work in SL? IRS Says you must get MINWAGE

According to the stories over at teh Second Life Herald if you work in SL you MUST be paid at least Min.wage for your area/state according to IRS.

I can't wait till i get my 'raise'

The story is regarding people paid outside of SL, via direct debit. It's a whole different kettle of fish when you start doing things like that. I'm also not sure how laws on contractors and temporary workers work in the USA.

The IRS? When did the IRS start enforcing minimum wage regulations? There is a federal min. wage, but all of the states have instituted a higher wage. Enforcement is done at the local level (ie state level). The Dept of Labor would be in charge of enforcing the federal standard. However if you violate the federal standard, you are certainly violating the state standard and you have a lot more to worry about from the local enforcement body than the feds.

This is interesting and potentially more damageing to Sl than all the threads about VAT and taxing income, etc. If you have to pay the state minumum wage, that would drive businesses who use employees right out. Of course, you can pay yourself whatever you want, and your DJ's are welcome to work for a flat rate and tips - they are not employees. Campers don't count as employees, either. I'll be interested to see where this goes.

Wow. So ESC has to treat greeters at CSI:NY as part time employees.

They pay wages by US Dollars in direct deposit though. I don't see how this will effect say a club dancer being payed in lindens.

*cough*

indeed... it's like quoting the onion at times

It wont. It's basically undocumented work unless the employees are reporting their income to the IRS which I seriously doubt so as a practical matter no employee in their right mind would even try to assert a minimum wage claim.

Well you can believe this bit from Giff:



Now to see if ESC phases out CSI faster then intended. I read that last part as "holy crap.. we gotta pay them more? Close the sims"

Why are they considered part time employees though? In the UK if people work somewhere for x amount of time they accrue additional rights, is it the same in the US?

Yes but presumably these employees have not put in the requisite amount of time to accrue such rights.

not if this site's figures are accurate: http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm

You forgot to turn your head.

There goes Anshe's empire :V

don't think so, her employees are in china, and in china you are alloud to pay them in lead coated dog food instead of money

hmmmm, wouldnt Mentors be considered PT employees of LL?

Calling them volunteers will not float. Maybe thats the real reason LH and SL Instructors were done away with?

The key is in that ESC was paying real monies by direct deposit to the greeters. LL pays nothing to Mentors at all. They really are volunteers. Of course I base that on when I used to be one. I don't think LL pays them anything now either.

I think that is the rub.


If you pay real world money for a service... you have to pay wages that meet employment standards

If you pay in game currency then the rates can be what ever folks deem appropriate for their time

Or at least that is the read i am getting on it

AOL is still embroiled in a class action lawsuit over this very issue.

At the moment it would appear to be the case that inworld transactions aren't considered taxable income or services for tax purposes by most tax authorities. Hence why some eyebrows were raised when a certain huge landowner cut 16M parcels and installed inworld payment boxes a few weeks prior to the VAT announcement.

I was one also for over 3 years.... pay must always be monetary? what about access to areas that non mentors cant go to?

Indeed, I think it applies the same rules as sales.

till it is converted into real money you are not taxed on it

... which I've been eyeballing, given my own volunteer time with AOL waaaaay back when

I've got it in writing from a government minister and HMRC that the UK don't consider payments made entirely within a virtual world to be services for the purpose of VAT.

No doubt one day they'll find a way around this, but until they can do it sensibly they should hold off.....which being tax authorities and ministers with no clue about how things operate is probably hoping for too much!

For the IRS to step in and say "these people are to be treated like full on employees".. yes.

And the only access I can remember was to OIs. That was a necessary part of the gig to help the newbies. Not sure if that could be classified as payment?

That's not a taxable benefit. It's no different than volunteering at the local animal shelter and having them give you the key to the cages so you can have access to the animals.