Benefit Loss May Not Hurt
Q: My wife has worked part-time at a gift shop for three years. The employer gives her a 1099 form instead of a W-2. This takes the employer off the hook for paying his share of Social Security tax. Because he has not paid his obligation, my wife is showing no Social Security amounts for the past three years. The owner does this for his other employees as well. I can’t believe the IRS would allow this. Do we have any recourse?
A: The 1099 form is intended for use by independent contractors, who are defined generally as people who control their own work hours and are free to accept or decline projects.
They must pay their own Social Security tax in full (without the contribution from employers that regular employees get).
According to Gary Zwick, tax lawyer and certified public accountant at Walter & Haverfield in Cleveland, your wife’s 1099 income should be reported on her income tax return and she should have been paying the Social Security tax for the past three years, unless she makes less than $400 a year. But Zwick says your wife’s employer is most likely wrong in issuing 1099s to his part-time staff, and she may want to talk to him about this.
Even without credit for her own earnings, your wife is generally entitled to receive one half the amount of your benefit. For example, if you are entitled to collect $1,000 a month after age 65, she will be entitled to collect $500 a month without having worked. So if she receives Social Security credit through her job, it may still be less than what she would receive through your benefits. She cannot collect both benefits, only the greater of the two.
You can find out how much you both have earned in benefits by requesting your statement from the Social Security Administration.
Crude work environment proves tough to tolerate
Q: I worked at a telemarketing company and, on the first day, was subjected to: the manger using his middle finger and swearing, training us to be rude to the customers because “they sometimes need it;” using God’s name manipulatively by telling the customer, “God bless you,” after closing a sale; and coworkers telling jokes about prostitutes, yelling ethnic obscenities, making sexual comments and other inappropriate gestures.
After two days, I told the manger this was not the place for me. He actually asked what was wrong, so I told him that the swearing and sick jokes were making me sick. He said he was sorry and should have warned me that some of the guys could get pretty nasty. I left after the second day but I liked the work, the location and the hours. When I complained to upper management, the response was, “You should have asked to be moved.” But no particular location was better than any other. I wanted to continue working there, but without all that stuff going on. What could I have done?
A: Upgrading an unprofessionally run department doesn’t happen overnight. The managers and staff must never have heard of workplace sexual harassment laws. You could have brought the laws to their attention by threatening to file a lawsuit (you might have difficulty proving all that happened in two days), but you would probably be best off just finding another job.
Two days on the job won’t affect your work record and certainly should not be added to your resume. It’s unlikely you will run into that type of work environment again, but just to make sure you don’t, ask to observe the company’s telemarketing staff in action before you accept the job.