answer to anon contractor

["Mysti Rubert" <mystilou -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

I was a contractor for five years with my own S corp. I stopped contracting 
two years ago specifically to work with a particular
boss (who just left the company!), and I am in California. All
these things color my answers:

1. Insurance was hard to get and expensive to pay for. I have a domestic 
partner who smokes, and getting him on my Kaiser personal advantage was 
impossible or prohibitively expensive, ditto Blue Shield. Your mileage may 
vary. Kaiser is just inside my lower limit of acceptable coverage,
and it was going to be hundreds of dollars a month for the two of us.

2. If you get bennies, you are someone's employee, just not permanent. 
Companies make the whole spectrum of arrangments, from no benefits, and
you invoice for your payment (meaning you get the pleasure of waiting 15 - 
90 days to get "paid") to the full deal, you paying a small amount for 
insurance the same as permanent employees, and paid regularly from payroll, 
not sporadically from Accounts Payable.

Don't be shy about asking whether they are talking full time temp-to-perm 
employee or contractor with an option to become employee,
as the $$ you charge is very different depending on those definitions.

If you pay your own benefits, you are a contractor and your hourly rate 
should reflect that (don't charge an amount = to your employee annual salary 
divided by 50, that shortchanges you).

3. I'm not sure if you qualify for Cobra (you get to carry on your insurance 
for X number of months after termination) as a non-permanent employee, but 
the recruiter should know (it's not negotiable, so it's
okay to ask).

I don't know anyone who invoices for their $$ and gets paid benefits.

Good luck!

Mysti

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