Many Canadians have come to see the benefits of self-employment. From managing their own schedules to the ability to make a profit, it’s a welcome change from the typical nine-to-five lifestyle. It is expected that, by 2020, 45 percent of Canadians will be self-employed. When it comes to employee classification, the Canadian market will see an influx of independent contractors and a decrease in the typical employee.
With more independent contractors entering the workforce, it’s important for staffing agencies to understand how to classify these workers. How do they differ from employees? Independent contractor misclassification is a big deal and could land you in serious legal and financial trouble.
What’s the Difference between an Independent Contractor
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Does the worker need to provide their own tools or equipment?
5. Can the worker subcontract the work?
If you answered yes to any one of these questions, the worker is likely an independent contractor.
Canadian Revenue Agency
Every pay period, businesses are required to withhold a certain amount of an employee’s pay to contribute to taxes, CPP, and EI. However, these remittances are not paid if the worker is an independent contractor.
If you’ve misclassified your temporary workers, whether on purpose or by error, you will have to pay all outstanding taxes to the CRA, in addition to the employee and employer’s portion of the unpaid EI and CPP premiums.
Also, the consequences of your actions will lead to additional penalties, which can include interest between 10 and 20 percent, fines, and even jail time.
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board
If a worker is misclassified as an independent contractor and they are injured on the job, they won’t be covered by the WSIB. If this employee brings the matter to court, your agency may be found guilty of a provincial offense and subject to a formal investigation. You will then have to pay all outstanding premiums with interest and could be facing even more daunting
A primary stakeholder, and perhaps the most vocal of all stakeholder groups, is the Canadian labor force. Offshoring affects Canadian workers in two major ways. First, when businesses decide to offshore certain functions, jo...
In order to understand the need for TFWs, it is important to determine just where the workers are being placed and what roles they are filling. A total of 202,510 temporary foreign worker positions existed in 2012, up by about 50,000 from the previous year (Economic and Social Development Canada, 2013). Of those workers, nearly 100,000, or half of th...
Precarious employment, also known as precarious work, is a type of employment that is unstable, doesn't provide job security, may have high risk working conditions, often does not provide much in the way of benefits nor the option for workers to join a union, and typically provides low wages that usually are, on their own, insufficient to support a basic household. Precarious employment can include part-time, temporary, self-employment and contract work categories. In recent years during tougher economic conditions, this type of employment has become more and more common in some of Canada’s most populated major cities, such as Toronto and Hamilton, and it continues to be on the increase. Employers are taking advantage of this less expensive
Precarious employment is work that is not secure, generally does not include any type of benefits, and is paid so lowly that it generally does not meet the living wage. This type of employment is unfortunately a growing trend in today’s societies due to many factors such as outsourcing, globalization, a saturated job market, shifts from manufacturing to the service sector and jobs also being replaced by computerized units. When speaking on precariousness these trends also affect European societies due to the fact that the outsourcing is generally to places where labour is extremely cheap in order to lower the costs of goods such as Asia and South America. This growing trend is also resulting in negative effects on the economy such as the bottoming out of the middle class and a large amount of citizens living below the poverty line and not able to earn a livable wage. Minimum Wage is on the incline, however, it is still not enough to live on practically and there are many other factors that make precarious work disadvantageous other than the wages such as job security and room for growth and promotion within the company. The negative changes to the job market brought on by the changes to it have resulted in higher expectations and demands from the employers which reduce the amount of people which are eligible for what are now known as “good jobs”. These good jobs generally entail a livable wage, benefits, more flexibility and better job security. Precarious work is categorized and gendered as women and immigrants make up the vast majority of employees in this type of work. Since precarious work affects citizens on a global scale, in this essay, there will be comparisons and contrasts drawn between precarious work in Canada ...
Krahn, H., Lowe, G. Hughes, K. (2008). Work, Industry & Canadian Society. (5th ed.) Toronto, ON: Nelson Education Ltd.
a part of the British dominion to becoming an independent nation. Most of the symbolic
Changes in the social, economic and political structure have resulted in “high-life stress” has increased from 27% in 1988 to 46% in 1998 according to a study from C.B.C (Bezanson & Luxton, 2006, p. 95). According to the Canadian Union of Public Employees it has been discovered that 4 out of 10 employees reported that their workload incresed from the years 1999 to 2001 the evidence presented that 72 per cent reported more work responsibility, 61 per cent reported working with new technology, 60 per cent reported a higher demand for service, and 54 per cent were working in departments that have had employment reductions (Bezanson & Luxton, 2006, p. 99). In 2001, the average age of workers in Canada is 37.6 years of age, this age has increased from 29.6 years of age in 1981 (Bezanson & Luxton, 2006, p.98). Due to the increase of age workers have encountered probl...
The concept of a “productive” worker is a complex one. Ultimately, the question that must be asked is what societal benefit there is in increased productivity. One the one hand, it might be argued that what is best for the businesses that employ workers is best for the nation. To paraphrase, this “what is good for business is good for Canada” perspective suggests that when business does well it will automatically mean that workers benefit. However, is this approach really the best goal for society? Instead of this view, it might be better to place th...
Lowe, Graham S. (1999). Labour Markets, Inequality, and the Future of Work. In Curtis, James, Edwards Grabb and Neil Guppy (Eds.), Social Inequality in Canada: Patterns, problems and policies. (pp 113-128). Scarborough, ON. Prentice Hall.
Krahn, Lowe, Hughes (2008) Work, Industry, & Canadian Society. (5th ed.) Toronto, ON: Nelson Education Ltd.
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