I about a month in to my new HR job at a small (32 employees) construction company. I’m the first and only HR employee, so I’m pointing out a lot of issues that were previously not addressed.
They hired a new employee (told me the same day they started, whole other beast), and they want her classified as 1099 to avoid paying benefits and taxes. However, they want her to work 16 hours at a hourly rate at first and then transfer to full time hours after a couple weeks. I told them you cannot have this pay and work structure and classify someone as 1099. The IRS would see that as misclassification and it would be a big risk. They told me it’s no big deal as they have done the same thing for several 1099 employees in the past and it’s not been a problem.
Is this as big of an issue as I’ve been treating it? Are they right to act like I’m just dramatic? They hired me to be HR and then hate when I point out illegal or risky business practices.