Nom de Plume

A while ago, I answered the questions in this survey. Now the report has been released. It’s pretty interesting. In their own words:

“New Unionism and the Next Social Safety Net� reports on the challenges independent workers face as they try to put together stable lives without access to our employer-based social safety net.

Although independent workers often pay more taxes than standard employees, they receive fewer benefits and protections from the government. The report argues that a new form of unionism is needed to help update the social safety net for a changing workforce, and makes specific policy recommendations that would improve independent workers’ access to equitable taxes, government representation, and traditional social insurance programs.

2006 survey findings include:

Independent workers lack benefits traditional workers have.
In the past year, roughly 39% of respondents experienced a period without health insurance; about half of these did not have health insurance for the entire previous year.

1/2 of respondents have saved less than $10,000 for retirement.

79% of respondents would be willing to pay to get access to an unemployment insurance program.

The independent workforce is an untapped constituency that votes.
3% of respondents feel that elected officials understand what being a freelancer is like, and 10% feel that the media understand.

81% of respondents view freelancers as a group with common interests and goals.

92% are registered voters; 90% have voted in a national election in the last 5 years.

Although the survey primarily focused on New York City (you can’t get much further away from that than Seattle) and didn’t represent me in terms of income, the section on taxes was pretty interesting. I mean, it’s not anything I didn’t know, but it’s nice to see it acknowledged in black and white.

Independent workers face complex and burdensome tax rules. They pay more
taxes than traditional employees because the tax code overlooks them in some
instances, and directly targets them in others. 50% of survey respondents cite the
additional tax burden as a significant disadvantage of freelancing, and 94% feel
that freelancers deserve more equitable tax treatment.

In other words, freelancers are all turning into Republicans. I know I am. Well, I’m not really, but sometimes I feel like it.

Some sections of the tax code directly target independent workers who don’t
have employers. As a result, these freelancers pay higher taxes than standard
employees. The Self-Employment Tax — the social security and Medicare tax
targeted at workers without employers — is 15.3% of net earnings. Workers who
have employers pay just half that amount, and their employers pay the other half.
In addition, a tax in New York City called the Unincorporated Business Tax (UBT)
requires self-employed independent workers who net over $55,000 a year to pay
extra income tax on top of their federal, state, and city income taxes.

Amen. Steve and I make about the same, amount, give or take, but even after deductions, I still pay about 15 percent more in taxes than he does.

Temps, contract workers, part-timers, and others who buy their own health insurance policies can’t take an income tax deduction for the cost of premiums unless their health care expenses exceed 7.5% of their total income. Independent contractors, the self-employed, and others who work without an employer relationship can deduct the cost
of health insurance from their income taxes, but they can’t deduct this cost from their
Self-Employment Tax liability.

I guess I shouldn’t complain because I have health insurance through Steve. It’s much better insurance for much less than an individual policy, but I can’t deduct it because it’s through his employer. Which is fair enough.

And really, I can’t complain on a broader level either. Sure, those full-time employees may have more benefits, but they also sit in rush hour traffic, don’t have the luxury of turning down work because of an upcoming vacation, have to be in the office from 9-5, and have to go to meeting after endless meeting.

So drawbacks notwithstanding, I wouldn’t trade.

So what’s my literary personality?

Your Literary Personality
created with QuizFarm.com

I was probably a little hasty in creating an entire category dedicated to soapmaking. A better category probably would have been “passing fancies.” Or better yet, “passing fancies on which I spend tons of money and then get bored.”

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not totally bored with it yet. It’s just that I’m up to my ears in soap, friends don’t answer their doorbells anymore when they see me wielding more bars, and Steve has actually told me I need a new hobby. (This from the man who 2 months ago got obsessed with windsurfing and now has 3 boards and 5 sails). Also, I’ve gotten sidetracked trying to recreate Lush body butter recipes. Not that I’ve actually recreated any of them. I’ve just been thinking about how I would go about doing it.

But recreating any cosmetic is kind of hard when one’s stock of essentail oils has been severely depleted by obsessive soapmaking. And while the supplier I’ve been using for years is great, boy, is their shipping slow. Here I am thinking to myself, “You know, rosemary and lavender are so abundant here in Seattle. And oranges — those are cheap! Now if I were to … ”

You see where I’m going with this, don’t you?

You can buy a home distillation kit specifically for essential oils for about $400. It includes everything you need, but it still seems like a lot. I mean let’s face it, the oils I would distill are the cheapest oils to buy. And this of course, has led to two full hours of online research on how to build my own still. I’m still not totally clear on how to do it–or whether it’s even legal (there seem to be differences of opinion)–but now, by golly, it’s a challenge.

Not to mention a new obsession.