

The competition will be drawn on 20 January 2023 and the winner will be notified by telephone. Jim, in this case, is an employee.Win a holiday australia 2023. I pay/production pays him $50/hour for the week of work. He uses my tools and my shop, and I can pop in on him any time to check on progress and make changes, or ask him to do also make a creepy doll. I assign him to make a creepy teddy bear. I ask him to come in for one week to my studio, reporting at 7 am. Jim, in this case, is an independent contractor, and I am/production is his client. Jim will send me/Production a $2500 (or final agreed-upon price) invoice for this creepy teddy bear along with a W-9 form, and hand over the prop. He can charge more for last minute changes, if production is asking for things outside our original agreement. We will coordinate our schedules for these meetings. He and I will have several meetings between now and then to check in on progress of this prop, perhaps with the director or other creatives in attendance as well. He uses his own shop and his own tools, and he might be working on other projects at the same time. He tells me it will cost $2500 and be delivered on April 30th. I go to my friend Jim, tell him what I need, what this prop needs to do, and some other specs.

Real-world example I need a creepy teddy bear prop made by May 2nd. They have a deadline and work their own hours to meet that deadline. An independent contractor has clients, not a boss. There is nuance with W9s and mileage and kit/computer rental (those can be invoiced, and will always be in addition to a wage), but as a PA, your labor should always be on payroll. But know that they are exploiting you and you should insist on payroll/W-2s for any future employment with this company or any other company. Now, considering that you only worked one day, you may choose not to fight this fight for this particular job and just send the invoice. You can call the labor board about being incorrectly classified as an independent contractor vs an employee. If you are a PA, you are not covered by a union, but CA labor law regarding employment vs independent contracting still applies. If you are given a reporting time, you are an employee and must be paid as one, on a W-2 rather than 1099. On a 1099, you end up paying about 14% more of your paycheck as taxes. They are trying to avoid payroll taxes by shifting the tax burden to you. Most places pulling things like this don't have the money or admin to process you as an employee. This guy asked for information and I'm trying to give him at minimum the legal standard.ĮTA: All that said, my advice would be to just invoice, get the money, and mark this down as a learning experience. If you want to be exploited, that's your business.

That doesn't mean it's legal, or ethical. It saves them money and makes their paperwork easier. I am well aware that small time indie productions, student shit, and people making rap videos like to take advantage of people and miscategorize workers as 1099. I also am responsible for significant investments and un-remimbursed expenses. They have some very strong expressed preferences about when they'd like to see me around, some of which are in the contract, but if I wanted to get my work done at 2am I could. Legally the company I contract with can't tell me when and where to work. If you are a contractor, then literally none of the above applies. What you've just described is legally an employee.Įmployees are given instructions on when and where to do the work, what tools to use, what work needs to be done by specialized individuals, and what order to do the work in.
