What are most associations doing as far as paying their officials? I came from a place where you got paid on site by the athletic administer to now where we get paid once a month and have a certain percentage taken out of our checks to cover dues which is anywhere between 6-10% of our check. As an official what would you rather have done, get paid at the site or get paid once a month with all your games for that month added to your check.

10% - paid on site; 90% - mailed a check for the full game fee. The checks arrive 2-6 weeks after the game.

Also...

You might want to do more research on what constitutes a "independent contractor" vs an "employee". What your organization is doing could well be considered an employer/employee relationship, requiring them to pay FICA and unemployment insurance.

PeeWee - 50% paid on site, 50% paid on site, but 1 week after the games.
SubV/V - checks for full amount mailed about 10 days after the game. (Dues to the association are paid before the season starts).

Kansas - Everything is paid on site. (Unless you sub for someone and they have the wrong officials name. Even then, you can usually just work that out with the guy you are subbing for.) Association dues and state fees all paid before the season.

Most schools will average paying the full amount within 2-3 weeks. No money is taken out and the check comes directly from the school to my house. We pay our dues at the end of the season for next year. $95 will cover the state dues and local asscociation dues.

Simpson - where are you at? I am in Wichita.

You are correct for the most part. All checks are given before the game starts. Except in the Greater Wichita Athletic League. The member schools will mail out the check a few weeks later.

It is common when you are subbing for someone to take their check and sign both his name and your name to the check. Banks always seem to take these with no problem.

Varies by school.... MN..

Some pay each official on site.
Some have us fill out vouchers and then mail checks.
Some pay referee the entire crew fee, who the writes checks to crew members.

Fees and/or dues vary by local association and assigner.

In Knoxville, TN, the school pays the officials' association before the season for all the games the association will cover. For Varsity games, the referee will get the check before the game, he will cash it, and pay the crew on the way to the game. For JV/Middle School, sometimes we will get the money before the game, sometimes it will be a day or two afterward. But all the money goes through the crew's referee.

In Arizona, we are always paid on site. Probably 50% in cash, other 50% by check. We usually receive payment when we arrive for the game, but sometimes get paid at halftime.

Warrenkicker-
I'm in Topeka. (I actually live in the KC suburbs, but I work in Topeka and I'm on a Topeka based crew.) We mostly work 4A and 5A with an occasional 6A game.

As far as pay goes, I've never worked a game that didn't pay you beforehand. I'm not sure I would really mind having the check mailed out after the fact, it just never happens. None of the schools withold any dues or taxes or anything, though some of them file 1099s or whatever tax forms with the feds. The Topeka school district got audited a couple of years back and now they file on every contractor whether they earn above $500 in a calendar year or not.

In KY:
Elem or Pewee: Cash at game
Jr High: Check before game
FR,JV,V: Check before game
NAIA: Check in mail or before game

The KHSAA requests that the checks be delivered to the officials before the game. This can eliminate any problems after the game. As long as the AD or some other person besides the coach is delivering the check it isn't a problem. I've seen coaches who would be miffed for some reason and take his time after the game to give you the check. Some will even tell you that it has to be mailed knowing that he had the check there. There are a few High schools that will mail them and it is usually there the following week. I won't work for schools that take weeks to pay.

Baseball is tough because the coach usually handles the checks unless they have the person at the gate handling it. Rain outs are a bad deal. You could drive an hour to a game and it be rained out. Some coaches just won't take the time to communicate with you. I usually call when rain is in the forecast to check but sometimes they'll say they are playing while the game was cancelled houres earlier. I won't return to those schools either unless I get at least half the game fee. That is standard for our assoc.

In WA here, our the schools pay our association. Twice a season, we turn in assignment sheets showing what we did and who drove. After the sheets are collated and totals tabulated, our assigning secretary writes checks to everyone and includes a spreadsheet showing where all the money went.

in GA:
3 options
-pay cash on site

-pay check on site and we have to carry it back to our association to deposit it and get us a check.

-paid at the end of the season.

it depends on what school system you are working in on how it is done. usually the small ones pay you right away, while the large system pays your association a big check at the end of the season. it is a good mix of money in your pocket during the season and a nice check for christmas.

ghsa is trying to get every school to go to the end of the season option.

North Dakota
 

Mostly paid by check to the white hat before the game. White hat pays the crew with cash or writes checks. Large schools may have you fill out a voucher and get a check 1-2 weeks later. Large schools keep tab and may send you a 1099 in January if you do $600 or more. I got one last year because I do Basketball and Football in that town.

Getting Paid
 

Ok, It seems like most school districts and associations have their officials paid on site, and it seems like if you make over a certain amount of money at one school they tax you at the end of the year. My next question is if you do get paid at the site, what are your association dues in your state or association. Do you just pay a fee before the season or sport starts and that covers your dues for the year and whatever you make at that school when the school pays you is yours to keep? I am curious to see if it is more cost effective for the official to pay a one time dues fee of anywhere between $50-100 to your association and your game check is yours to keep with no money taken out, or get paid once a month and have say 7% taken out of your check to cover the association dues and get taxed for everything that you make at the end of the year. If you do alot of games and do get say $1000 per month on a check, with that 7% taken out you are looking at paying almost $70 to the association per month, that just seems like alot to me. And on top of that 7% fee, you also have to pay a $20 to the school district per season to officiate.

I come from a place where we paid a $40 fee to the association before every sport that we worked for that year, and a $20 fee to the scool district for the year which covered the state association fee and then we had to pay for the books and teaching material that was out of our own pocket. We would then go to officiate the game and when I got to the game there was a check waiting from a game administrator. They was no certain percentage taken out of my game check because I had already covered that with my $40 fee that I paid before the year started. And unless I made over I think it was around $500 for that year at one school I wasn't taxed at the end of the year. What system works better for everyone else? just curious.

In San Diego, CA we pay a one time fee during sign ups. $100 includes instructional materials, assign sec fees, and the end of the year banquet. 7% seems pretty steep, but then again our assoc is 200+ members, so costs get spread a little more.
As for payments, youth ball pays before the end of the last game. Most high schools require a voucher from each official submitted before the game and we get out checks via mail, usually within 2 weeks. Some high schools will have your checks waiting for you when you show up for the game, but they are the minority. I think a 1099 gets generated if you receive over $600 from any one school district. Has never happened to me yet, our section is composed of several school districts, so I'm not sure about that number.

Re: Getting Paid
 

Even in places where you get a "full check" there may have been an assigning fee paid directly to the association or commissioner.

Hey Simson....I'm north of you about 60 miles (Seneca). We are working in Silver Lake this Tuesday have you received your assignments yet?

Our association (Kansas)is $40 for 1 sport and $30 or $20 for every sport after that....paid up front in the spring or pay late fees if you sign up just before that sport.

Ohio

We pay the state thirty dollars per year sport. We pay our local association thirty dollars per year. The assignors are paid by the leagues not the officials.

Question. If your referee gets the entire fee, is it equally divided or do different positions get different amounts

Game fees/dues
 

Association fee and state fee = $60 each, paid up front before the season. State fee covers NF materials and insurance included. Booking fee comes out of association dues.

Game fees- most high schools pay on site by check, some middle schools but not a lot tell you they have to mail the check which you get anywhere from 3-7 days later. Youth ball- cash or check on site.

Getting paid
 

Are there any other associations out there that are still getting paid once a month with a certain percentage that goes directly to the association? My new association has a system that lets us get paid on site with a check waiting for me at the game with my name on it. I paid a $40 fee to my association to work football this year and I also paid $40 to my state association dues which covers me for the whole year in any sport I work.

I was not used to this system, where I come from in the northwest, I was paying $20 to my state association which the money really went towards nothing, then I paid my local association $10 to work each sport, then I only got paid once a month with 9% taken out of my check when I received it. The 9% went to my local association dues. It might not seem like alot, but I was making close to $1000 per month for football, which included high school and youth football, so when I received my check at the end of the month I had $90 go towards local association dues, and over a three month period it added up to almost $300. I though that alot of the money was going towards association fees, but the association was also receiving money from the schools to assign the games. What are other associations doing to keep all of these costs down? I love now getting paid on site with nothing being deducted.

Shave-tail - that is interesting to learn that some of the assignments are already out. When did you get that? Either Northern Heights or Rossville should be a good game with Silver Lake. And as it appears there are at least two pretty good officials in Seneca I am guessing that your name is either Regis or Elmer.

I haven't heard our playoff assignments yet. Our WH might already know - I'll find out tonight. We're working the Eudora @ Baldwin City game tonight - should be a really good game. Tomorrow we have a battle for last place - Mill Valley @ Shawnee Heights.

Shave-tail - a few years back I worked a playoff game at Bern with a Seneca official. Sunny Saturday afternoon - home team had watered the field all night and morning "Couldn't figure out how to turn off the new sprinklers." Visiting team was livid - they were a speedy team and Bern was more of a power team. That didn't happen to be you working that game was it?

I believe I was been paid on-site, by check, for 12 of the 13 games I worked this fall. The other check I received in the mail within two weeks.

I've also never had a problem getting paid, even when I didn't get checks on-site. They've always shown up.

In my experience, many people that spend a lot of time worrying about getting paid and talking about getting paid are only there to get paid.

Albany, NY area
 

Pop Warner games are always paid on-site, with about a 60/40 split of checks vs. cash.

Scholastic games are (with one or two private-school exceptions) paid via mailed check, which arrives anywhere from 10-40 days after the game, depending on the school district.