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I am finding businesses demanding I fill out the i.r.s. w-9 form for small jobs where the total payment is under $600. This is subcontractor type work reportable with 1099-misc form at year's end, only if the amount exceeds $600. I am being told that failure to comply could result in an i.r.s. fine of $50. Web research suggests that business have the option to require w-9 compliance http://smallbusiness.chron.com/am-required-law-obtain-form-w9-vendors-32756.html From that site: "The IRS requires that you obtain a W-9 from every vendor from whom you purchase $600 in labor and services or $5,000 in direct sales, but you can...

President Obama, in his State of the Union address this month, proposed raising the minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. As recently as 2006 that rate was $5.15, and has been at its current level of $7.25 only since July 2009. The next day, as if not to be outdone, two Minnesota state legislators proposed raising Minnesota’s minimum wage to $9.50 per hour from $6.15 presently. (Minnesota businesses currently follow the federal minimum.) After years of consensus among economists on the effects of the minimum wage, the last twenty years has seen renewed debate over whether minimum wage laws reduce...

Here are some charts from Reader Tim Wallace that help explain my report a few days ago that 23% of Small Business Owners (Approximately 6.21 million) Report "No Pay for a Year"; New Zealand, Singapore, US, Best Places to Start and Run a Business The first chart below shows actual employment of covered workers compared to the civilian population and labor force. Covered employees are those eligible for unemployment benefits (working or not). Some are currently collecting those benefits. In the following charts, "covered employment" or "net employment" refers to those with benefits and currently working. Population, Labor Force, Covered...

California’s increasing restrictions on independent contractors will slow economic growth and hike the state’s unemployment, according to a new analysis for several business groups. “The Economic Benefits of Preserving Independent Contracting” was prepared by economic policy expert Philip J. Romero.

It's a new year and time for a new thread. If you're looking for a job and/or a career; this is the thread for you -- so bookmark it and tell others about this thread. Updates will be ongoing.

Paulette Silverson has taught children the ABCs, shapes, colors, and more in the 12 years she has operated her privately owned and operated in-home day care business, Wonder Care. Yet, it was the Brighton woman who learned a new lesson when the state told her she is a government employee and union member — statuses she said she did not want and did not know was possible. "I was not aware of anything going on until I received a letter in the mail a year ago last December, which said, 'Welcome to the (United Auto Workers). You are now a...

The House of Representatives on December 3rd passed House Resolution 4154, which is deceptively called the "Permanent Estate Tax Relief Act."  This bill is part of the general war by the Democratic Party on self-employed Americans, family farms, and home businesses.  Does this sound extreme?  Consider the vote on the message:  225 Democrats in the House voted for HR 4154 and 26 Democrats voted against it; not a single Republican voted for HR 4154.  No RINOs could be persuaded to support Congressman Pomeroy's attempt to freeze the estate tax emption level at $3.5 Million and then tax all estate assets...

Here's the good news: We have this thread that will keep on growing. Here's the bad news: Not everyone knows about this thread. So, enough of this chit-chat; let's look at jobs and careers. Start here now.

I haven't spent this much time thinking about economics since college, when it was my second major. I have dedicated the last 15 years primarily to my first major, computer science, and my first love, entrepreneurship. But that has changed in the last six months, although my primary concern still remains entrepreneurship. I was invited by Tim Kane and Bob Litan of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the world's largest foundation dedicated exclusively to the cause of promoting and fostering entrepreneurship, to a small conference of economics bloggers held in Kansas City recently. About 30 of us spent a stimulating...

A jury sentenced a Lakeview man to 10 years in prison for growing nearly 7,500 marijuana plants. Andrew Stever, 40, was sentenced on Monday after a three-day trial in the Federal District Court in Medford.Ten years is the mandatory minimum sentence for anyone convicted of growing 1,000 or more pot plants. In July 2007, officers from several local, state and federal agencies found 7,459 plants growing on Stever's Lakeview property, which bordered Forest Service land. Two men fled the scene, leaving behind personal property and three firearms, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Portland. Physical evidence and testimony linked...

As more workers are jumping--or being pushed--off the corporate ladder, a slew of new tax and savings benefits are softening their landing. The Solo 401(k) is one of the fastest-growing cushions. It is a retirement savings plan aimed squarely at the growing number of free agents running one-person companies. In the three years ending in 2003, the ranks of the self-employed grew by 6 percent to 12.2 million people, according to the Small Business Administration. Entrepreneurs have poured about $2.8 billion into Solo 401(k) plans since their launch in 2002, and that's expected to jump to $5 billion by year's...

By Grant Barrett @ World New York This is the first article concerning why and how technically oriented but unemployed individuals should consider offering freelance technical support. The second part is here. ... This article by the New York Times suggests that people are becoming technically adept by necessity, and that, as happened with radios and automobiles, eventually all technology will take care of itself and be as mindless to operate as toasters are today. I see that day as decades off. Computers are still complex to make, complex to learn, complex to integrate with other gadgets. More importantly, they...

<p>Steve Kaufman worries about more than typical war stories. He's patriotically eager albeit realistically anxious to go to war. It's the other stories -- the ones following the Gulf War, about self-employed reservists returning home to face bankruptcy -- that linger in his mind.</p>