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Employment

7 min read

Raft is able to employ project workers within its existing structure. Such employees are formally employees of Raft Foundation Inc.

Raft’s approach to employment

Taking on employees is by far the riskiest thing fiscal sponsors do. Wrongful termination and other employment issues make up a very significant portion of lawsuits and insurance claims against nonprofits.

When people work as volunteers, they relate to one another in a special way, which is often less hierarchical (at least openly). They have not attached their livelihood to their position in the organization, or the organization operating in a certain way that requires them, and there is usually no “boss.”

What we have seen is that, when not handled well and with intention, the switch from volunteer (or even contractor) labor to employment labor can lead to rapid changes in project structure and culture, and not always in a good way.

Additionally, as a fiscal sponsor, it can be a challenge to ensure that our project leaders treat their workers well. With each layer of separation and hierarchy, it is more and more difficult for us to sense that issues are afoot.

Raft is a new organization, but be aware that we will be developing processes and standards to ensure, as well as we can, that all employees of Raft are treated well and have proper recourse. In the short term, we are only employing on a limited basis, as we experiment with early partners to make sure that we create something that works as well as possible for everyone in addressing the above factors.

State and local law

We make every effort to abide by the state and local laws that apply to each employee (including minimum wage laws).

Worker classification

An individual must be an employee (rather than a contractor) when all four of the below are true:

  1. The individual consistently works more than 20 hours per week
  2. The individual has no concurrent, external, paid contractor work
  3. The individual’s work is core to the operations of the Raft project
  4. The employee resides in the US

They must also be an employee if similar work for the project, or concurrent extremely-similar work for another project, is being done through an employment relationship.

Raft only engages in contractor relationships with individuals residing outside the United States.

Hiring

We must review all job postings before they are posted to ensure they are compliant with local, state, and federal law.

Feel free also to review our Equal Employment Opportunity Statement.1

Definitions

Full time vs part time

To be considered a full-time employee, an employee must work at least 30 hours per week. Otherwise, they are part-time.

Only full-time employees may access health benefits (e.g., medical, dental, and vision insurance).

“Backpay”

We have found that individuals often use the term “backpay” to refer to paying themself for past work that was completed before they became an employee. In the Raft’s employment context, this is not a useful term. Raft does not owe new employees money for past periods where they served as a volunteer. Similarly, funds are not owed for hours that were not budgeted, funded, and reported by the employee to Raft, including in their timesheets.

Part-time employees, including those that are exempt, must tell Raft about any increase or decrease in their hours at the point that the change is made.

How it works

Justworks

Raft’s co-employment partner is a professional employer organization (PEO) called Justworks, which takes care of payroll and benefits administration and provies an online platform through which employees can find or do almost anything they need.

Costs

The costs of employing someone are many and varied, and include:

  • Base pay
  • Short- and long-term disability
  • Health insurances, if applicable
  • PEO/payroll fees (i.e., monthly fee to Justworks)
  • Employer-paid taxes and contributions (e.g., Social Security and unemployment insurances, varying by state)

Budgeting and projections

Use our employment costs calculator to explore how much it might cost to employ someone through Raft.

Deciding how much health insurance to cover

It is up to you how much of employee, spouse, and family health insurance you cover, but keep in mind that whatever you decide will need to apply to everyone.

Hell Gate, for example, a worker-owned coop, pays 100% of employee health insurance and 50% of spouse/family/dependents. We generally use that as our baseline.

Required project balance

Raft requires that projects have at least two months’ payroll in their project balance at all times, after accounting for all other contractual obligations (i.e., other payments owed to contractors or vendors).

To bring on an employee, the project must have four months’ balance for their salary - that is, an additional two months for that employee.

Benefits

Raft offers a fairly generous holiday-oriented2 PTO policy across all projects, with 14 official holidays, 3 flexible holidays, closure from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day, and 8 days vacation per year (increasing to 9 and then 10 days per year in an employee’s second and third years with us, accruing to a max of 12.5 vacation days).3

Sick days accrue at a rate of 1 hour for every 20 hours worked, to a maximum balance of 80 hours.4

Health insurance

Through a platform called Thatch, we are able to offer reimbursement for health insurance costs. Once we have enough employees (we just need two!) seeking health insurance through us, we will also be able to offer a fully-fledged employer health plan.

Not all zip codes are able to access healthcare benefits through our program. If you would like us to check an employee zip code in advance, reach out and we will check with Justworks.

Timing for healthcare benefits

For projects that will employ people immediately, we will take into account that the earliest possible effective date for healthcare benefits through Justworks is the first day of the next month.5

Disability and life insurances

All employees receive employer-paid short- and long-term disability insurance through Metlife.

Employee-paid supplemental life insurance is available through Metlife for those who choose to enroll.

Saving for retirement

We offer a 401(k) through Empower! Traditional and Roth plans are available through their platform.

All employees are automatically enrolled with a 3% contribution, as required by law. If they wish to opt out, they must do so within 60 days, and of course they can change their ongoing contribution at any time.

Ancillary health benefits

Through Justworks employees are also able to access:

  • A free annual membership to One Medical (note that it is now owned by Amazon)
  • Twelve (12) free Talkspace appointments per year
  • Twenty percent (20%) off Kindbody fertility clinic services

Setting up

  1. Project submits the employment program form, where they select what benefits they would like to cover and acknowledging Raft’s employment policies
  2. We set up a “department” for the project in Justworks
  3. If required, the project creates a job posting for the role
  4. Raft approves the job posting
  5. The project posts the job
  6. The project interviews candidates and selects someone, following Raft’s interview guide
  7. The project ensures that they have at least four months’ payroll set aside for the new employee
  8. The project submits the employee request form
  9. Raft sets up the employee (employment contract and Justworks setup)

Contact us for information on how to get started.

Footnotes

  1. You can also use this shortlink when including it in job listings: https://link.raft.foundation/EEO ↩

  2. Leaning into holidays allows us to be generous while also keeping folks’ schedules in sync, and also limits our vacation-payout exposure in California, where you have to payout unused days when someone leaves. ↩

  3. For part-time employees, the rates of these are proportional to the number of hours worked. ↩

  4. Converted to full-time days, it accrues at a rate of 13 days per year but to a max of 10 days at any given point. ↩

  5. For example, if there is a planned start of July 1, it might make sense to do June 30 instead. ↩

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