Minimum wage laws are for employees only, not independent contractors
Posted By: sm on 2006-08-03
In Reply to: when minimum wage goes up do IC rates increase also? - katlow
Would you pay your plumber or pool cleaner (examples of other IC jobs) more because the minimum wage increased?
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LABOR BOARD / MINIMUM WAGE LAWS
Regardless of all the bull dished out by the MTSO companies, especially as it pertains to VR, i.e., We're cutting your pay 50%, so you'll have to work twice as hard - but you're going to LOVE the platform. Also get tired of hearing about Learning Curve and wonder if my grocer, landlord & hungry kids understand this learning curve concept.
However (and the MTSOs can like this or lump it) WE MUST BE PAID FEDERALLY-MANDATED MINIMUM WAGE for workers with employee status - whether straight typing, VR or being required to babysit computer during no/low work. Of course, it's exploitation to cut wages in half from an already insultingly low rate & most MTs are surely feeling the pinch. But whether 2, 3, 4 or 10 cpl ... minimum wage must be paid. (Sorry Suits/MTSOs - the law is there for a reason!)
Our work is considered piecemeal and not subject to minimum wage laws. Just what I've been told
MT
Minimum wage only applies to employees.
nm
Independent contractors
Can anyone who ICs give out a few good recommendations for good companies hiring ICs? Anyone work FT for company and start IC? Thanks
Need some help from independent contractors, please.
I am going from an employee status to an independent contractor. Exactly how much more of my taxes will I be paying instead of my employer. I am looking at my paystub from my employee status and I see FICA and Medicare being withheld. Does the employer pay a portion of the both the FICA and the Medicare or just the FICA. Is the percent like 7% or 8% or something else. I am just trying to figure out how much of my line rate this is going to eat up.
Independent Contractors and Schedules
I am an independent contractor and agreed to a certain amount of lines per pay period and gave an approximate schedule but am I not correct that by law if I get my lines, they can't tell me when and when not to work. I have only one time not gotten my lines and only because there was no work and that was about 9 months ago.
I can't stand the vile threats of being canned for not working a certain schedule when they hire independent contractors. What recourse do I have if something like that happened? Labor board, law suit, etc?
MTSOs ARE independent contractors
So you theory has some holes :)
I've had large hospital accounts, medium surgery center accounts, small and large doctor office accounts and let me tell you, the headaches in dealing with this are no fun. Relying on MTs to do what they promise and then don't deliver is no fun.
Just because someone is an IC doesn't mean you get quality OR accountability.
I believe that would come to a little over minimum wage...
Not good at all! 
Minimum wage at best, probably not that!
I would not take any QA/editing position unless it is a set hourly rate. Again, I have said it before, do not sell your fellow QA/editors down the drain like AAMT has sold us. Hourly is the only way!
They have to pay minimum wage s/m
They have to pay for minimum wage if you do not reach that on your line counts.
Minimum Wage
You have hit on a point that the service owners did not plan for. Pursue this with the DOL office in your state:
USMLSU Initiative
Washington, DC
ONLINE, REAL-TIME CONFERENCE CALLS/MEETINGS BEING SCHEDULED FOR THE FIRST WEEK OF 2009 !
Respect, reasonable compensation, and humane treatment for all U.S.A. Medical Transcriptionists
VR or not, need to pay MINIMUM WAGE--sm
Not just my 2 cents' worth -- that's the LAW in all 50 US states. At 3-4 cents a line, this is hardly possible, especially at the start, to make at least a minimum wage that any 16-year-old kid makes delivering groceries. Add to that all the UNPAID work we are required to do for the privilege of being fleeced by the MTSOs, CCs, researching doctors, endless demographic work having nothing to do with transcription... 
Minimum wage
You cannot by law make less than minimum wage. If you are making less than minimum wage I would tell the company, they have to make up the difference. If they don't then you should call the labor board.
No problem finding employees, contractors (sm)
you name it. You're welcome 
Yes, I am an MT, too. I refuse to leave my MTs hanging and deal with them unethically. You put 'the suits' at the big MTSOs in the shoes of at-home MTs, especially MTs who are on production and who have no work, no communication, and thus, no money, and they wouldn't last 1 hour. They would scream and shout and then file unemployment in a heartbeat 
You can't compare the two - MDI has only statutory employees and contractors
with no benefits. Transcend has full time employees with benefits. I would not believe everything you hear on this board with regard to pay. I make 8 cents per line with MDI, and I am just hoping I wont get a pay cut for benefits
If you cannot make minimum wage with this, then
get another profession. I make over $20 per hour. You are a poor excuse for a Transcriptionist if not able to do. End of message and end of talking about something apparently not everyone is able to do.
minimum wage is $ 7.--/hour.....nm
nm
California's minimum wage is higher than SM
the federal minimum wage, this may be why.
Heck, NO!! I'd never survive on minimum wage. nm
xxx
So you don't mind working for less than minimum wage?
That's what a good Editor would make because most good editors that have 100% listen I know get between 2000-3000 lines a day. I think not. People like you who take these jobs bring all of us who have worked hard down. If you have only been an MT for 2 years, I would not think you would even qualify to be QA
when minimum wage goes up do IC rates increase also?
x
MT, minimum wage, single moms, etc...sm
Medical transcription requires a great deal of skill and knowledge. It is not a minimum wage job, or should not be a minimum wage position. Years of learning and experience are involved to master this profession. No qualified MT, single mom or otherwise, should be working at minimum wage levels, in turn necessitating the help of assistance programs. This is too skilled a profession, and it is a shame that it is not so slowly sinking to the level of a minimum wage-type job.
Oh nice..getting late..how about MINIMUM WAGE.. LOL
No, soon the government will increase the minimum wage
and MTs will be the working poor. Sad business this is.
Must be paid MINIMUM WAGE for each hour -sm
worked under 40/wk if employee in the U.S., regardless of work type, job description. In addition, must be PAID FOR ALL WORK PERFORMED - I won't even go there.
Att: Flamers: You can look this up yourself in DOL regulations.
No, she said 1000 monthly - not weekly. Less than minimum wage! nm
x
$1,000 divided by 40 hours is $25.00 an hour. Where do you live that that is minimum wage? nm
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Couldn't Amphion be held liable for minimum wage
I'm just sayin'
8-9 cpl is an insult wage, even for employees.
because once you factor in your overhead, time spent dealing on the phone with clients, keeping books, etc., if you charge 8-9 cpl as an IC, you're working for just a couple of Rupees.
employees with no minimum line counts
I am not asking for benefits or full time. I was just trying to find out if there is any company that hires employees without a minimum line count per week, so that I would not have to worry about dealing with taxes. Once again, I do not need benefits.
employees with no minimum line counts
I also forgot to mention that I would not mind working a certain amount of hours per week. I just do not like the stress of a minimum line count per week. : )
I do know one IC that treats contractors as contractors
Only one though.
My suggestion is that all the IC's out there need to take back their rights as IC's! Don't allow general contractors to act like employers by not acting like employees yourself! Easier said than done, I know...
taking a low wage does not lower the pay for a field. The fact that they are offering stated wage
means that is the market. You don't see ads for McDonald's for $36/hour and you don't see ads for A.G. Edwards for $20,000/yr. If they didn't think they could fill a job for $14, they wouldn't post it. Notice MT jobs are now posting at 5, 6 and 6.5. So guess what editors are going to make?
We have privacy laws in this country, and you are held accountable. Our privacy laws
x
Bare minimum? I make over $50,000 a year in 40 hours a week. That is not bare minimum. sm
Bare minimum would be $8 an hour which is $16,640 a year or $10 an hour which is $20,800 a year. I make more than twice that and that is NOT bare minimum.
I worked to get my typing speed to 80 wpm. I worked to get my Expanders user-friendly and plentiful. I am not the fastest because I look up what I do not know, but I am lucky to have a very good memory so if I type it a few times, I do not have to look it up. I keep notes when I run across something I do not know. I am interested in my profession and read the magazines for our profession and network with other transcriptionists during my free time, devoting a minimum of 2 hours per week to networking and learning new things.
I am not the fastest MT, but I am accurate and boiled it down to simple math. I need to transcribe 250 lines per hour for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. At 10cpl, that is 2000 lines a day x 5 days per week x 50 weeks per year. I take 2 weeks off per year during July to visit my grandchildren (unpaid), 1 week a year to vacation with my husband (paid) and 1 week a year to spring clean (paid). I have worked for the same company for 4 years and 8 years for the one before this.
I treat my work hours as work hours and take 1/2 hour for lunch which I do not include in my 8 hours. I pretend that I am working outside the home and do not answer the door, get the mail, do laundry, etc. If I have a good day and go over the 2000, I bank it in my mind for days that are not as good and make sure that I get 10,000 lines each week.
My W2 each year is consistently $50,000. A few years it was higher, but I worked a few weekends, which I no longer do.
It IS possible.
MxSecure pay per cpl, just contractors??
Does anyone know what MxSecure pays per CPL? I cannot seem to find this info anywhere, either on their site or elsewhere. Also, do they just employ independent contractors or do they offer employee status as well? I'm specifically asking about transcription. Thanks for any info anyone can provide.
I HAVE to get out of SPI. They are driving me insane!!!! 
MxSecure pay per cpl, just contractors??
$.08 cpl and yes ;-)
question for indepednent contractors
Which state are you in and do you have to pay/charge sales tax?
The industry standard is NOT indepedent contractors. I wish people would sm
only post facts, not what they think, with something so important.
There are strict guidelines for ICs. Most companies have gotten away from that as it can backfire on them. Some companies have both ICs and employees, but most have moved to employees.
Fed laws for OT pay
For years, Cymed only paid some people a premium for working OT hours. We didn't even know they were paying some people and not others, let alone that they were supposed to be paying EVERYONE premium pay.
Found the following re: Federal Gov't laws covering OT worked:
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs22.htm
This fact sheet provides general information concerning what constitutes compensable time under the FLSA. The Act requires that employees must receive at least the minimum wage and may not be employed for more than 40 hours in a week without receiving at least one and one-half times their regular rates of pay for the overtime hours. The amount employees should receive cannot be determined without knowing the number of hours worked.
They not under our laws
that is how they get away with it
It has to do with employment laws in SM
those states.
You have to be IC because of labor laws sm
I don't know of any companies like this because they have to verify the # of hours you work. Most places require a set # of hours per week, if you are full time often 32-40 hours, PT 20-32. All I have dealt with require the hours be met more importantly than the lines, they have to have staff to cover set hours for client needs. If your lucky enough to type 250 lph, apply for part-time, then you'll only have that 6 hour day you are looking for and not be obligated to type longer, then if you don't meet the line requirement in that time, you'll still have room to type longer without costing the company OT if you need to type another half hour or hour longer than expected to get there. These companies have to be very careful to keep track of the hours because they are required to pay OT for anything over 40 hours, and they have a minimum line count so they know the have people that can get the work done instead of people that aren't disciplined to type from home. All of this is just what I have seen in my 12 years as an MT, may be different for other MTs.
Partially due to HR laws...sm
I think it's a combination of needing the bodies like someone else said, but there's also a TON of hoops to go through in order to terminate employment on a quality basis.
Also, with the new HIPPA laws, NO
hospitals tell people any info, who call off the streets asking about accounts, who they dumped for transcription, who they use now, etc. If its public info, the contracts can be researched. Otherwise, I know for a fact that they don't just go blabbing private info to busy-body MTs calling for poop. It doesn't work that way! Also, for your info, most hospitals have multiple services doing their transcription at any given time, including inhouse MTs. In fact, rarely would a large facility use one service, so your info is meaningless!
US labor laws
Maybe this company is claiming ignorance of US labor laws b/c they are based far, far away. I have no idea, really. It's a lame excuse if that's their thinking. Something's very wrong at this company!
IC labor laws
HAPPY THANSGIVING... Could somebody point me in the direction I am needing to get the independent contractor labor laws. And can an employer tell you that you can submit your work in an e-mail if you cannot get into your system. Doesn't that break confidentialty laws? Anyway I am needing to know how IC work, works. Can I set my own hours? If I am too sick to work for a day and I tell my employer can they charge me a penalty fee?
I would appreciate any help I can get.
Labor laws
That is because a lot of MTSOs abuse the IC status. They treat the MTs like employees instead of ICs. Many years ago I worked for a service that fired someone. That person went to the Labor Board and the service had to pay back employee taxes on everyone. We all had to get a second account to satisfy the State that we were ICs and not just working for one company, which they considered a employee situation.
Laws and checks
A person who knowing gives you a worthless check has broken the law. In most places $400 and over is a felony. I think some have laws that state $500. Another law was broken when they put a stamp on it and mailed it to you. I would put it through twice (required by most sheriff's departments) and then turn it over to the sheriff's department. If they tell you to do this in the state/city where the check was written, do so. They will cease ripping people off or they will lose a lot more than transcriptionists. I speak from experience.
Labor laws
Why was your last thread locked?
to break labor laws?
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