no health insurance--nyc

[harrietpie]

hi,

i'm hoping you can help me. i work in new york for a very large corporation, but they do not offer me health insurance. i thought this was mandated, because most of the other employees have insurance, but they consider me an IC. but here's the scoop: i have a desk and an office, email, voicemail, business cards. i work there full time (though i am allowed to make my own hours)

i really think this is illegal. aren't companies required to offer health insurance to workers if they have XX number of employees?

i've been trying to find out who i can report them to but have had no luck . the ny state dept of labor and wages say it's not their problem. they gave me a number for federal, but the people there didn't know what i was talking about.

can you please tell me who to call?

 

[cbg]

The only state in which an employer is required to offer health insurance to its employees is Hawaii. In New York, and in all other states with that one exception, employers are not required to offer health insurance to anyone. If it is offered, they are not required to offer it to all employees. They may offer it to full time but not part time, managment but not clerical, exempts but not non-exempts, or any other division they choose. The only caveats are, once they have established which groups are eligible, they must offer it to all employees within that group, and they may not make the decisions as to who is eligible based on a protected characteristic (age, race etc.)

If you are truly an independant contractor, you are most likely outside the eligible groups. There is nothing illegal about that.

You have not provided anywhere near enough information to determine if you are correctly classified as an IC or not.

 

[harrietpie]

let me tell you more...

i'll gladly provide any information that you would like to have.

what i can tell you is that part of my division is offered insurance, and part isn't. there does not seem to be a distinction between who is and isn't.

i thought there was a law stating that if you have more than XX employees you had to offer health insurance? i know that my old company got in trouble for this exact thing: too many freelancers to avoid health coverage. i swear i remember this being a law.

anyway, i would like to find someone to report this to. can you help me at lest find that person?

 

[cbg]

You are mistaken. I don't know what happened at your old company but there is NO law that an employer must provide health insurance to anyone at any time. As I said, there is only one state where insurance is required by law and that state is Hawaii. Even in Hawaii, it is only required under certain circumstances.

There have been instances where employees have been kept on temporary status, or incorrectly designated as IC's, for the purpose of keeping them ineligible for benefits. That is illegal. Perhaps that is what you are thinking of.