2016 subcontractor designation impacts

It would appear that many of the participants on RCS wouldn't be feel much impact from this, but for those who are still defining the help as a subcontractor, take a gander at page 60 of the February issue of Roofing Contractor.

It's another step in the right direction. They, (gooberment), could just make it plain/simple & clear, but that's not the way we do things - Yeah, time will tell- Kinda parallels the illegal workforce phenomenon....etc. - etc.....

Yes, working in the residential market, (east of the continental divide that is), as a legit roofing contractor is like running up-hill with a full backpack.....Some of us just keep on - keep'n on though.....

We do some roofing, but a lot of building and some sheet metal. The rates for comp are different for each of these so i keep a log book with hours worked and on what so we can keep track. I can tell you what we were working on for any day of any week for the last 15 years. It sure makes it easy when audit time comes. It is all laid out to the penny.

It is expensive, and that is also a good reason to have a good safety program and keep the experience mod low.

OS, I do believe some changes are coming that will clean this situation up. Not sure if it will be in our lifetime though.

Our operation is a straight up, employees staffed roofing contractor. It's who we are and what we do. We don't call ourselves a "home improvement" company, nor do we classify our work as anything but residential steep slope roofing. Our work comp and liability underwriters rate us as such, and we pay the premium assigned to that risk.

We don't allow ourselves to get sucked into price wars. Those homeowners focused on price are not qualified to be our customers . . . it's that simple.

95% of the "sub-contractors" are employees. For those of us that pay the full burden of our employees, it is like running uphill with a full backpack. I work for a private union leasing company, and am "leased" to my wife's company along with 3 other union carpenters and laborers. Depending on which workers comp category we are working under, the true cost for an hours labor is between $48.00 and $52.00/ hour. That is whether I am standing, driving, working or talking; for 8 hours a day. Anything over 40 hours is time and a half. This includes all taxes, medical insurance and a pension. How much the pension will be worth when I start to collect is a good question, but when you have to figure that much per hour on a job, to "break even" with overhead and profit on top of it, it is a challenge.

I don't do this for practice anymore.