> >I have to say, since I now know your experience from talking on the
> >phone, that drawing an analogy from it might not be entirely apt.
> >This may not be primarily a matter of working on/off the books so much
> >as for/not for a subcontractor.
>
> I don't follow you. I mean, I'm not sure how this, below, relates to my
> reason for thinking that earning and paying black market wages is bad
> business all around.
Because your examples were all of someone moving from on the books to off -- not from someone moving from working for a service to working independently.
In your cases, the only extra benefit that employee might get would come have to come at the expense of the government and their own security. They might not in fact get any benefit at all. A person could move from on to off the books with only the employer the employers benefit. And there really wasn't that much money available to benefit from.
In the case of an indepedent contractor vs. someone who works for a service, there is an entirely different and much bigger pot of money we're talking about. If the service charges the customer twice or four times your salary, there is a lot of room for you to increase your wage enormously -- or for both you and the customer to make money -- without even touching the government's share.
In the actual case, these two dynamics might be mixed. But they don't have to be.
Michael