1099 Contractor Guide

1099 contracting is an essential part of the Work Hard Pittsburgh ecosystem. Our digital and creative agency, Work Hard Digital Services (WHDS) is the primary entity housing this work. You can learn more about 1099 contract work from the IRS or this wiki.

The Basics

WHDS acts as a regional creative and technical agency solving problems for customers. We leverage our brand strength, extended network, and strong sales and proposal writing to secure client work that falls in at least one of these categories:

• Brand and Design
• Business and Organizational Consulting
• Content Creation
• Digital Marketing
• Web and Application Development

We curate an extensive list of internal and external talent to complete this client work. Internal project and client managers oversee work. All projects use Asana for project management and track time tasks with Harvest.

Primary Contractor Agreement

The relationship between a 1099 contractor and WHDS is governed by our Primary Contractor Agreement (PCA). This complicated document spells our mutual rights and obligations and requires deep understanding by all parties. Please read this document before signing and seek clarifying answers from WHDS and your own independent legal counsel.

Generally, the PCA is broken down into the following sections:

Promises and Considerations

This section defines rights and obligations for both parties. Key issues like term, services provide, confidentiality, restricted covenants, and indemnification are addressed.

Pay Rates and Compensation

Hourly compensation is calculated by summing the regional average salary (as reported by Glassdoor and Salary.com) and the cost of healthcare, valued at $12,865. A multiplier of 1.2 is then applied to the hourly rate to ensure that we are paying a fair and compelling living wage for work done.

If the PCA requires training to complete an assigned task, they bill at our junior rates which in most cases are a 

Rationale

WHPGH and its affiliate encourage 1099 Contracting for a couple of different reasons:

• WHPGH is cooperatively organized business incubator. 1099 contract work extends the personal financial runaway of our entrepreneurs, allowing them to work longer on their personal businesses and projects.
• WHPGH through its creative and technical agency WHDS, generates income from client work.
• We use 1099 contract work to develop junior talent or allow our cooperative members to get paid to learn a new skill.
• Our condensed technical training company, Academy Pittsburgh places apprentices into WHDS via 1099 contracts to bridge the gap for participants of that program while they look for a full time job.

Resources

• [Asana Guide]
• [Harvest Guide]
• Primary Contractor Agreement