The Pain of the Permalancer

Much ink has been spilled over the increasing precarity, or independence, of work. Silicon Valley boosters and business-side think tanks hail the 1099 economy for its liberatory potential. Critics argue that it strips workers of their benefits and opens up a new field for potential employer abuses.

In 2015, 15 million people were self-employed (10 percent of the workforce), most of them with no paid employees of their own. Life as a full-time freelancer amounts to a massive shift of responsibility from the employer to the worker. Those who are paid with 1099s get double-tapped on payroll taxes, forced to pony up both the employer’s and employee’s contributions to Social Security and Medicare. That’s more than 15 percent of a person’s income.