I didn’t hire him. I am also not his senior as far as company hierarchy, I am only his senior in I have been at it longer and am older.
We are hired in the same position essentially. Not his senior tech, boss, mentor in any capacity other then we currently tag team gigs and he does not know how to do basic tasks to expected standard so I have to show him.
I never had a pension plan anywhere I worked and I'm 56. Those have mostly been replaced with 401(k) or similar plans (al93ng with RSUs at some medium to large companies). I'd much rather have a 401(k) that I can roll over into a self-managed IRA than a pension tied to a company that might go belly up, get bought, or otherwise cause pension obligations to disappear.
That makes it worse. I hope he's not earning the same pay for his "work" as you are.
I said baby boomers. Pensions have been on they way out for a long time. I’d like to hear about a 401k that through maximum ROI makes you 2/3 of your average income like a good pension used to. That would take some serious work. And that assumes you have interest and aptitude for investing. Giving the money to a big bank to invest is somehow more personably responsible than letting a pension fund manager without the profit shaved off the top do it.
. But if your the standup generation you train them. These days it seems to be about good enough. Tech changes so rapidly.
You said kids today have it harder than previous generations. You and I are both early GenX. I certainly don't feel a lack of pension plan made my life harder than my parents' or my grandparents' who had pensions. Why? Because virtually everything else was better.
You don't need 2/3 of your old salary to live on. My pension is about 1/3 of my salary at the time I retired, but I no longer have a mortgage to pay or three kids to bring up. We are not rich but neither are we poor.
If you like FDR and his policies you can thank him. The money for SS has to come from somewhere. I did independent contracting for a couple of years. You have my respect for being self-employed for that long. I enjoyed it once I got used to it, but then an old colleague contacted me with an offer I couldn't refuse "workin' for the man" again. I hope you're taking full advantage of SEP IRA savings.
401(k) and similar plans also have advantages. And being stuck with a single employer for an entire career wasn't necessarily good for employees, either. One door closes, another one opens.
Future predicting of that magnitude isn't something I'm going to dive into. I will say that if we continue growing government and creating/enabling a whole class of dependents, the future for all of us looks bad. It isn't sustainable socially or financially.
Why is it unfair? FICA is 15%. If you work for a corporation you pay half (7.5%) and they pay half. Why should self-employed people pay less per head?
It depends on what you consider a head. I employ no one but myself. I think I’m being penalized for not working for someone else. That’s one of the main incentives for companies to label everyone self employed. That way they pay nothing. That’s illegal but common practice.
It’s great if you are Uber and can toss it on the back of you self employee’s. The rules are heavily tilted towards employers. They can pay nothing if they can call you self employed. The employee has the non choice of paying double. I can imagine a more equitable system.
