Federal Minimum Wage going up today

[FrugalTexan75]

FrugalTexan75, sounds to me like you are a receptionist and not an independent contractor at all. Are they withholding taxes or giving you a 1099-misc at the end of the year?

A lot of business do their payroll incorrectly. They like the idea of saying everyone is independent contractors because then they don't have to do the matching SS/medicare taxes, YOU pay that to Uncle Sam at tax time with self-employment taxes. But there are guidelines that help determine if you qualify as independent contractor, and one of them is that they don't dictate your hours, and you tell them what pay you will need for the job they ask you to do. Go to the IRS website and look it up.

Of course if you are just working part time and don't want to rock the boat, then I say don't worry about it. If they are withholding taxes then they aren't paying you as an independent contractor either.

In a nutshell, at this point in time, I don't want to rock the boat. They give me a 1099-misc. I *sort of* get to set my own hours - in that I can say the times I'd like to have and get hours in that time frame. Although quite often I get asked to work an extra hour or two here and there to help fill a gap - usually I am able to do that no problem.

[cptacek]

"At it's core, it's not a good idea for the government to be dictating wages. But people, being as they are, don't always do the right thing left to their own devices, do they? How many employers in captive communities, or in times of great unemployment would only pay $2/hr if it was not illegal?"

The welfare system ensures that nobody is gonna work for $2 an hour. See, ain't the goverment great!

The Unemployment system does too. I was laid off for 6 months, and it worked out to something like $10.57 an hour for a 40 hour week. I could find jobs for $8, but that would be silly to take when instead I could get $10.57 and help my husband out on the farm. It also allowed me to find a better job (a better job than $8...I did take a $34,000 pay cut, but I think that has to do more with location than anything else).

[cptacek]

I conceed that the current increase is not his doing, but I still believe if necessary, he could have it suspended with permission from Congress.

No, I don't think any president could have suspended it with an executive order or something. But, I do believe that this president would have been able to get Congress to do it, if he was so inclined (which he isn't, as maat55 pointed out)...he would have had the votes for anything he wanted before trying to push Cap and Trade AND socialized healthcare within months of each other.