I have a lot of big questions about hiring someone…
Dear CP, I’m excited that I have more and more opportunities to exhibit and sell my work, and I feel really lucky. At the same time, I’m getting burned out, trying to make the work I need to make while also keeping up with email and general operations at my studio. I never thought I’d be able to hire anyone to help me, but I think I’m now in a financial position that makes that possible. I have a lot of big questions about hiring someone, being someone’s “boss,” having someone else in my studio space for the first time… It’s a lot. But I’m writing in to ask the two basic questions that have kept me from hiring someone yet: What do I have to do to be an employer, from a legal standpoint? And how much should I pay a studio assistant? Thanks for any insight you can provide!
I’m excited for you that your work is being seen and is circulating in the world! I understand and relate to the fact that you never expected to hire anyone to help you. I’m right there with you, and I think this is the case for a lot of people in our community. We never thought we’d be able to (or perhaps we never thought we’d need to) hire any help, so we haven’t previously taken the time to learn the legal, financial, and leadership skills required to bring others into our work environment. On the other side of the same coin, some of us dream of a day when we have support, but then when the time comes to assemble a team, we don’t know what steps to take or how to be a leader. I’ve been fielding a lot of questions in client meetings lately about hiring, paying, and supervising workers that come from both sides of this proverbial coin, so you are not alone on your journey!
First, I have to state the obvious: I’m not a lawyer, and I can’t offer you legal advice. I’m also not a tax accountant, and I can’t offer you tax advice. I encourage you to do as much research as you can about employment and related tax laws in your state and consult an attorney and an accountant to determine the scale and details of the legal and financial infrastructure you need to be the type of employer you are poised to become. Your legal and financial frameworks are going to be determined in large part by the type of employment you’re going to offer: part time or full time, temporary or permanent, employee or independent contractor (IC). A good general overview of the latter classifications can be found here.
Your letter doesn’t say where you’re based, but many readers work in California, where Assembly Bill 5 was implemented in 2020. AB-5 established new state rules for classifying workers as employees or ICs. Your attorney will be able to help you sort out how the worker you intend to hire should be classified under AB-5, or if you’re in another state, they will be able to help you navigate your state’s employment regulations. In California, a worker will have to pass all three conditions of what is called the "ABCs of AB-5" to be classified as an IC. This classification is important because it has legal and tax ramifications for both you and the worker you hire. It’s also important because it will determine a lot about the financial structure you need to have in place to pay this person.
Once you have your infrastructure in place to hire a studio assistant, how much should you pay them? The going rate for studio assistants varies as widely as artists’ income earned from making their work. I encourage you to think about several factors: the cost of living where you live; the cost of housing where you live; federal and state minimum wages; tasks assigned to the role; and basic requirements or qualifications for the role. I also recommend considering the employment classifications I referred to above. Your costs and the worker’s benefits and protections are different under these two classifications. If the worker is classified as an IC, you may want to consider what their net pay will be once they cover their own tax and operational costs. Either way, you’ll also need to understand what you can afford, once you factor in all of the costs associated with hiring someone. A few articles to get you started are here, here, and here. Once you do hire someone, you’ll likely want them to stick around for a while. The best way to do that is to plan for regular wage and benefit increases as you increase their responsibilities. Finally, I suggest that you ask yourself what you think is fair and ethical. If what you can afford doesn’t seem fair and ethical to you, you might not be ready to hire a studio assistant after all.
