Pam was preparing breakfast Monday Morning when she received a text saying there was a job available to review a contract. Pam is an attorney specializing in corporate law. She saw it was for an estimated time of 8 hours and needed to be finished by Friday. She clicked accept and within the hour she received a response that her offer was accepted. She liked the SFHAX Workplace Community Labor Exchange because it enabled her to balance life and work. She listed the hours she wanted to work and the hourly rate she would accept. She currently has young children at home and wants to be with them during their formative years. She also wants to maintain her professional skills and earn a fair rate for her work.
She generally works between 20 and 30 hours a week; not enough to qualify for health benefits but her husband, Tyler who is a Principal Project Manager for a major engineering firm, works more than 30 hours a week and has family health insurance. Pam gets the same hourly labor payment as someone who does qualify for health care so she gets more take home pay than her husband who gets approximately the same labor payment, but requested that health insurance be deducted from his pay.
Maria, her housekeeper also likes the SFHAX Workplace Community Labor Exchange. Before she became a member of the SFHAX Workplace Community, she was paid as an independent contractor or under the table and didn’t have health coverage, workers compensation, retirement plan, paid time off or get paid overtime when she worked more than 40 hours a week. She also sometimes had trouble collecting what she was owed and finding new clients. She was legal and paid taxes.
She heard from one of her friends that SFHAX had opened a storefront in her neighborhood and there were people there called Qualifiers who would register her at no cost on the Labor Exchange. She would tell the Qualifier her skills, submit some references, SFHAX would do a background check and, if approved, she would be listed in the geographic areas in which she wanted to work. Her asking labor payment was set in consultation with the Qualifier so it is competitive. An important distinction of SFHAX over staffing firms that Maria liked was that the Qualifier was paid a specified percentage of the Labor Payment so the Qualifier had an incentive to help her set the best rate that kept her working the hours she wanted to work. Also the SFHAX Labor Exchange listed the range of actual labor payments made for her specific job qualifications. The list was updated daily.
Unlike Pam, Maria schedules herself to work specific work periods. She has no children now so her goal is while she is young and full of energy, to earn as much as she can to save for a down payment for a home of her own. She knows that the higher the down payment, the lower her mortgage and the less money she will need to pay for housing when she does settle down to raise a family. Her high school sweetheart, Mario, who works in construction is also doing the same and they hope to be married in a year or two.
Both Maria and Mario use the SFHAX scheduling application on their tablet computer. They plan on when they want their paid time off and block off those days. They then decide their most desirable work periods and paid time off. SFHAX has divided each day of the week into 3 shifts each 8 hours, day, evening and night. Each shift is subdivided into two work periods of 4 hours first and second.
Maria has regular Employers such as Pam. Pam schedules when she needs house keeping currently Monday day shift first period and Friday day shift second work period. Other Employers fill out the rest of Maria’s weekdays day shifts which total to 40 hours. They pay straight time. Maria also lists Monday through Thursday, evening first period and Saturday day shift as being available. These shifts are on time and a half labor payment so they are not always booked. Pam sometimes books Maria for Saturday day shift when she and Tyler are preparing for a big party. SFHAX recognizes that people have more than one skill. Maria is also a good cook and lists under that as well as housekeeping. Pam likes her cooking skills and is willing to pay time and a half for them.
Maria and Mario like to go out Friday and Saturday night so they generally do not list these time periods as being available. Occasionally Pam has planned such a large party that she has asked Maria to work the evening shift on Saturday as well as the day. Maria has usually agreed after discussing and entering her availability into her schedule, occasionally even the work period before.
Copyright 2014-2020 Richard A. Cornell, PE