The Mill uses Yurcor Employer of Record
We’ve discussed how studios use Employers of Record to get freelance artists to pay their own taxes. It looks like The Mill in Santa Monica is using Yurcor at the expense of their artists.
The Animation Guild belives that artists may have recourse to recover these lost wages.
If you have worked at or are currently working at The Mill in Santa Monica, The Animation Guild is interested in speaking with you. Contact Steve Kaplan at the Guild at (818) 845-7500 or skaplan@animationguild.org.
From The Animation Guild Blog:
http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/latest-vfx-scam-artists-paying-all.html
The Mill has engaged Yurcor to act as the Employer of Record for the artists they employ. Officially, artists work for Yurcor and are “loaned out” to The Mill. Yurcor is therefore responsible for the reimbursement to the artists for their work time at The Mill.
The Mill explains this has allowed them to:
“meet compliance requirements and improve administrative support to [their] valued freelancers.
By using Yurcor’s services you gain W-2 status and many of the benefits and services of a full time position while keeping all the career freedom and tax savings of a 1099 freelancer.”
A full-time employee keeping the “freedom” of a freelance employee sound to good to be true? It should. Its also illegal.
To give that feeling of freedom, Yurcor not only withholds the traditional payroll taxes employees are responsible to pay (Fed Income, FICA, CA Income and SDI). They also withhold the employer portions of FICA, FUTA, California state unemployment insurance (UI), and the employer workers compensation insurance.
Let us know if you’re working at a studio that employs you through an employer of record and makes you pay the taxes typically reserved for employers or real 1099 contractors. We’ll get the word out and hopefully things will change.
Do something better with your time, and learn about the program. While you are sitting here trying to get freelancers in an up raw, instead of truly helping them understanding the program is nonsense. I have freelanced for many years I read this publication because I had respect for its content. I know lately myself and many other freelancers are looking at this Guild with a lot less respect.
Richard,
Something better with our time? I happen to believe recovering the illegally lost wages of visual effects artists who were ripped off under Yurcor’s Employer of Record scheme quite an effective use of our time.
I would suggest you heed your own suggestion and do some research on employee Loan-Out and Employer of Record companies. If you can find any example, or precedent, where an employee can legally be forced to pay the employer’s share of federal and state taxes, I’ll gladly recant my post.
However, I think you’ll find you’re mistaken. If you’ve worked under Yurcor in the past and wish to have your rightful wages returned to you, don’t hesitate to contact me at skaplan@animationguild.org or (818) 845-7500.
Steve Kaplan
Labor Organizer
The Animation Guild, Local 839 IATSE
skaplan@animationguild.org
Up Roar.
Richard,
Which part of the Yurcor program do you think our readers don’t understand?
Is it the part about getting W2 employees to pay the both the employee and employer portions of FICA, FUTA and Unemployment Insurance?
Is it the part about the additional vigorish the artist pays Yurcor for processing their paperwork? Administrative costs are usually born by the employer not the employee.
Is it the part about employers engaging Yurcor and other EORs to reduce their administrative costs and pass those costs on to the freelancers?
I followed up my Yurcor post with one that talks about how to file with the California and New York state Departments of Labor to begin the process of recovering lost wages to companies like this.
You can find the post at: http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/wage-theft-what-can-you-do.html
Steve Kaplan
Labor Organizer
The Animation Guild, Local 839 IATSE
skaplan@animationguild.org
It’s people like other Richard up there that make it their goal to allow artist abuse to flourish, by attempting to diminish the attempts at fair practices and call them a waste of time. I’m sure you work for Yurcor and you are not actually a freelancer or you wouldn’t have made that comment. Please, either contribute some useful information or quit poisoning the well with your lies and propaganda!