“Be Your Own Boss”: A Nice Business Model for Cheating on Wages and Benefits … Oh, and Taxes

FedEx person just delivered your package from Amazon … was he a delivery driver or an entrepreneur? FedEx says the latter: They made him sign an Independent Contractor Agreement, lent him money to buy a truck, gave him a route with a piece rate formula, and shifted the burden for fueling and maintaining his investment to this poor schlub. They didn’t pay him a wage; nor overtime; nor health insurance; nor worker’s comp when he got hurt lifting a 70 pound box that you ordered. That’s all on him. And FedEx didn’t pay FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare), or worker’s comp insurance, or unemployment insurance. Honest businesses (maybe you) paid their share, and then they paid more to make up for these business models built on a gross misunderstanding of the employment relationship, as it is legally defined. FedEx lost a key case in a federal district court, where a jury found “that FedEx had defrauded them, denying them each tens of thousands of dollars in benefits by treating them as independent contractors.” The case went to the appeals court, and is being remanded to the jury for more specific fact-finding. Here: http://cases.justia.com/federal/appellate-courts/ca8/14-3232/14-3232-2015-08-21.pdf?ts=1440171062