[Dixielandjazz] Musicians - Employees or Independent Contractors

[David Dustin]

The article contributed by Steve Barbone is interesting for the distinctions
drawn between independent contractor and freelance employee. However, it is
clearly a sales job for union membership and the last half of the article
appears irrelevant to most of us, IMHO. The putative lost benefits of
allowing oneself to be treated as an independent contractor by a band can
only be relevant for fully professional bands that are ³going concerns² and
have a continuing and substantial income stream. Like the Lawrence Welk
Orchestra, or one of the many other Ghost Bands still in business 60 years
after the ³ghost² shuffled off this mortal coil. Casual bands in the USA,
scuffling for paying gigs much less well-paying gigs, have no assets, not
even ³good will² accrued in a saleable name or musical reputation, and
absolutely no wherewithal to offer fringe benefits such pension fund
contributions, employment security insurance coverage, or health insurance
to players. There is a push-pull nature to this relationship, and looking at
it only from the top-down perspective of the booker-band leader misses the
demand for income on the part of the contracted musician. A band that
divides up, let¹s say, $500-750 per gig, even on a semi-regular basis, does
not have the ability to treat players as any form of employee, nor would the
³employees² themselves be content to exist in an exclusive relationship with
that band alone in order to make ends meet, $50 to $150 per gig. If, for the
sake of argument, we agree that contracted musicians are ³employees,² in
most states a part-time employee is ineligible for fringe benefits mandated
for full-time employees.

David Dustin