Need insight: work from home vs. working in office (complicated)

[sparklett]

I have been offered an amazing opportunity and am weighing the pros and cons before deciding whether to accept (and relocate 1,000 miles from our current home).

If I accept this position, I will have the option of either being a regular employee or a contractor. Here's the details of each:

Regular employee: Very livable wage. Work in a nice office with a very flexible/open schedule. PERS retirement and health benefits. On this wage, my rent costs would take up no more than 20% of my income. Commute would be no more than 10 minutes.

Contractor: No office or set hours. Work 100% from home except to attend meetings. No benefits. Pay is $15,000 more than the "regular employee" position to make up for loss of benefits and account for taxes.

Which would you choose? Would you take the benefits over the extra freedom? Or is the extra money and open schedule more important than benefits?

I spent two years working from home and it definitely had its challenges. If i decide to accept this position, I'm really not sure which I would want to do.

[poppan]

I work as a contractor now and make about 2x what I would as a salaried employee. It's more lucrative but I have no guarantee of hours or long-term contracts and when budgets get slashed, contractors are always on the line first. I do like that I get paid by the hour so I no longer resent having to put in hours in the evenings or weekends.

If it was only 15% more pay I'd probably take the salaried position. I prefer to work in an office and I think you would have slightly greater job security (plus severance pay, unemployment etc), and of course benefits are always nice. Also there is more career development within the company when you are an employee vs a contractor.

[Ola_]

With the super short commute and flexible hours, I would probably work as a regular employee. And since the company sounds flexible maybe there would be the opportunity down the road to work 1-2 days from home anyway?

Would the extra money in the contract position really be extra, or would they be eaten up by the expenses (taxes, benefits, etc)? Also not sure if the job stability would differ? In my field contractors are often the first to go when layoffs/cutbacks happen.

[sparklett]

I'm definitely going with the regular position, since they said that they are very open to a flexible work schedule. Most of the regular staff works from home!

[justKate]

Originally Posted by Ola_

In my field contractors are often the first to go when layoffs/cutbacks happen.

Originally Posted by sparklett

I'm definitely going with the regular position, since they said that they are very open to a flexible work schedule. Most of the regular staff works from home!

Just wanted to add that as a regular employee you will likely be entitled to unemployment benefits in case of a layoff, whereas you may not be as a contractor. Sounds like you've made a good decision!

[texmati]

I'd also think about how much the household depended on my income/benefits.

ETA! I see that you've already made a decision! Congratulations!!!

[laurabfig]

I think you made a great choice. 15K would easily get eaten in taxes alone, (if not more) and then you'd be paying health and retirement out of your check too.
Best wishes! and congrats!