the health insurance, and makes the employees actually do all the paying for it? but in that case, there's really no point in the employer offering health insurance at all, Now that the ACA allows people with pre-existing conditions to buy health insurance, the value that an employer provides by paying for your health insurance (rather, say, than just giving you the money and letting you get your own insurance) is that if your employer pays, it comes out pre-tax, which is huge.

Re:Eden (YC S15), On-Demand Tech Help, Switches from Contrac... by pravda on Monday August 03, 2015 @03:54PM (#9999299)
$0.10/hour? You think health insurance for a 2000 hour/year worker is $200?

I think it is closer to $2-$3 per hour.

Re:Eden (YC S15), On-Demand Tech Help, Switches from Contrac... by lsc on Monday August 03, 2015 @08:32PM (#10000908)
It's hard to turn in to a hourly cost, because the coverage is binary; an employee works enough hours to be covered or not, and the cost of health insurance for the worker depends mostly on the worker's age, not on how much they work.

Of course, we're talking usually like $500 or so a month, varying dramatically on age and quality of the plan, so in no case is it gonna be anywhere near $0.10 per hour.

Workers comp can usually be broken down to a per-hour cost; and for, say, an underpaid computer nerd, $0.10 per hour is a minimally realistic workers comp cost, so maybe that's what parent was talking about.

Re:Eden (YC S15), On-Demand Tech Help, Switches from Contrac... by mcaserta on Monday August 03, 2015 @11:13PM (#10001433)
ACA is 0.10 an hour. If the worker works long enough s/he apply for Medicare. If you want you can offer additional benefits. This is obviously not true for full time employees.
Re:Eden (YC S15), On-Demand Tech Help, Switches from Contrac... by lsc on Monday August 03, 2015 @11:34PM (#10001499)
> ACA is 0.10 an hour. If the worker works long enough s/he apply for Medicare. If you want you can offer additional benefits. This is obviously not true for full time employees.

Again, I don't think this is true, at least not from an employer's perspective. The prices I am familiar with are about the same through an affordable care act exchange, and the (monthly) prices are the same for hourly and exempt employees.

I... know very little about medicare, but I was under the impression that you had to be very poor to qualify, and that it didn't have a lot to do with how much you worked. It's possible that there's a government program for the poor that will give you health insurance for $0.10 an hour, but as far as I know, that's not something available to employers.