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Comment by scarface74 | Hacker News Reader

The problem isn’t the “gig” economy. Having flexible part time work hours can work for some people if they want some extra money and they aren’t the primary bread winner.

Also $12-$14 hour is a livable wage in rural America, for full time hours, if you didn’t have to worry about health care.

The biggest issue with the gig economy is our insane health insurance system where the only way you can get affordable insurance is through your job.

But expecting college students to work for that amount is crazy.

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"...if you didn’t have to worry about health care" Also known as That Thing Everyone Will Need To Worry About Eventually.

It works out okay if you’re married and one spouse has insurance.

>That Thing Everyone Will Need To Worry About Eventually

(in USA #1)

I never have, and do not ever expect to have to, worry about it, because Euro

Everyone will have to worry about healthcare eventually, even Europeans. You might not have to pay for it, but that's different from being able to ignore it.

Also, if a scenario is about a U.S. company, and pay in USD, talking about America seems reasonable.

Health Care isn't really affordable through your job. The company is paying a large amount for it, rather than paying you that money in salary.

But you can make decent money in rural America, if you have a family, and still qualify for subsidies through the aca.

>The biggest issue with the gig economy is our insane health insurance system where the only way you can get affordable insurance is through your job.

Are there good books/papers that have good research on this?

The difference between contract work and being an employee is that you have to pay “self employment tax” - the half of Medicare that your employee pays (2.8%) and social security (6.2%).

The usual difference between part time and full time employment is subsidized health insurance, paid time off, and sometimes a 401K employment match.

At least with the ACA, everyone can get insurance, whether everyone can afford insurance is a different issue.

For people like IT workers in the right market, whether to go contract vs. full time is just a numbers question - can you make enough to compensate for having to pay self employment taxes, health insurance, and unpaid time off.

For people on the other end of the spectrum - those who are getting paid much less and have to pay thier health insurance - it sucks.

The people hit hardest are for some reason some of the same ones who support candidates who want to get rid of the ACA.

The employer and employee each pay 1.45% into Medicare (and OASDI 6.2%) at these salaries.

Self Employment taxes is one reason I never considered doing side work. Taxes would total almost 50- (Federal 28%, state 6%, SSA 12.4%, Medicare 2.8%).

Now, between the tax cut that makes our marginal tax rate 24%, and that my primary job puts me over the social security maximum, my total taxes would be 32.8%. But I still have a magic number that no one has been willing to reach to make side work worth it for me.

The nice thing about side work is you can write tons of stuff off as “business expenses.” Your actual taxes are a lot less than you think because of all these write offs.

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