Wage & Hour Laws - Meal Penalties in California

Federal and State Wage and Hour are important to follow for the companies that supply and use a contingent workforce. Not following or understanding these laws can lead to costly violations that can be easily avoided. 


California, for example, is a State that has many Wage and Hour law considerations.  If you operate a business in California or utilize California residents to perform work in other States there are several important things to consider for meal breaks. 

Employees in California are entitled to an unpaid 30-minute, duty-free meal period after working for five hours and a paid 10-minute rest period per four hours of work. 

California Labor Code section 226.7 prohibits employers from requiring employees to work during any mandated meal or rest period. Employers who fail to provide the mandated meal period or rest period must pay the employee one additional hour of pay at the employee's regular rate of compensation for each work day that the meal or rest period is not provided.


A minimum of thirty (30) minute meal is required every five (5) hours unless the scheduled shift ends at six (6) hours and is mutually agreed upon between client manager and worker.  If meal is not received the employee is due one (1) hour of their wage as a meal penalty.  Employees only receive one (1) meal penalty per day regardless of how many are incurred. 

The only exceptions to the rule are when

The nature of the work objectively prevents an employee from being relived of all duty

AND

The on-duty meal break is agreed to in writing by the employee and his or her employer

AND

The employee is paid for the meal break

To ensure that your company complies with the labor law, you should:

Review meal and rest period policies for contingent workers to ensure they meet with the law

See if any positions qualify for “on-duty” meal periods and ensure that the appropriate agreements are signed

Make sure all employees read and acknowledge in writing that they understand your company’s meal and rest break policy

If a worker is not able to take their required break, you must pay the additional hour of pay they are owed

Ensure that your managers and supervisors monitor employees to make sure that they are taking their statutory breaks and mark the breaks on their timecards

Make sure you keep good records! 

The Basics of Staffing Markups

The total size of contingent workforce payroll in the U.S. is expected to rise to $164 billion by 2018. The opportunity for companies to capitalize on this trend, increasing the productivity and flexibility of their workforce, has become more widely known in recent years. Additionally, companies are using contingent workers in more highly skilled roles to augment internal staff and in these roles the bill rates - hourly rates including all costs and fees charged to the client company by the staffing supplier - increases as the pay rate does.

In many cases, the companies that supply contingent labor to clients on an hourly basis use a fee model that based on a percentage of the pay rate, often referred to as a markup. This 'markup' consists of several components, including:

• “Burden” (employer taxes, payroll costs, workers compensation insurance, etc.)
•  Recruiting personnel and expenses
•  Overhead (general and administrative costs)
•  Profit margin

The pay rate (aka hourly rate) of the worker plus the markup is called the bill rate. Markups can range from 30% to 60%+ with an average in the high thirtieth percentiles across all skill disciplines. Some staffing suppliers promote rates below 30% and, conversely, some services may charge 75% to 100%+ markups.


The Burden costs vary based upon the worker’s skill specialization, the risk of the job, the State in which the worker is employed, the total volume of payroll with a client, and the payment terms. Recruiting costs and pay rates may differ from assignment to assignment, as different factors such as the availability of talent, ‘going’ market pay rates and length of assignment come into play. 

For example, if a contingent worker is engaged on a three (3) month assignment (12 weeks at 40 hours or 480 total hours) the following total costs would apply relative to the pay rate of the worker and markup:

		Total Payroll + Staffing Markup ("Billings")
Pay Rate	Total Payroll	30%	35%	40%	45%	50%
$15	$7,200	$9,360	$9,720	$10,080	$10,440	$10,800
$25	$12,000	$15,600	$16,200	$16,800	$17,400	$18,000
$50	$24,000	$31,200	$32,400	$33,600	$34,800	$36,000
$100	$48,000	$62,400	$64,800	$67,200	$69,600	$72,000

There are other ways that contingent labor is delivered to clients including fixed markup costs, statement of work or milestone based pricing, per unit or task pricing, or fixed bill rates. For the most part however contingent labor in the is delivered with a markup on pay rate. If your company is using or supplying contingent labor then it is helpful to understand how the marketplace prices these services in order to maximize profits and productivity. 

Benefits of Temp-To-Hire

Hiring a worker on a temporary basis is a great way to try out a potential new employee before extending them an offer for direct hire employment.  It’s also a great way to implement a new position within a company before creating a new role.

Rather than hiring the worker as a full-time, internal employee – engage a worker can be done easily through an Employer of Record service. 

During a probationary period, usually lasting from 8 to 14 weeks, the temporary employee’s performance can be evaluated and a decision on whether he or she should be hired full-time or let go can be made.

BENEFITS OF TEMP-TO-HIRE

·         Extended interview period - Temp-to-hire allows a company to “get a feel” for someone over a period of time in a way that is difficult to accomplish during a short interview. For example, does the worker fit with the rest of the team? Do they have a good work ethic? Can they work under pressure?

·         Engage workers quickly and easily - Temp-to-hire candidates can be engaged quickly and easily through an Employer of Record service. These services (see Emergent's website for more information) handle all statutory employer responsibilities, including background screening, on-boarding, and payroll processing during the workers assignment – enabling you to focus on your core business needs.

·         No obligation to hire - If a company finds that the worker is not a good fit, they can disengage with the worker before or at the end of the contract. without having the obligation to hire them.

·         Evaluate long-term hiring need - Whether a company is hiring to address recent growth or a newly created positions, temp-to-hire provides the time to ensure that the position is needed before adding to the internal headcount.

·         Free to end assignment at any time - If a temp-to-hire candidate isn't a good fit, the assignment can be ended at any time.  When the candidate is the employee of an employer of record service, legal exposure is minimized.

·         Reduced benefits spend - Companies that use temp-to-hire workers do not incur benefits or vacation time costs during the probationary period when engaged through an Employer of Record service. 

·         Alternative to high recruiting costs - Temp-to-Hire and Employer of Record arrangements can offer significant cost savings versus hiring a permanent employee through traditional means. 

Misclassified Staff at General Motors Sue Over Pay

Workers at a car factory in Ohio are suing General Motors for $4 million in back pay after they claim they were wrongfully classified as temporary employees. The workers claim they were paid forty percent less than their "permanent" counterparts. 

The group of workers were hired in 2006 and laid-off the following year before being brought back on board six months later. When they were re-hired, they claim that they wrongfully reclassified as temporary workers. 

See News Article Here for More Information

Co-employment and the contingent workforce: Do you know the risks?

Co-employment is a relationship between two or more employers whereby each has the legal responsibilities to the same employee.

Co-employment issues can present problems for the companies that supply contingent labor (temps, contractors, consultants, freelancers, and the like) and their clients. Often, client companies erroneously believe that the staffing company or other supplier they engaged the temp worker through is the sole employer of that worker. 


However, if the client company manages that contingent worker on a day to day basis, they could be regarded as a co-employer or special employer of the worker in conjunction with the worker's statutory employer - often a staffing company or 'payrolling' company. 


With co-employment, each company is liable for the decisions made by the other party. This means that if a contingent employee files a legal complaint and wins, both the supplier of the worker and the client company could be responsible for paying damages.


Co-employment risk is challenging to eliminate entirely, but there are many things you could take into consideration to reduce your risk considerably.


For the client company utilizing the contingent worker(s) services the following considerations may be observed:

• Do not discuss pay rates, increases or bonuses - this is the responsibility of the worker's statutory employer. A statutory employer is generally one who is liable for workers' compensation according to a statute establishing such an employment relationship. 
• Do not discuss opportunities for regular full-time employment without consulting the worker's employer. 
• Do not request that the worker complete timecards or forms with the client company's name on them. The worker's employer is responsible for all timecards and on-boarding paperwork (such as applications).
• Do not counsel assignment employees concerning: tardiness, punctuality, attendance, dress code, child-or elder-care arrangements or other personal matters.
• Do not inform an assignment employee that he or she is terminated or suspended. 
• Refer all questions relative to pay, benefits, duration of position or opportunity for employment to the worker's employer.
• Report any absences, tardiness or unacceptable behavior to the worker's employer.
• Inform the worker's employer about any changes in an employee's work schedule.

Emergent can help your company considerably reduce co-employment risks when working with contingent labor. 


Call us today on 855 250 5000 or e-mail info@emergent.com to find out how we can help you navigate the risks of hiring temporary labor! 

Does Your Company Use or Supply Contingent Workers? If So, Here Are Some Considerations.

Utilizing contingent workers can seem easy and seamless for your organization. Contingent workers provide some flexibility that a direct hire workforce does not. Steps to successfully utilizing a contingent worker include locating a worker, negotiating their rate, engaging them for a pre-determined length of time, and then terminating the worker's assignment when appropriate. As simple as it seems, there are many considerations when engaging or supplying contingent workers. To minimize the risk surrounding contingent workers your company may consider the following:

• If engaging the worker as a 1099 independent contractor, does the assignment meet the IRS test for Independent Contractors? See the IRS Worker Status Determination form here and a detailed IRS training manual on the subject can be found here. 
• Whether a worker is engaged on W-2 or 1099, does your company know the standards of relevant Federal and State agencies beyond the IRS? For example, see EEOC contingent worker guidelines here. Other considerations include ERISA and HIPPA. 
• Are contingent workers mentioned in your Employee Handbook? Handbooks may include language excluding contingent workers from standard benefits reserved for direct hire employees.
• Are your managers aware that contingent workers are covered under most of the same laws that apply to employees (including harassment, discrimination, and wage and hour laws)? For example, the State of Virginia provides many of it's managers with a guide to contingent workforce risk and can be viewed here.
• If your company uses contingent labor are those workers covered under your general liability insurance policy? Don’t take it for granted that they are… Additionally, ensuring that the staffing suppliers you work with carry the proper workers' compensation, general liability, and employment practices insurance can help to limit the risk of utilizing contingent workers. 

Emergent employs contingent workers you recruit, enabling your business to focus on it's core competencies. Emergent handles all employer responsibilities employment including legal, payroll, invoicing, insurance, tax, HR and workers’ comp administration for the duration of the worker's assignment. 

Misclassification vs. “Payroll Fraud”

As Federal and State agencies seek to narrow the tax gap, a new bill was recently introduced that puts independent contractor misclassification back in the forefront of the national labor and tax agenda.

Undeterred that two misclassification bills introduced in 2010 never made it out of Committee, the sponsors of the new bill are trying to drum up support  by characterizing misclassification as a form of  “payroll fraud.” – a term that invokes white collar criminality rather than an innocent oversight that is denoted by the word “misclassification”. It would appear that ignorance is no longer a defense in the eyes of the law…. 


A press release for the bill can be found here. The press release states "according to a study released in February 2009 by the Ohio Attorney General’s office, Ohio loses at least $160 million a year to each year from worker misclassification."

Should the bill pass here is what it would mean for businesses...

• Penalties for misclassification, up to $5,000 per employee, which could be staggering for the companies that are knowingly or unknowingly 'misclassifying' a significant amount of workers as 1099.
• It would be the one of the first federal laws where businesses must give newly hired workers a federally prescribed notice.
• The law would cover independent contractors who provide services through a corporation or an LLC and not just on an individual basis. 
• The bill would still allow companies to continue to pay workers on a 1099 basis – provided it is an appropriate relationship. 

-         Explaining the purposes of the new bill one of the sponsors states that the bill would “relieve the burden on American taxpayers who foot the bill when businesses” mis-classify workers. 

Read our post on 1099 misclassification for more information.

Social Networking Becoming More Important in Recruiting Workers

Social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook are increasingly being used by staffing professionals to recruit and hiring potential candidates.

According to a recent SHRM survey, 56% of respondents said that they currently use social networking websites to recruit workers – up from 34% in 2008.

Recruitment professionals have certainly begun to realize the importance of social media sites as a key part of their strategy. In 2008, 45% of HR professionals said they had no plans on utilizing the social media as a method of recruitment, but now, this number has fallen to 21%.

67% of respondents stated their top reason for utilizing social networking tools is due to the fact it is less expensive than other methods of recruiting job candidates, and, as research shows, the recession has only helped drive up HR costs at most companies by over 11% from 2008 to 2010.

However, while most organizations have confronted rising HR costs since 2008, world-class HR organizations have managed to reduce their costs by more than 13%. These companies now spend nearly 30% less per employee, and operate with more than 25% fewer employees than they did in 2008.

It’s no coincidence that over the same period, the contingent workforce has also shown rapid growth. Last year alone, 26% of all jobs added by the private sector were temporary positions.

Using contingent labor saves money, according to 92 percent of recently surveyed companies that use temporary workers. They attributed savings of 9 percent toward using contingent labor.  

Research by the Human Capital Group indicates that one third of the U.S workforce is now comprised of contingent workers. This trend is unsurprising as Contingent Workers provide convenient, flexible, specialized skills that best fit the changing needs of the modern workplace.

Like the use of social media by recruitment professionals, the use of contingent workers looks set to go from strength to strength as companies increasingly value speed, cost savings and the flexibility that both contingent workers and social media tools provide.

AOL Being Challenged on Independent Contractor Misclassification and WARN act Violation

AOL terminated it's relationship with
thousands of freelancers recently.
However, some are claiming they should
have been employees. 

Last week, AOL terminated its relationship with thousands of freelance writers they had classed as independent contractors - a move that followed shortly after their merger with the Huffington Post a few weeks ago.

Some of the writers are now claiming that they should have been treated as full-time, internal employees - which would have enabled them to have been covered by the WARN act. However, AOL claims that the WARN Act - where a company must provide 90 days notice before a mass layoff - doesn't apply to contract workers. 

Even so, there are concerns that many of the freelancers AOL utilized could potentially be construed as full-time employees under the act, due to the nature of the responsibilities and full-time hours some of the freelancers worked at the company. 

AOL insiders claim that AOL held a series of calls with freelancers to address their questions. Several things came up - one freelancer noted that they worked full-time hours, while another pointed out that her duties were identical to those of an AOL News staffer who was recently laid off. This is the kind of thing that could raise legal doubts about AOL’s claim that the WARN Act doesn’t apply to contract workers.


The WARN Act requires employers to provide 90 days of notice before a mass layoff, defined as a reduction in workforce by 250 jobs (or 33 percent of the total) at one site. If it’s found that some of AOL’s freelancers worked full time and/or held similar jobs/duties to full time staffers, AOL could find themselves in a challenging situation classifying the workers as freelance or contingent. 

Source: Forbes.com

Latest Figures from Bureau of Labor: Temp jobs up by 28,800 in March

The latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the U.S. added some 216,000 new jobs in March signaling further recovery for the American economy. Overall, the U.S has seen around 1.3 million jobs added this year and the nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.8% last month.

Here’s where hiring happened during March:

Healthcare, Leisure & Hospitality and Temporary Labor were the three industries where hiring increased significantly last month. 

Government, Construction and transportation sectors remained more or less unchanged.

•  Manufacturers (+17K) were hiring again in March – possibly due to events in Japan

•  Temp positions (+28.8K) continued to add workers in March

•  Leisure & Hospitality (+37K) was booming as consumers took the family out to eat – a first step into the spend as consumer confidence starts to eke out of its recession lows. Restaurants and bars added workers (+26.5K) like crazy last month

•  Retail (+17.7K) employment was up during March.

 •  Financial firms (+6K) saw a slight bump in March. There was an uptick in hiring in the Real Estate (+9.5K) subsector as the volume of renting/leasing has increased.

•  Health care (+36.6K) continued to add workers, significantly better than the average month (+24K) from the past year.

 •  Tax season has been busier than usual this year with Accounting/Bookkeeping services (+20.2K) adding workers in March

Two in Five Firms Use More Independent Contractors

A recent survey* of HR execs found that 41% have used the services of independent contractors over the past two years. This shows that companies are starting to re-think  the tactics they employ to align their workforce with their business objectives – and that they are also starting to enjoy the flexibility that hiring independent contractors provides. Contingent workers make it easy for companies to scale their workforce up or down to meet seasonal or project based demand.

However, it’s not just businesses that are initiating the change. It’s the American workforce itself. The two biggest groups of people in the U.S workforce today – the baby boomers and Generation Y – are they key drivers of the growth of the contingent workforce. Research found that 80%* of baby boomers said they planned to work as contractors past retirement. The same research also suggested  that Gen Y employees are likely to change careers approximately 10 times before the age of 40 – making contract work a very attractive option for trying out new career opportunities.

All in all, it looks like the contingent workforce is set to continue to grow - and be beneficial - to companies and workers for a long while to come.

* 1.) Right Management survey
* 2.)  Nielsen survey 

1099s and Independent Contractors: What You Need to Know

Contingent worker classification, for tax purposes, continues to be an important topic.The article provides some resources to help understand the factors that make a contingent worker an employee or a 1099 independent contractor.

20 Factor Independent Contractor Test


In order to understand if the contingent workers your company utilizes are classified correctly you may first consult the IRS 20 point test. This test will help to see if the independent contractors you work with meet the criteria needed for classification as independent contractors. In essence though, the more control your company exercises over how, when, where, and by whom work is performed, the more likely the workers are actually employees, not independent contractors.

A downloadable version of the 20 Factor Test can be found here.

46% of Independent Contractors Are Found to be Misclassified

Ultimately, 46% of Independent Contractors reviewed by the IRS are determined to be misclassified and one in three companies fail a worker classification audit. The IRS claims to lose nearly $350 billion a year in unpaid taxes, with $39 billion attributed to underpayments or non-payments by independent workers. Also, if your contractors are re-classified as employees, you have to provide them with the same benefits that you have available to your other employees.

Penalties for Corporations Can Be Severe

Needless to say, the IRS is keen to clamp down on this loss of revenue – last year they hired 4,500 new agents to undertake audits. If your company is found to be in breach of the rules, penalties include back taxes, PLUS interest AND a fine of up to 35% of the total. These penalties can easily stretch into millions of dollars. Defending these cases can take years and also absorb thousands of dollars and a lot of man hours to make the case.

It’s not just smaller companies that have made mistakes, the rules are complex, making big companies equally as fallible as smaller businesses. For example, FedEx was found to owe approximately $319 million in back taxes over worker misclassification issues and Microsoft were famously held responsible for the non-payment of employment taxes by workers inappropriately classified as contractors.

Legal Action

Class action lawsuits by groups of independent contractors requesting employee status are becoming increasingly common. A contractor may successfully sue you for unemployment insurance, disability payments, workers compensation, employee benefits, stock options, profit sharing and retirement benefits by claiming they were effectually employees. Microsoft had to settle for $97 million a few years ago because of benefits denied to contractors who were later classified as employees.

$25 Million Allocated by the Department of Labor to Target Misclassification

The Department of Labor has a $25 million budget for 2011 targeting independent contractor misclassification. The following text (in italics) from the DOL budget outlines the use of these funds and can been seen at there site here.

Employee Misclassification: Individuals wrongly classified as independent contractors are denied access to critical benefits and protections to which they may be entitled as regular employees. Worker misclassification also generates substantial losses to the Treasury and the Social Security, Medicare and Unemployment Insurance Trust Funds. To address this problem, the FY 2011 Budget includes a joint Labor-Treasury initiative to strengthen and coordinate Federal and State efforts to enforce statutory prohibitions, identify, and deter misclassification of employees as independent contractors. The Department of Labor's budget includes $25 million to support this initiative, comprised of:

• Wage and Hour Division. An additional $12 million and 90 FTE are requested to focus on misclassification during targeted WHD investigations.
• Employment and Training Administration. $11.25 million and 2 FTE are requested for competitive grants to States to increase their capacity to focus on misclassification and reward the States that are most successful at detecting and prosecuting employers that fail to pay their fair share of taxes due to misclassification.
• Solicitor of Labor. $1.6 million and 10 FTE are requested to pursue misclassification litigation, including multi-State litigation to coordinate enforcement with States and leverage their groundbreaking work.
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration. $150 thousand is requested to modify training curriculum and investigation guidelines to allow inspectors to identify potential employee misclassification and share information with WHD.

In addition, the budget proposes legislation to ensure the proper classification of employees by: (1) shifting the burden of proof to employers to demonstrate that their employees are classified correctly, (2) closing the loophole created by Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978, and (3) making misclassification a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, with appropriate penalties.


Additional Resources and Readings

Navigating Independent Contractor Compliance
Proposed Changes: 1099 Independent Contractor Classification and Misclassification Penalties

Independent Contractors Or 1099 Employees - The Risks

Temporary Staffing News From Emergent

Welcome


Over the past several months we have communicated with executives and
owners at some of the largest  publicly-held and private staffing
companies,mid-size staffing firms,independent recruiters, and
client companies that spend millions of dollars in contingent labor each
year.


From these conversations, we have begun to gain tremendous insight on the
marketplace, challenges that companies are facing, as well as how they are
starting to utilize contingent labor. The contingent staffing landscape is
changing fast, so we thought it would be valuable to share our findings with
you in this newsletter which we’ll send out twice a month.


Overall we have seen staffing industry optimism increase as well as margins
and cost of contingent labor remain extremely competitive.Some staffing
companies that have focused niches or geographic focus have been able to
maintain markup rates (fees on top of worker pay rates) in the high thirty
to low forty percentile range, however many of the more traditional
staffing companies we have talked to are providing services with markups
in the low to mid-thirty percentile ranges.


Additionally, client companies have looked to source their own
contingent labor to drive down costs. Although the demand for temporary
labor is increasing steadily contingent workforce service
providers and the companies that use them are looking towards innovation and
flexibility to help their companies gain the most value from this emerging
workforce.


Our mission is to help the companies the use and supply contingent labor
(temps, contractors, consultants, and project-based workers) increase
profitability while decreasing cost and risk. We hope that this newsletter
will provide you with information that will help you and your business.


If you would like to speak with me personally about contingent labor trends
or for on advice on using contingent labor, please feel free to reach out to
me at binman@emergent.com


I look forward to speaking with you,


Bill Inman
President
Emergent
binman@emergent.com
emergent.com




N.B. To view the full version of this newsletter, please go to http://ow.ly/4epfS

Companies see Temps as Permanent Solution

Overall, temporary help payrolls are up by almost half a million since they bottomed out in September 2009, according to the department of Labor. Lots of companies are relying more than ever on temporary workers to fill their employment needs. In the past, the increase in the use of temporary workers indicated that it wouldn’t be long before we saw an increase in the permanent job market. In previous recessions, companies simply laid off workers and then hired them back again when the recession was over. Thing is, lots of businesses found that they just kept running into the same problems each time the economy ran into trouble.

Many analysts are predicting that we’re at the beginning of a permanent, structural shift towards temporary workers making up a large proportion of the labor force. Interestingly, whereas temporary job opportunities have previously been mostly light industrial or clerical in nature, this time around, jobs in Legal, IT and other professional industries are shifting towards a contract/freelance model as well.

Are employers wary of hiring full-time employees because of the uncertain economy? Most certainly. But they are also likely to be unwilling to commit to the seemingly never-ending hikes in health insurance costs too.

Hiring temporary workers is being increasingly seen by many as a cost-effective solution to a staffing problem, enabling companies to scale up or down quickly to meet demand without an enduring obligation to the temporary worker. However, navigating complex co-employment rules and the new stringent IRS 1099 classification requirements, means that employing temporary workers is becoming fraught with risk – for both the company working with the temporary workers and the staffing company who recruits the those workers.

Emergent can provide stable contingent workforce solutions that allow staffing companies and their clients to recruit workers, while Emergent takes care of the rest (including legal, payroll, invoicing, insurance, tax, HR and workers’ comp administration). To find out more, e-mail us at  info@emergent.com or visit us at www.emergent.com.

Temporary Jobs Seen as Likely Path to Permanent Hire

More than half of U.S. adults (54%) agree that finding a temporary job is the best option following a layoff, according to a new online survey commissioned by EmploymentGroup, a Midwest staffing and contracted services firm, and conducted by Harris Interactive®. The poll coincides with the latest Labor Department payrolls data that show U.S. employment rose far less than expected in January, suggesting continued weakness in the job market.

The survey, which aimed to quantify the appeal of several frequently cited options available to unemployed workers, found that pursuing a temp job (defined as a transitional job held while looking for permanent employment) is preferred by a wide margin to going back to school to learn a new skill or profession (21%), waiting for the right opportunity while receiving unemployment assistance (11%), starting a new business (5%), or something else (8%).

The survey also examined the perceived value of temporary employment. A majority of adults (70%) say that landing a temp job often leads to a permanent position, and 74% agree that it adds value to a resume – an opinion voiced most strongly by unemployed (78%) and retired (85%) workers. The online survey of 2,026 adults aged 18 and over, was conducted in January 2011.

"While it has been widely reported that temp hiring is up, some have suggested that in the current economy traditional perceptions of the temp job have changed – from a potential path to full-time employment to just another dead end," said Mark Lancaster, CEO of EmploymentGroup. "These latest survey results paint a different picture. Despite significant, persistent challenges in the job market, public opinion regarding the value and long-term career potential of temporary employment remains strong.

The survey provided some additional interesting findings regarding perceptions of temporary employment:

· Women are more likely to agree that temp jobs often lead to a permanent position (74%), versus men (66%);

· Temp jobs hold more appeal for older women: 63% of women ages 55 and older feel temporary employment is the best option following a layoff, versus 56% of all adult women and 51% of men ages 55 and older;

· Across all household income categories, the temp job option holds the most appeal for those earning between $35,000 and $49,900

· Part-time workers are much more likely to agree temp employment is the best option following a layoff than full-time or self-employed workers (63% vs. 53%);

· Ranges in U.S. geographic region and household size didn't seem nearly as relevant in predicting perceptions regarding temporary employment as gender, age and employment status