Las Vegas Newspaper Carrier Job

A friend of mine related to me his experience as a Las Vegas Newspaper Carrier when we met in a StarBucks Coffee shop one Sunday afternoon. Let's call my friend as Jimmy (not his real name).

While reading a newspaper, he saw a classified ad that a Las Vegas newspaper company needed independent contractors to deliver newspapers to residential subscribers within a particular area. The ad said:

INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS NEEDED

MAKE MONEY

Before You Get to Work

Great Business Opportunity

Could you use an extra $700 to $1,000 each month working 3 to 4 hours a day?

All routes to be delivered from 2 a.m.-6 a.m. Monday to Friday, from 1 a.m.-7 a.m. Saturday to Sunday

TO BE CONSIDERED FOR A ROUTE YOU MUST BE 18 YEARS OR OLDER AND YOU MUST BRING:

Valid Nevada Driver's License, Valid Nevada Vehicle Insurance, Current Nevada DMV Printout, Social Security Card, Bank Account for Direct Deposit, Reliable Vehicle

So, Jimmy applied for the part-time newspaper job one Monday morning. He was assigned a route near his home. At 11:30 p.m. of the same Monday, he reported to the newspaper distribution center to fill out some additional documents. The newspaper supervisor explained to Jimmy that as an Independent Contractor, he was responsible to:

• Hire his own newspaper carrier if he is not available;
• Provide a backup vehicle in case the other vehicle have problems;
• Strictly follow the requests or instructions of newspaper subscribers such as placing the newspaper in front of the main door;
• Pay for supplies such as plastic envelopes and rubber bands;
• Pay $2.00 to the newspaper company for every missed newspaper delivery; and
• Deliver all newspapers between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. from Monday to Friday and between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. from Saturday to Sunday.

For Jimmy's services as Independent Contractor, he was paid $0.15 for each newspaper delivered in his route. His route had 200 newspaper subscribers. His daily net service fee was computed as follows:

• Add: $30.00 – Gross fee (200 newspapers x $0.15 per newspaper delivered)
• Less: $ 1.75 – for plastic envelope and/or rubber bands
• Less: $10.20 – for gasoline actually used in delivering newspapers

Net service fee per day - $18.05 for approximately 3 hours of work (or $6.02 per hour).

(Note: The U.S. Federal minimum wage was $7.25 per hour. Jimmy was using a 2001 Toyota Corolla and the depreciation expense was not included in the computation of his net service fee.)

Jimmy's net service fee per month was $549.02 or $6,588.25 per year.

At the end of the year, Jimmy paid for his U.S. Federal income tax (no State income tax in Nevada) based on the following computations:

• Add:   $6,588.25 - Annual net service fee
• Less:  $   197.65 – Federal income tax rate of 3%
• Less:  $   988.24 – Employer and Employee Social Security and Medicare tax of 15%

$5,402.36 – Annual net service fee after taxes

After one year of working part-time as an Independent Newspaper Carrier/Contractor, Jimmy resigned from the job. He complained that he has no day off and had problems when it was raining while delivering newspapers.