A sad state of affairs . . .

[PeteBooth]

[QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Tim C

On June 18th the Oregon Department of Labor ruled that all sports officials in Oregon are employees of local associations.

Tee it will be interesting to see how many officials (in all sports) retire for the HS season. I am pretty certian you will keep us posted.

How is Oregon set-up for Summer / Fall ball?

What I can envision is that there is no umpire association at all. The coaches simply have a 'list of umpires" and call officials from this list and pay them "under the table"

Summer Tournaments would most likely suffer big time because when a tournament is run the Pres simply calls the association and says I have a 100 games this weekend what's the cost and sends in a check.

if there is no association to call, the torunaments could turn into a mess.

Personally if that type of law passed here in NY my officiating days are over.
In addition to P/R taxes you have Federal taxes and in my case State taxes as well.

A $50.00 game Fee would turn into a net of about $30 - $35.00 taken into account taxes. Also, when you add your total officiating income to your regular salary that would most likely put you in a higher tax bracket.

Also, when you are an employee as opposed to a contractor you are limited in what you can write-off

Another ploy by some states to increase revenues. The government can bail out GM and the banks with billions of dollars and in the same breath "stick it" to officials making a marginal Fee.

You are correct very sad

Pete Booth

[Welpe]

Originally Posted by PeteBooth

Also, when you add your total officiating income to your regular salary that would most likely put you in a higher tax bracket.

You aren't doing that already?

Rich, you do raise a good point IMO. The amount of control that an association can exert over how an official does his job in some areas does seem to blur the line between independent contractor and employee.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Welpe

You aren't doing that already?

Rich, you do raise a good point IMO. The amount of control that an association can exert over how an official does his job in some areas does seem to blur the line between independent contractor and employee.

Blur? I think it obliterates it. Add in the typical association "restraint of trade" nonsense (officials aren't free in many places to work for the association and also for other groups or for people not willing to pay the association going rate), and I can't possibly understand why officiating associations can have it the best way, from every angle, simply for them?

If I want to work HS baseball in many states, I have no choice but to join the local association, pay whatever due they tell me I have to pay, pay the assigning fee, wear only what uniforms they allow, including association-only hats, etc., etc. How does this make me an independent contractor?

[PeteBooth]

Rich I do not know about your area but here in NY there is a meeting held in Nov / Dec (cannot remember) and the STATE as a whole adopts what uniforms etc we can wear NOT our individual umpire associations.

The state also elects or declines some FED rules.

Here in NY we do not have the 10 run Mercy rule for Varsity (unless both coaches at the Plate conference agree) Contrast that with New Jersey who does have a 10 run mercy rule. There is a 15 run limit for modified and JV. Also, No CR's in ANY division of HS baseball.

if it were up to us we would have a 10 run mercy rule and CR's rule but it is not up to us.

Also, my HS association does not do the assigning. A third party called BOCES (Board of cooperative Educational Services) does the assigning and also the paying. We receive a 1099 from them and have a contract with them.

Our HS association recruits. and trains the umpires and makes certain we abide by the state of New york mandates for meetings attended, and passing of tests etc. We give BOCES a list of eligable umpires. BOCES in turn sends out an availability letter in the beginning of the season which we fill out.

In a nutshell the demands you mention above do not come from my local HS association but from the State of NY.

Pete Booth

[Rich]

Originally Posted by PeteBooth

Rich I do not know about your area but here in NY there is a meeting held in Nov / Dec (cannot remember) and the STATE as a whole adopts what uniforms etc we can wear NOT our individual umpire associations.

The state also elects or declines some FED rules.

Here in NY we do not have the 10 run Mercy rule for Varsity (unless both coaches at the Plate conference agree) Contrast that with New Jersey who does have a 10 run mercy rule. There is a 15 run limit for modified and JV. Also, No CR's in ANY division of HS baseball.

if it were up to us we would have a 10 run mercy rule and CR's rule but it is not up to us.

Also, my HS association does not do the assigning. A third party called BOCES (Board of cooperative Educational Services) does the assigning and also the paying. We receive a 1099 from them and have a contract with them.

Our HS association recruits. and trains the umpires and makes certain we abide by the state of New york mandates for meetings attended, and passing of tests etc. We give BOCES a list of eligable umpires. BOCES in turn sends out an availability letter in the beginning of the season which we fill out.

In a nutshell the demands you mention above do not come from my local HS association but from the State of NY.

Pete Booth

Regardless, if I am a true independent contractor, I could simply be licensed by the state and ply my trade with any school or league I want. The association's role would be limited to training, certainly not approving/rating umpires or any compliance issues.

The more I think about it, the more I think Wisconsin has it right. I register with the WIAA and I get my own games. I am not required to join an association AT ALL. (BTW, I belong to 3 associations, but that doesn't help my schedule or my standing.)

[IowaMike]

We don't have to join an association in my area. I belong to one, but that is mostly for training, I don't get any games from mine. Varsity dates in the larger conferences are usually assigned by a conference commissioner. The school districts have people that find their own officials for sub varsity contests. I do a lot of varsity in basketball and always found my own games with the smaller schools, which were generally assigned by the school AD. The games I work in the local 4A conference are assigned by a commissioner.

I am always amazed at how much power some of these associations seem to have in some areas of the country. I have never paid an assigning fee. Our uniforms are dictated by the state athletic association. I know that if the state of Iowa ever told me I was an employee instead of an independent contractor and tried to take social security, unemployment insurance etc. out of my fees, I would would hang up my whistle and mask.

[DonInKansas]

I'm in the same boat as Mike. We have commissioners and ADs to deal with, as well as a few assigners for some out of the way stuff and summer ball. Nobody gets a cut of my game check except my wife.

[PeteBooth]

[QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Welpe

You aren't doing that already?

Yes but being an independent contractor I also can write off expenses which i could not do if I were an employee.

Pete Booth

[Welpe]

Ah, I see what you mean now. Yes, that is a good point. Thank you for the clarification.

[Kevin Finnerty]

The only reason we are considered independent contractors is to save the associations a whole lot of cumbersome accounting.

We're employees of the associations.

[Rich Ives]

Labor law usually has tests to determine if you are really a contractor or just an employee in disguise. They are there to keep employers from not fulfilling obligations to employees and the tax man (unemployment, FICA, witholding, workman's comp, etc. etc. etc.) or, in other words, to keep employers from screwing employees.

Signing a form that says you're a contractor doesn't get anyone off the hook.

What you probably be doing is having the officials hire the association as a booking agent.

[socalblue1]

[QUOTE=PeteBooth;610811]

Yes but being an independent contractor I also can write off expenses which i could not do if I were an employee.

Pete Booth

Pete, not totally correct. You can write off anything required for your job & not paid by the employer. The small number of exceptions is more than offset by not having to paying matching social security taxes.

[bob jenkins]

[QUOTE=socalblue1;610814]

Originally Posted by PeteBooth

Pete, not totally correct. You can write off anything required for your job & not paid by the employer. The small number of exceptions is more than offset by not having to paying matching social security taxes.

The "matching social security taxes" are still being paid, just not directly by the employee. I'd gladly pay my employees an extra 8% (rounded, ...) and have them pay the government so I didn't have to do the paperwork. IOW, treat it just like Federal and State Income Tax withholdings.

And, there's 7 or 8 "tests" to help determine whether a person is an employee or a contractor. How they get paid is only one of the tests. (And, it's not a "bright line" that you evaluate each test and if you meet 5 of the 8 you're an employee, for example.)

[Tim C]

"Used to be in Eugene, OR, the associations charged the schools for training officials, assigning games, and cutting the checks to pay the officials. What a racket."

I defend your right to have an opinion.

That being said:

Most associations in Oregon are assigned by an individual Commissioner.

The individual commissioners establish their fees by local group.

In PDX our commissioner is paid 10% of each game check. The same commissioner currently assigns both the high school season and the summer season. He also happens to assign non-D1 colloege games in the Northwest (he has retired from that gig).

In PDX we also have an elected position of Treasurer. This is a paid position and is funded by charging schools a check writing fee. The schools love that as across Oregon IF school districts wrote checks for officials they would write 250,000 per year.

In PDX for a baseball season we have about $500,000 pass through our group.

The Commissioner gets input from umpires aboput the quailty of new (young guys) that he wants to move up the chain. He is the sole evaluator of our umpires at the varsity level.

We are paid about every two weeks and are receive a 1099 in January each tear.

[Reffing Rev.]

So I'm guessing by some of the previous posts that not very many of you pay SE taxes on your "independant contractor" income. Your game fees are reduced already, and if money is the only reason you are officiating, please retire.