Compliance

Why You Should Be a W-2 Employee: 7 Important Benefits To Communicate To Your Freelancers

There are benefits that Event companies can relay to their crew as to why they should be a W-2 employee and avoid employee misclassification concerns.

As you navigate the ever-evolving employee misclassification landscape, understanding the benefits to both you and your crew of making them W2 employees is extremely important.

In our last blog post, we discussed 3 common misconceptions that keep event service companies from hiring a W-2 crew, as well as how LASSO’s event workforce management software helps you effectively manage vital labor processes as you work to properly classify your workforce. Some event companies fear their talent will not work as W-2 employees because the industry has traditionally hired them as contractors. However, this is simply not true.

First of all, many companies in this space have already gone through the process of reclassifying their crew – ensuring that every crew member is properly classified as either a 1099 contractor or a part-time W-2 employee. So, chances are, your crew is already working as a W-2 employees elsewhere. Secondly, there are actually many benefits that go along with hiring a W-2 workforce - for both the employee and employer. Not only can it be a good business decision for a company, but it can also provide great benefits to your people and keep you both out of hot water.

As you go through your own employee reclassification process, there are many benefits that you can communicate to your freelancers that emphasize why being a W-2 employee is actually better for them than being a 1099 contractor.

Here are just a few of these benefits. As a W-2 employee, your crew members will…

  1. Have access to state unemployment benefits that they would not have had access to as a 1099 contractor.
  2. Save money on their individual Workers' Compensation Insurance.
  3. Lower their tax burden since they will no longer be self-employed.
  4. Have enormous time savings. Your 1099 contractors will save loads of time when they no longer have to spend hours creating invoices for time and/or services worked.
  5. Get paid faster. Because your company does not have to wait to receive these invoices, you are able to invoice your customers faster and in turn, pay your crew members faster. Everyone wins!
  6. Have less exposure. If your company gets audited for possible employee misclassification, this could open your contractors up to further scrutiny regarding how much they are paying in taxes as well. Overall, it is just better that companies are properly classifying their crew – for both the employee and employer in order to mitigate these risks.
  7. Be a bigger part of the team! As a W-2 employee, your freelancers are now part of your company - not outsiders. We have found that crew members greatly appreciate working for “inclusive” companies and feeling like they are part of an overall team.

Let us know what other benefits that you have come across when scheduling a W-2 crew by contacting us today. 

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