American Horse
AKA "Mustang"
Certainly, employers calculate the cost of WC as a cost of the employee. They also take that into account when hiring. But the employees contribution to their SS or Medicare "insurance" account has a direct and isolated benefit to them.The SE tax is more useful to consider because the self employed person is paying the whole tax, which is true in any case for the hourly or salaried employed person. The employers part in that case still reflects a part of the cost of compensation for the employee.
Indeed true, I'm not denying that, but that's not the whole story. Why not throw other mandated employer costs into it - such as worker's compensation? I used to do barge inspections on the Mississippi river, my boss used to bitch because he paid $12 for every job I did for worker's comp.
The SS "tax" is actually just forced purchasing of disability and retirement insurance. And after the cutoff (106k per earner) - what you pay for that insurance is the same as what everyone else above the cutoff pays.
The reason it exists is quite simple - when the great depression hit, lots of people too old to work or disabled from work had no bread to eat. So the government had to take care of them anyway - which is exactly what would happen to a lot of people if there was no SS insurance.
The cost to the employer for WC insurance is fair and just because it reflects the kind of work they are asking their employees to do, and their own decisions. A "roofing" contractor has a much higher premium rate than does a contractor who does "general carpentry" or "excavator." And an employer who has a bad safety record will have higher rates because of his jobsite carelessness, none of which is directly attributable to the employee. But the employee enjoys the benefit of being in some small way "made whole" or being compensated for disabilities.
I think there is some justification (at least recognized by congress people) that after a certain level of income, there is no added benefit to the payor. At some income level they will even take on a greater share of their own healthcare. Furthermore to keep taxing above that base is seen as potentially making SS and Med into welfare programs
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