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1099 (Sub Minimum Wage)

from Heaven, Hell, and Rockaway by Thomas Clarke

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about

A dark look at the 1099 scam prevalent in NYC area low wage jobs where employers reclassify their employees as self employed so the employers could get out of paying their workers minimum wage or above.

lyrics

Minimum wage, we've got a way around that...

You've heard me talk about the 1099 before
but here's why it's such a threat to the poor

For 1099, you're supposed to be a subcontractor
setting your own pay, setting your own hours

Getting commission on something that's supposed to pay a decent wage
It was never designed to be a way for employers to enslave and impoverish employees under the guise that they're just independent contractors

But that's what it's become in New York City

It's not working, get it right and fix it

$8 an hour might be too high to be the minimum
but for $5 an hour for twice as much work for overtime hours
with no overtime pay is too little

And it's not just the milkman messengers from Long Island City (Mitchells) that are doing this

How about some inedible fruit arrangements from Manhattan with a legal wage the reward after months of 5 an hour?

How about the big kahuna of messenger companies (Urban Express) that switched to low commission and no tax help after paying above the old minimum wage last year?

Nobody seems to know or care

and they think the ones getting paid a legal wage are the only ones getting screwed

Some think that more pay with benefits is too little

and some think that the taxpayers are their piggy bank

Why should they get one penny more

when there are people earning far less, working a lot more

And not getting a legal wage?

Fix the 1099 gap so those trapped in it can get a legal wage

fix the healthcare system
but not by forcing people to buy insurance and driving those premiums through the roof

fix poverty by helping the poor become not poor

instead of punishing them by making them or keeping them poor

The leftist ideas from before didn't work then and they are making stuff worse now

Quit making stuff too expensive

Quit overtaxing the rich when their money can alleviate some of the suffering

and they can move their money with them

Leaving those who cannot afford the bill the only ones who can pay for it.

Quit saying life and self defense and religion are part of the problem and not welcome

When they may be part of the solution

The 1099 perps aren't the only problem

the jackasses need to go too

get it right before the wrong type of revolution comes

and heads start rolling

and no one wins


it's not working, get it right and fix it

credits

from Heaven, Hell, and Rockaway, track released January 25, 2014
Written and produced by Thomas Clarke in Rockaway Park, NY in January 2014.

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about

Thomas Clarke Colorado Springs, Colorado

Thomas Clarke was born in Abilene, TX, and raised in Colorado Springs. In the early 1990s, he first met producer Steve Peak (Speak Online), who introduced him to songwriting. He attended Brooklyn College in the late 1990s. He was one of the co-stars and contributed music to a 2014 art production about homelessness in Austin called “Am I Invisible”. ... more

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