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Employees vs. Independent Contractors: What’s a Small Business to Do?

Have you noticed the upsurge in the number of companies outsourcing work to independent contractors? We’re not talking about a gradual upsurge, either. The growth is robust and shows no sign of slowing down. The rise in independent contractors is a trend that really got traction with the so-called “Jobless” economic recovery of recent years. The late 1980’s and 1990’s were a time when “downsizing” swept the economy and many good people found themselves out of work through no fault of their own. Their company simply decided to “go in another direction” or “trim the fat” or even get “lean and mean.” It is no surprise that many of these folks—quite a few of them, no doubt, still upset about being referred to as “the fat”—reinvented themselves and popped up a few years later as independent contractors. The idea is pretty simple. Like temp workers, you hire an independent contractor to perform a giv...

By Charles M Cooper · March 25 2008 outsourcing, contracting