A sad state of affairs . . .

[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.

[Tim C]

In Oregon officials are already excused from workmans comp through legislative action.

In Oregon schools send a check to each association to cover all games for the season. This includes mileage. The local associations then cut checks under various schedules to their umpires for games worked.

So you have a game fee + milage - an assignment fee for a net check value.

Summer/Fall Ball while not officially part of the high school association are still paid in the same manner. Teams send a season check and the treasurer then writes checks to umpires.

Hope this fills in some of the blanks.

Regards,

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Tim C

In Oregon officials are already excused from workmans comp through legislative action.

In Oregon schools send a check to each association to cover all games for the season. This includes mileage. The local associations then cut checks under various schedules to their umpires for games worked.

So you have a game fee + milage - an assignment fee for a net check value.

Summer/Fall Ball while not officially part of the high school association are still paid in the same manner. Teams send a season check and the treasurer then writes checks to umpires.

Hope this fills in some of the blanks.

Regards,

It does, but umpires are still employees, for all intents and purposes.

[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.

[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.)

[Rich]

I suspect *somebody* gets a cut - it just may not be somebody from the umpire association. I mean, commissioners get paid a salary, which probably reduces game fees by a few dollars. That's not really what's at issue.

I've seen umpires, for whatever reason, held back from varsity assignments for no good reason. I've seen associations where even returning professional umpires would be saddled with JV/Freshman ball until a certain number of years were served in the association. That's the restraint of trade I'm talking about. Nobody could legitimately argue that a person who worked multiple years in the minor leagues couldn't fall into a varsity schedule easily.

If anything good comes out of these efforts, it will mean the end of associations controlling every aspect of umpiring -- assigning, payment, negotiation of fees, collecting "assigning fees" from every game, training requirements, etc. I'm as busy as I want to be and most of my assignments are from the groups themselves and I get a check when I walk on the field.

[ODJ]

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.

No longer can the assignor be an "official" part of an association, but that's how OSAA has the system set up since joining a local association is required under its by-laws.

[Lawrence.Dorsey]

In NC, you have to belong to an association sanctioned by the NCHSAA for the sport you wish to work in. There's no requirements on who you can work, as I live on the border between two associations and I made the choice (right choice) to work for one over the other. You are not supposed to take assignments from another association unless the other assoc. goes through your booking agent (sometimes in border areas assignors get in a pinch and need help).

Our uniforms and procedures are spelled out from the NCHSAA office. In my association, the booking agent takes a booking fee (one game fee) for the year but he handles no money for game fees. The schools provide us with a check before each game. That is not uniform across the state as the "other" association near me does things differently. The assignor does not collect a booking fee directly from the umpires. He withholds the first game check and pays the umpires from his office as he collects all money from the schools and then distributes to umpires.

I would hate to see us treated as employees. Too much of a headache with that and really our association is not setup for the paperwork involved. I truly wonder how many assignors would keep at it given the amount of paperwork and bookkeeping they would have to do if this came to pass.

Lawrence

[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.

[tballump]

Originally Posted by 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.

Are they suppose to?

[DonInKansas]

Originally Posted by tballump

Are they suppose to?

Uh....yeah. It's income. It's like any self-owned business.

I forgot to state Uncle Sam gets his cut of my game checks as well.