Friday, June 4, 2010

Freelancers: Get Paid, Not Played

Trouble getting paid? You're not alone.

77% of freelancers have been stiffed by a deadbeat company. It's not your fault. The Department of Labor makes sure W–2 employees get paid, while freelancers have to sue for their check or just walk away.
We're 30% of the workforce; it's time to change the game.

Join the Freelancer's Union campaign to get freelancer workers paid on time and for the right amount. Go to
http://www.freelancersunion.org/advocacy/campaigns.html to join the campaign and help yourself and the art community. On the Freelancer's Union site are alot of information on different issues on taxes, unemployment, alerts on companies that don't pay, job postings, etc. They are a good group to get to know.

Clovia

4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I've never worked as a freelancer, but have always considered it because of the freedom and relative mobility. This makes me reconsider- freelancer or otherwise, a worker should never have to sue to get their due wage. Especially here.

    Taylor Coil

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  3. Hi Lulu, I have worked on staff as an art director for 8 years, then I turned to full time freelancing in 2005. My clients now are mainly in the restaurant and hospitality industry and luckily I've never had to sue someone for not paying me. I have had just one client never pay me a few hundred dollars for comps I've done. From my own laziness in collecting a deposit upfront, I got stiffed. I went after the client numerous times with emails and calls and he refused to respond to them so I finally left it alone. Usually constant periodic reminders are good enough to get the client to pay, where you will not have to sue, that would be the final resort. I had encouraged a friend to do this for thousands of dollars owed to her from 6 months ago, and after she continued her contact, the client finally paid after another couple of weeks. Sometimes it's because your bill went to the wrong person or department, sometimes the client just is having trouble paying and you can work out a payment plan and charge them interest. And rarely, it's because you've been had or scammed. That may be the case in a low budget job, the client never had any intention to pay, and your work was considered a donation, but as I said that is rare. Occasionally there may be problems where the job description wasn't outlined properly in a contract and there is a discrepancy on what you get paid or if you get paid at all for a particular part of a job. So yes, there are times even a big company will stiff you, it does happen in this day and age and in America, don't be so naive. It's best to protect yourself with a well written contract. Clovia

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  4. Hello Clovia! Thank you for sharing that wonderful tip. It is short and simple yet I believe it will be effective. I will try it on my previous clients. I hope it would work so that I can get their payment even in partial amount. Also, I would like to share to you a website that can be helpful for you and to your readers as well. I found PDFfiller.com (http://goo.gl/OvqQQ2) when I was looking for a fillable W2 form and here's the link on the form that I found (http://goo.gl/Bsbe7W). It was great! I hope you would try it.

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