USA Members: How does a dental office pay me?

Questions about Employment and Payment Relationships in the United States?

With over 75,000 dental temping shifts completed to date, and 97% of dental hygienists and assistants reporting being “Happy” or “Very Happy” with their TempStars connection, our platform and service is making a huge positive impact on the dental temping space - helping dental professionals empower their professional lives while supporting themselves and their families. 

All this great service, provided with a low per-shift placement fee of $38 (no mark-ups) and no hiring fees.  That’s right, if you find someone great through temping, you can hire the best TempStars hygienist or assistant for free - no finder’s fees, no hiring fees.  You don’t even have to tell us if you find someone great and hire them permanently.

Because TempStars is founded and run by a practicing dentist, one of the foundations of TempStars is the flexibility for dental offices and dental professionals to connect directly and decide how they want to work together.  TempStars is great at making fast, easy and predictable connections, but we don’t dictate the employment terms or relationship.

This allows for fast connections and maximum flexibility without an agency or otherwise getting in the middle of the discussions and arrangements.

With TempStars, the employment relationship is between the dental office and the dental professional working the shift.  To this end, when a dental office posts a temping shift, they will post the shift according to their state tax and employment laws and regulations.  This means, that no matter what state you're in, when you view a TempStars shift, it will indicate if the office posted the shift as a W2 payment relationship, a 1099 payment relationship.  This way you know ahead of time what to expect in terms of the payment and employment relationship with the office.  

Because each state has their own Department of Labour rules and guidelines for determining employment statuses, and the employment relationship exists between the office and the dental professional, it’s critically important that you are familiar with the details for your state. 

Of the tens of thousands of completed dental temping shifts, many dental offices post shifts as “W2” and consider their TempStars hygienist or assistant as a temporary employee.  On the other hand, many post shifts as “1099” relationships, and consider their TempStars hygienist or assistant as an Independent Contractor.  So the flexibility, options and transparency are there for everyone to use TempStars according to tax and employment laws.

For those who are paying their TempStars hygienists and assistants as 1099 Independent Contractors, TempStars is currently working on providing the value-added service of providing 1099 records to dental offices who connect as Independent Contractors through our service.  In the mean time, and regardless, it is incumbent on the dental office to ensure that all paperwork is completed and submitted as required by state and federal employment and tax laws.

PS - For our Canadian members, while Canada doesn't use the term "1099" or "W2", the concepts of Independent Contractor vs Employee (temporary or otherwise) apply in similar ways.