Minimum Wage and Labor Law

You're talking about a different labor category. Hourly workers are not contract workers and vice versa.

Ragman-

Thank you.

So, I construe your answer to mean a U.S. employer and a U.S. resident
(contractor) can enter into an agreement for the contractor to perform work, which will be performed at an effective compensation below the minimum wage law.

This effectively evades the minimum wage law. It would be limited to work that can be done at the worker (contractor's) home.

There would be no such limitation. Many employers try to designate employees as contractors to evade overtime laws and all sorts of things.

I have done contract work in the past. Because I'm self-employed...(understand implications of that concept?..Issues and expenses such as being bonded, insured..paying SS, retirement, no sick pay and into my own benefits.) Here's my cut at what happens:

When interviewing for the job, I assess and present my 'bid' for the job based on my understanding of my approximate worth on the market, based on the company's description of the extent and labor this project needs being done. I never under-bid....but I also never go much higher than is typical for my skill set and market that includes others with my similar level of expertise.

I did my work either at the company's location or at my home..once I got the projects description or requirements and made contact at the company with the principle engineers or contributors. Either at the location or at home and sometimes both locations.

It's up to me to charge the proper amount for my services and what the market will bear. It is part of my expertise to assess the job and my skills properly. If I under-estimate, I lose money...and if I underestimate badly I go out of business.

I repeat, I'm not an employee such as an hourly worker.

If the company wants to fire me, they can do so with no notice.

Reminder: contract is NOT an employee and as such is not under minimum labor rate laws. I have file my own taxes...1099 form, etc.

There are differences between self-employed vs working for a contract agency. When I worked through an agency, all of that bidding is done by the contract agency. All I did was interview to show them my face, if I had a portfolio, or examples of my work and let them know I could communicate ideas effectively.

Hypothetical example: if I work through an agency, the dynamic is different. They send me out on interviews, handle the bidding and negotiation for the rate of pay and the length of time of the project as set by the company.

I tell my contract agency when I'm available, what I expect for a rate of pay, Full or part time..and how many months I could be available. Agency arranges with company details such as negotiate pay rate, project completion deadline and level of expertise issues and specific location for work (whether an office or workbench and tools (usually not) or whether working from home is allowed or expected.

I work through agency so agency pays me. They will pay the agency, let's say $25 hr -charging the company. The company typically takes 33% give or take. and pays me $17 hr. During the length of the contact, I keep my hours (submitting to agency) and if the deadline is closing in, If not working through agency, I work whatever hours I need to do to get the job done in time.

Being responsible and knowledgeable about the process, I finish a bit ahead, present the completed project to the boss/project lead/principle manager, and wait for their response. Typically they want last minute changes or tweaks which I will do to maintain my reputation and good name. If working through agency, I let them handle negotiations for those last minute labor hours.

This is an idealized example.

Whoa...I got too far off track here. You weren't specific enough. Are you referring to doing piece work - like farm workers, sewing clothes or word processing, or assembling widgets, etc.?

"Piece Work Pay and Minimum Wage"

"In the United States the Fair Standard Labor Act requires that all employees, including piece work workers, earn at least the minimum Wage. In calculating an appropriate piece work rate, employers must keep track of average productivity rates for specific activities and set a piece work rate that ensures that all workers are able to earn minimum wage.[12] If a worker earns less than the minimum wage, the employer has to pay the difference. Exceptions to this rule include instances where: (i) the worker is a family member of the employer; (ii) If in any calendar quarter of the preceding year there were fewer than 500 one-hour work days; (iii) In agricultural businesses, if a worker primarily takes care of livestock on the range; (iv) If non-local hand-harvesting workers are under 16, are employed on the same farm as their parent, and receive the piece work rate for those over 16."


Check this link:
http://www.wahm.com/articles/how-to-make-money-with-piece-work.html

Ragman-

Thank you.

I was thinking of the type of work where employers would otherwise hire workers at precisely the minimum wage per hour.

However, the employer is looking for a way to legally pay fewer dollars for the same work. Perhaps by the party previously being referred to as the employer hiring a contractor (perhaps the same person called the employee) to do the same work for a flat number of dollars with nothing said about the hours to accomplish the job.

The number of hours it actually takes to do the work will be the same as when he was an employee.

The agreed price for the job will be less than the wages that were paid when the contractor was an employee.

Thus the minimum wage law will have been evaded or legally avoided.

I understand that Amazon's service Amazon Mechanical Turk is used in that way.

I'm not familiar with that service of Amazon so I looked it up:
"The Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a crowdsourcing Internet marketplace that enables individuals and businesses (known as Requesters) to coordinate the use of human intelligence to perform tasks that computers are currently unable to do. It is one of the sites of Amazon Web Services. Employers are able to post jobs known as HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks), such as choosing the best among several photographs of a storefront, writing product descriptions, or identifying performers on music CDs. Workers (called Providers in Mechanical Turk's Terms of Service, or, more colloquially, Turkers) can then browse among existing jobs and complete them for a monetary payment set by the employer. To place jobs, the requesting programs use an open application programming interface (API), or the more limited MTurk Requester site. Employers are restricted to US-based entities."

I'll let others comment here. I'm out of my depth.

Do you support a $15. an hour minimum wage? Please explain your answer.

Lash-

I am concerned that a $15 per hour minimum wage would result in work moving to States and countries with lower minimum wage laws, more work being performed as contract work, and employers finding alternative ways to accomplish a function with fewer hours of labor.

I hear you. I felt the same way when Union demands pushed a lot of work off our borders. I wonder if all states had to pay fast food workers et al ... I mean. We can't go to the Hardee's in Bangladesh...?

Lash-

Thank you.

Yes, I think you are correct as far as you go. Though Hardee's may make changes in its operations in response to an increase in the minimum wage (e.g., have customers key in their orders on a computer screen instead of speaking it to a Hardee's employee)

That is where it starts. Then they work to automate the kitchen. Even that will not be enough, a lot of fast food stores will be closing. With-in ten years that sector will employ a fraction of the number of people they do now. Your fast cheap food will come from self serve warming bins or maybe the Automat returns.

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2013/08/28/216541023/the-fast-food-restaurants-that-require-few-human-workers