I’ve not had this experience in the U.S. I’m a platform engineer providing consulting services. Folks have said they see a clear ROI on my services and I haven’t experienced a shortage of customers yet, certainly nobody turning me away because of my sole proprietorship LLC. Freelancing appears to be alive and well here.
Sometimes my “employer of record” is a 3rd party strictly for their administrative services. In these cases the company I’m consulting for isn’t setup to pay consultants and offloads the legal and administrative work to a 3rd party. But other than the name on the check, the experience has been the same for me and I’ve negotiated the statement of work and contracts directly with a member of the hiring company, the employer of record just verifies everything is on the up-and-up.
From my understanding this isn’t true everywhere in the U.S. though. I’ve been told by a few clients that California and a few other states have locked down contracting. From my understanding a contractor can be a liability in those states because the work performed can be reclassified as “employment” down the road. Not sure if this just results in fines, backpay, or lawsuits, but I’ve had many CA companies flat out tell me “no” until they learned I was incorporated and living in AZ. This is all second hand though - I just know me being in AZ has been the turning point in closing contracts with CA companies.
Sometimes my “employer of record” is a 3rd party strictly for their administrative services. In these cases the company I’m consulting for isn’t setup to pay consultants and offloads the legal and administrative work to a 3rd party. But other than the name on the check, the experience has been the same for me and I’ve negotiated the statement of work and contracts directly with a member of the hiring company, the employer of record just verifies everything is on the up-and-up.
From my understanding this isn’t true everywhere in the U.S. though. I’ve been told by a few clients that California and a few other states have locked down contracting. From my understanding a contractor can be a liability in those states because the work performed can be reclassified as “employment” down the road. Not sure if this just results in fines, backpay, or lawsuits, but I’ve had many CA companies flat out tell me “no” until they learned I was incorporated and living in AZ. This is all second hand though - I just know me being in AZ has been the turning point in closing contracts with CA companies.