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I've never had a position where the per diem was taken out of the hourly
rate. This sounds a bit suspicious. .....What I've
experienced has been: hourly rate + per diem for meals + lodging + car
rental. In one case the per diem covered lodging and meals. Even when I was
working W2, the per diem was separate from the hourly rate.
Richard Lewis responds:
Karen, you bring up a very good point. I have discussed remote W2 contract jobs with agencies from a good number of DICE job postings. All of them told me that per diem would come out of my hourly pay. Has this been just because they all felt that I am particularly gullible and easy to snooker? I don't know. I can say, however, that it appears that one can look at alot of on-line contractor job postings and not find any mention of how per diem is handled. The silence on this subject appears to be deafening. So I tend to think that I am not alone in getting this treatment.
Karn Zorn asks:
What happens if you opt out of the per diem? Are you expected to pay for
lodging and meals out of your pocket?
Richard Lewis:
A few of the agencies that I talked with did not want to deal with per diem. Their attitude was that I am to pay for all out of pocket. Of course, I would get rather large tax dedecutions, but not enough to bring my take home pay back up to what I would get under per diem.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+k -dot- zorn=zorntech -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+k -dot- zorn=zorntech -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Richard Lewis
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 4:01 PM
To: Al Geist; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Per Diem Question
All:
To clarifiy, I am talking about doing a w2 contract temp assignment for a
company (that I have never previously worked for) that is located more that
100 miles from my home. I, essentially, would be staying at an extended
stay motel during the week and coming home on weekends.
Per diem is optional. If I elect to take it, the per diem amount would be
subtracted from my hourly rate. Also, I have been told that I do not have
to take the max amounts (the amounts from www.gsa.gov). I can take a lesser
amounts of per diem (which would, of course, result in a higher hourly
rate.)
What I am trying to understand is if it is always best to go for the max
per diem (i.e., would taking the max per diem always result in the max take
home pay.) Can you provide me any insights?
Richard Lewis
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