Hiring part time vs contract

[miket]

I am a one man machine shop and business has been picking up lately, to the point were I really need to get some help. I recently picked up a new customer that wants to load me up. I am adding onto my shop and looking at buying a lathe all the while trying to generate the income to pay for it all. ( I am not expanding solely based on this one customers desires )

So, I have been thinking about hiring part time ( or contracting ) someone to run my cnc mill. The issue is I want to keep it as simple as possible. I have been reading up a bit on the law. If I can "hire" a contractor, I believe that would be the easiest. But there is a bit of a gray area in hiring vs contract. I dont want to get into the rules ( assuming if you are going to answer, you know them ).

I realize I cannot just bring someone in and call it contract. They must work independently, set their own hrs, be hired to fulfill a job, not hourly etc.

So if I have, for example, 15pcs to be machined. Can I write a contract to have them machine 15pcs of "yxz" part by "x" date for "x" dollars ( on my eqpt, my tooling, my program etc) and be legal? Basically a new contract for every part number or day?

[miket]

To clarify. I didnt mean I dont want to talk about the rules when I wrote I didnt want to "get into the rules " I just didnt want to type it all out.

[ThePumaLives]

The vast majority of people we hire are on contract; we just have them sign it and it includes a start date, end date, compensation, description of services to be rendered, and some legal stuff where we can terminate the contract at any time.

[Draco]

So glad to hear your business i picking up.

[Leverhunter]

That's a huge gray area I work in also. It may work the way you described with a contract for a given number of pieces on their schedule with defined start and stop dates. One problem I see is they are using your equipment, a contractor frequently brings in their own equipment. It may pass regs a few times but eventually you may need to hire them part-time to satisfy the rules.

[bryan sandlin]

a staffing company service may be something that needs a look at. keep in mind that it will run you 35.00 to 50.00 easy per hour for a very skilled person. at the end of the contract, its over. then you may want to take a ad on Craig's list and say. I have 65 or 6500 parts I need made for x amount of dollars. my shop, my tools. someone send me a quote. but you must provide workman's comp. to do that.
and the left wing think all of this is easy and you need to give me more.

[Acameron52]

Find somebody to “help” that just so happens to find some extra cash laying around at the end of the day?

[brokeno]

Just look for someone tha t is recently retired and has the skills you need and hire them part time. If you go through a staffing company you normally pay a 1.32 markup which means to keep it simple if you are hiring someone for $10.00 /hr you would pay the staffing company $13.20. And the staffing company would make $3.20 for ever hour worked. I wouldn't do that if you can find someone part time less than 30 hrs a week means a lot around benefits you have to provide them. Don't really know the particulars around part time and full but probably need to look into it before hiring someone.

[miket]

The vast majority of people we hire are on contract; we just have them sign it and it includes a start date, end date, compensation, description of services to be rendered, and some legal stuff where we can terminate the contract at any time.

Thats what I was thinking. ( hoping )

So glad to hear your business i picking up.

Thank you very much

That's a huge gray area I work in also. It may work the way you described with a contract for a given number of pieces on their schedule with defined start and stop dates. One problem I see is they are using your equipment, a contractor frequently brings in their own equipment. It may pass regs a few times but eventually you may need to hire them part-time to satisfy the rules.

The eqpt thing may be an issue. If they arent supplying their own eqpt it sure looks like an employee rather than independent contractor.

a staffing company service may be something that needs a look at. keep in mind that it will run you 35.00 to 50.00 easy per hour for a very skilled person. at the end of the contract, its over. then you may want to take a ad on Craig's list and say. I have 65 or 6500 parts I need made for x amount of dollars. my shop, my tools. someone send me a quote. but you must provide workman's comp. to do that.
and the left wing think all of this is easy and you need to give me more.

In this scenario cost will be an issue. In the end I would much rather the machinist get as much as he can. You get better help that way. In my past experience most machinists that work for staffing companies havent been very good or have other issues ( just past experience, I am sure they arent all like that )

Find somebody to “help” that just so happens to find some extra cash laying around at the end of the day?

Ha, cant do that. I keep things on the level.

Just look for someone tha t is recently retired and has the skills you need and hire them part time. If you go through a staffing company you normally pay a 1.32 markup which means to keep it simple if you are hiring someone for $10.00 /hr you would pay the staffing company $13.20. And the staffing company would make $3.20 for ever hour worked. I wouldn't do that if you can find someone part time less than 30 hrs a week means a lot around benefits you have to provide them. Don't really know the particulars around part time and full but probably need to look into it before hiring someone.

A retired person would be excellent. That is the type of person I had in mind.

[Atfulldraw]

it's a big gray area.....

I do the exact same job for two different companies -- one pays me W-2 and considers me an employee with a 401K, medical insurance, unemployment, workers comp, and all.

and the other one pays me 1099 -- and wouldn't complain if I went and worked for another company on the same day I work for them.

A talk with your CPA is in order.

[Goldeneagle]

Don't know if this helps or not, but we have several contract workers in our shop. They were brought in through an agency. Our company pays the agency who sets the pay and actually pays the workers. All benefits are through the agency. They run our equipment and work our hours. It is a big savings to the company.


Great to hear your doing well!

[10132297]

Following

[hogslayer78]

Glad to hear your business is picking up! That's always a good thing!

[Bort]

As said earlier, contractors provide their own equipment. That’s your biggest issue.

[TallTexan]

Build it into the contract that the person can "rent" your equipment while the person performs the task. That way you have a paper trail saying that the contractor did not just use your equipment.