Government Takes Closer Look at Truck Owner Operators
The Obama administration “will hire 100 more enforcement personnel and the IRS has begun auditing 6,000 companies” in order to crack down on the misrepresentation of truck owner operators as true independent workers. As reported by Today’s Trucking, “The Labor Department estimates that up to 30 percent of companies misclassify employees, many of which are in the trucking (industry).”
The argument states that “In many of these cases, companies treat independent contractors the same as payroll employees, who perform many of the same functions. Both types of workers are frequently given similar instructions and duties and have access to the same equipment and facilities. Companies that pass off employees as independent contractors may do so to avoid paying Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance taxes. The attention federal and state officials are now paying to the issue is significant on another front, as it could bolster unions that are attempting to collectively bargain for owner-operators contracted to for-hire fleets.”
According to a report today from the N.Y. Times, President Obama’s 2010 budget estimates that such measures would yield at least $7 billion over 10 years.
Sounds like another attempt for the administration to bring in more cash, off the backs of our owner operators.
Read the full story from Today’s Trucking . . .
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: government, independent workers, labor, owner operators, today's trucking, truck
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