What is a Contingent Worker?

  What is a Contingent Worker? Firms are constantly trying to increase efficiency and reduce costs in order to increase profitability.  With labor being one of the biggest expenditures in business, it is only natural for companies to start looking for innovative ways to get work done more efficiently with lower costs, which is how they generated the emergency workforce.

  What is a Contingent Worker?

Contingent workers are defined as freelancers, independent contractors, consultants, or other outside and non-permanent workers who are hired on a per project basis.  They can work on site or remotely.  However, they are not just temporary workers – this minimizes the high-value nature and complexity of today’s emergency workforce.  Unit workers are highly skilled experts in their fields.

  These workers are assigned to complete the tasks specified under the Statement of Work (SOW).  Once the project ends, they leave, although they may be called back when another project appears.  As such, they are not employees of a company and the employer does not bear any responsibility for providing continuous work on a permanent basis.

  All employees hired in states that have employment guidelines at will are contract employees whether or not there is a written agreement.  The IRS defines these employees as common law employees.  Employment as desired allows the employer or employee to terminate the employment relationship at any time without reason.

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  As long as the employees fulfill the work rules, and the work continues, their work “contract” continues.  Contract violations, such as disciplinary action or company violations, may lead to the termination of the contract.  Contract employees may work on a permanent or temporary basis.  Contract employees have taxes withheld from their payroll and may be eligible for benefits based on company policy and employment laws.

What is considered a contingent worker?

  A contingent workforce is a working group whose members are appointed by an organization on a demand basis.  The emergency workforce consists of freelancers, freelance contractors, and consultants who are not listed on the company payroll because they are not full-time employees of the organization.  Organizations can hire a worker directly or from an employment agency.  These workers are usually added on an ad hoc basis to the company’s workforce and work either on site or remotely.  They generally receive fewer benefits (if any) and less pay than full-time workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and are less likely to be protected under labor and employment laws.

  Types of contingent workers

  There is much debate in the literature about how to define the term temporary factor.  The following is a description of the categories of joint unit workers.

1.    Temporary employees

  Temporary employees, or temps, generally work for temporary employment agencies that place workers in companies for short-term assignments.  While most temporary employees earn less than their full-time counterparts and do not receive benefits, this has changed for some job specializations, particularly in the areas of computers and information systems.  Manpower Inc.  Headquartered in Milwaukee and Kelly Services Inc in Troy, Michigan, they are two of the largest temporary agencies.

2.    Part-time employees

  Part-time employees work less than 35 hours per week.  They often receive fewer or no benefits from the business owner, which results in cost savings for the company.  In addition, these employees may be scheduled to meet the peak needs of the organization.  For example, the demand for employees in clothing stores is higher at night and at the end of the week compared to the daylight hours of the week.

3.    Contract workers

  Contract workers are employees who negotiate a direct relationship with an employer for a specific portion of work or for a specified period of time.  Contract workers are generally self-employed and set their own working hours.  These employees may be more productive than internal employees because they avoid much of the bureaucracy of daily organizational life.

4.    College interns

  College interns are students who work for a company either without pay or at a reduced rate to gain work experience.  These interns may work full-time or part-time, but they are likely to work only for a short period of time, usually a semester or summer.  Interns are temporary workers because they provide the company with flexibility in hiring.  In addition, the company may choose to offer the trainee a full-time job at the end of the internship.

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  What is a Contingent Worker?

  After the fallout from downsizing during the 1980s, organizations increasingly looked at various strategies to build a more resilient workforce.  Additionally, due to the increasing and rapid changes in the global economy, including both competitive and regulatory forces, the ability to make low-cost employee adjustments has become imperative.  Given the desire of many employees for more flexible working arrangements, this caused the emergency workforce to see significant growth during the 1990s and 2000s.

  These differences in part-time, temporary, and / or contractual work arrangements certainly constitute a growing segment of the American workforce.  In 2001, the BLS estimated that unit workers make up 24 percent of the American workforce.  Nearly 22 million people work part-time, 9 million contract workers, and 1.2 million temporary employees.

Advantages of contingent work force

  The benefits of the contingent workforce compared to contract employees include that the company does not have to collect and pay quarterly taxes from payroll checks.  Instead, the IRS 1099 tax document is only generated at year end for payments to temporary workers when the year payments were $ 600 or more.  In contrast, the advantage of the contractual workforce is that it ensures that employees are available during specific hours to handle business needs.

Disadvantages of contingent work force

  While hiring unit workers reduces the need for employment in certain areas, the employer lacks control over the unit factor.  Since the temporary worker manages himself, the company has only financial control over the worker.  The company cannot set working hours or deal with temporary workers as employees.

  Firms that violate IRS rules with respect to these independent contractors will be required to change worker status and pay fines and penalties, along with all back taxes on payments made to the worker.  The employee’s workforce disadvantage is that the employer incurs additional costs, including federal unemployment taxes, employer contributions to Social Security and Medicare taxes, office rent and maintenance, and office supplies and equipment for employees to use.