Self-Employment Compared to Conventional Employment

¶ … Self-Employment v. Conventional Employment Many people believe that self-employment contains qualities that make people much happier than regular employment. In some cases, this belief appears correct, but in other cases it couldn't seem farther from the truth. The opinion about self-employment seeming better than conventional employment is all in how one looks at the world, and what one values in their working life.

In order to clear up some of the differences between the two, this paper will examine four specific points that show great differences between self-employment and conventional employment. First, people who choose self-employment often find that they seem to have more money, at least right at first. They do not have any taxes removed from their checks and other income, so it appears that they receive more than their conventional employment counterparts.

However, they must pay their taxes, either at the end of the year, or every three months, depending on how much money they actually make. Often, they forget to save for this, and they suddenly find that they have a problem when tax time rolls around and they don't have the money to pay the taxes that come due. A person with conventional employment has an employer that takes the taxes out of his check, and also pays one-half of the social security payment that the government requires.

Those that are self-employed must not only pay their own taxes, but must pay double the portion of social security that they would pay in conventional employment. Since the self-employed person assumes the roll of both employer and employee, that person must then pay both portions of the social security bill, which can amount to a lot of money if that person has done well for themselves over the year. While taxes are probably the biggest issue for a self-employed person, there are others.

Second to taxes, working hours seem different for a self-employed person. Often, these people can work whenever they want to, and they don't find themselves stuck to a '9 to 5' schedule like many conventionally employed individuals. This appears good for many people that want to do their work in their own time, but it can be problematic for people who have a tendency to procrastinate, because they will often not get the work that they need to do completed on time.

Too many other things distract them, and they find other pursuits to enjoy when they should be working. Conventional employment often does not allow this kind of freedom, and so more work gets accomplished. Third, most self-employed individuals don't have health insurance. Conventional employers often pay for health insurance for their employees, or at least pay for part of the premium. This makes the insurance easier to afford. For those that are self-employed, insurance premiums can be very high, and many small businesses simply can't afford to pay them.

Because of this, quite a lot of self-employed people are also uninsured, and so their spouses and children lack health insurance, too. Fourth and finally, raises, promotions, and other benefits of.