Volunteers and paid employees
The park I am volunteering at hires part-time summer help and has some college interns. They all get a salary. They are in their late teens or early twenties, whereas I am seventy. I am doing maintena...
Forum Discussion
Dog Folks wrote:Whether you can buy it or not, it is true. Won't be an issue unless there is an audit (could be a big deal) or an on the job injury (which could be a huge deal).westernrvparkowner wrote:
Personally, I hate the double standard the government somehow allows. A private park cannot legally hire a "volunteer" and provide them with a site. We cannot legally hire someone and pay them a stipend. We have to pay minimum wage and cover that employee with workman's comp insurance. We have to follow reams of rules and regulations. Apparently, if it is the government, those rules and regulations don't apply.
Talk about owning a business that has the toughest competition in the world. A RV park competing with a state or national park has a competitor that doesn't have to pay their employees, doesn't have to pay for their facilities, doesn't have to pay taxes, can operate at a loss forever and doesn't have to follow the rules they created for everyone else. All that and they still have trouble putting out a decent product in many of their parks. As I have said in the past, if government is the answer, it must be a stupid question.
Do you mean to say that all these private parks around the country that have work campers in exchange for the site, are doing do illegally. Sorry I can't buy that.
The law requires the value of the site be reported as income (1099) and if the people have specific jobs to perform on the park's schedule using the park's tools and equipment, they are not contract employees and must be regular employees, subject to minimum wage laws, workman's compensation, tax witholdings, and any other state or federal requirement. Just because many parks and people ignore the laws, it doesn't invalidate those laws.
We operate 100% in compliance. Others do not. It does put us at a competitive disadvantage at times and we have lost some potentially great employees because we won't ignore those laws. (people who didn't want any reported income due to Social Security limits etc). Just a fact of owning and operating a business.
