If a employers supposed to calulate drive time pay with your weekly gross pay
"Reimbursements for business expenses are generally not taxable, but the commute from home to the job and back is not considered business travel and if they're paying for that it is taxable income. I don't think carpooling changes that, but I am not a tax lawyer or accountant. The rest of your questions seem to be company policy issues. There is no ""should"" here. You aren't required to pick up the other guys, but he isn't required to reimburse those miles (or employ you) so think carefully about your priorities before pushing back. Never invoke what thou canst not banish." "You're getting paid by the job, not by the hour, so I don't see why you think the employer is obligated to pay you for the drive time.  The only way that might be true, as far as I can see, is if he were avoiding paying you minimum wage by structuring your employment this way.  It looks like to me you're over the minimum wage based on what you wrote.  At maximum ""unpaid"" drive time (59 min each way) and maximum length of job (4 hours as you stated it), gives your minimum hourly rate of $8.83/hr. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25/hr, so you're over that.  A quick search online suggests that NV does have a higher minimum at $8.25/hr under some conditions, but you're still over that too. The fact that you're required to pick-up the helpers and that you have a company car at home probably does mean that you're ""on the clock"" from the moment that you leave your house, but, again, you're not actually being paid by the clock.  As long as no other law is being broken (and it appears from your telling that there isn't), then the employer can set any policy for how to compute the compensation that he wants. Regarding taxes, the employer probably has no discretion there.  You're making what you're making, and the employer needs to tax it in total.  Since you're driving a company vehicle from home, I don't think that you're entitled to any reimbursement (vs. wages) that would not be taxed unless maybe you pay for gas yourself.  The gas money, if applicable, should be reimbursable as a business expense and that generally would not be taxed."
"littleadv's first comment - check the note - is really the answer. But your issue is twofold -  Every mortgage I've had (over 10 in my lifetime) allows early principal payments. The extra principal can only be applied at the same time as the regular payment. Think of it this way - only at that moment is there no interest owed. If a week later you try to pay toward only principal, the system will not handle it. Pretty simple - extra principal with the payment due. In fact, any mortgage I've had that offered a monthly bill or coupon book will have that very line ""extra principal."" By coincidence, I just did this for a mortgage on my rental. I make these payments through my bank's billpay service. I noted the extra principal in the 'notes' section of the virtual check. But again, the note will explicitly state if there's an issue with prepayments of principal. The larger issue is that your friend wishes to treat the mortgage like a bi-weekly. The bank expects the full amount as a payment and likely, has no obligation to accept anything less than the full amount. Given my first comment above here is the plan for your friend to do 99% of what she wishes: Tell her, there's nothing magic about bi-weekly, it's a budget-clever way to send the money, but over a year, it's simply paying 108% of the normal payment. If she wants to burn the mortgage faster, tell her to add what she wishes every month, even $10, it all adds up.  Final note - There are two schools of thought to either extreme, (a) pay the mortgage off as fast as you can, no debt is the goal and (b) the mortgage is the lowest rate you'll ever have on borrowed money, pay it as slow as you can, and invest any extra money. I accept and respect both views. For your friend, and first group, I'm compelled to add - Be sure to deposit to your retirement account's matched funds to gain the entire match. $1 can pay toward your 6% mortgage or be doubled on deposit to $2 in your 401(k), if available. And pay off all high interest debt first. This should stand to reason, but I've seen people keep their 18% card debt while prepaying their mortgage." Gross pay is the total your employer is paying you. Net pay is the amount of money you actually received (should match your check or direct deposit), which is gross pay minus deductions (healthcare, 401k contributions, commuter tax-free programs, etc), taxes (as explained already), 401k loan repayments, garnishments (child support, IRS messes, etc). I don't think it has to be either-or. You can profitably invest inside the SIMPLE. (Though I wouldn't put in any more than the 1% it takes to get the match.) Let's look at some scenarios. These assume salary of $50k/year so the numbers are easy. You can fill in your own numbers to see the outcome, but the percentages will be the same. Let it sit in cash in the SIMPLE. You put in 1%, your employer matches with 1%. Your account balance is $1,000 (at the end of the year), plus a small amount of interest. Cost to you is $500 from your gross pay. 100% return on your contributions, yay! Likely 0-1% real returns going forward; you'll be lucky to keep up with inflation over the long term. Short term not so bad. Buy shares of index ETFs in the SIMPLE; let's assume the fee works out to 10%. You put in 1%, employer matches 1%. Your contributions are $500, fees are $100, your balance is $900 in ETFs. 80% instant return, and possible 6-7% real long term returns going forward. Buy funds in the SIMPLE; assume the load is 5%, management fee is 1% and you can find something that behaves like an index fund (so it is theoretically comparable to above). 1% from you, 1% from employer. Your contributions are $500, load fees are $50, your balance is $950. 90% instant return, and possible 5-6% real long term returns going forward (assuming the 6-7% real returns of equities are reduced by the 1% management fee). (You didn't list out the fees, and they're probably different for the different fund choices, so fill in your own details and do the math.) Invest outside the SIMPLE in the same ETFs or equivalent no load index funds; let's assume you can do this with no fees. You put in the same 1% of your gross (ignoring any difference that might come from paying FICA) into a self directed traditional IRA. At the end of the year the balance is $500. So deciding whether or not to take the match is a no brainer: take it. Deciding whether you should hold cash, ETFs, or (one of two types of) funds in your SIMPLE is a little trickier. "This seems to depend on what kind of corporation you have set up. If you're set up as a sole proprietor, then the Solo 401k contributions, whether employee or employer, will be deducted from your gross income.  Thus they don't reduce it. If you're set up as an S-Corp, then the employer contributions, similar to large employer contributions, will be deducted from wages, and won't show up in Box 1 on your W-2, so they would reduce your gross income.  (Note, employee contributions also would go away from Box 1, but would still be in Box 3 and 5 for FICA/payroll tax purposes). This is nicely discussed in detail here. The IRS page that discusses this in more (harder to understand) detail is here. Separately, I think a discussion of ""Gross Income"" is merited, as it has a special definition for sole proprietorships. The IRS defines it in publication 501 as: Gross income.    Gross income is all income you receive in the form of money, goods, property, and services that is not exempt from tax. If you are married and live with your spouse in a community property state, half of any income defined by state law as community income may be considered yours. For a list of community property states, see Community property states under Married Filing Separately, later. Self-employed persons.    If you are self-employed in a business that provides services (where products are not a factor), your gross income from that business is the gross receipts. If you are self-employed in a business involving manufacturing, merchandising, or mining, your gross income from that business is the total sales minus the cost of goods sold. In either case, you must add any income from investments and from incidental or outside operations or sources. So I think that regardless of 401(k) contributions, your gross income is your gross receipts (if you're a contractor, it's probably the total listed on your 1099(s))." $15 being how much it costs to drive a car about 10 miles, and does not account for a driver's time.  Hilarious shit, from the biggest payday loan scam the planet has ever seen. Because Uber is nothing but a scam where you work your ass off, to steal money from your future self, and give 25% of it to Uber!  But if you think 6 cents a mile is a decent wage for a cab driver (which is what you can make, if you are lucky), then by all means, please sign up! One point that I don't see covered in the other answers yet: How does this affect the months that have 5 weeks. Do we actually lose two weeks a year? I get paid every two weeks, and pay day is always a Friday.  Some months, I get paid 3 times - which is always great.  If you live within your means, it's like an extra paycheck.  All other months, I get paid two times.  How many months a year do I get paid 3 times? 2.  It will always be two, because there are 12 months.  If you get paid twice a month, that's 24 pay checks, which is 2 shy of 26 pay checks - what we would expect if we were paid every two weeks.  That means those 2 extra pay checks need to fall somewhere, and they will be on the months where your pay day is hit 5 times.  For example, in 2014, there are 4 months with 5 Fridays: Jan May Aug Oct  I got paid the second Friday of January, so I only got 2 checks in January.  I will be paid on the first Friday of May, which means I will get 3 checks in May.  My other triple-check month this year is October, so of course I am only going to be paid twice in August. &gt;The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not define full-time employment or part-time employment. This is a matter generally to be determined by the employer. Whether an employee is considered full-time or part-time does not change the application of the FLSA, nor does it affect application of the Service Contract Act or Davis-Bacon and Related Acts wage and fringe benefit requirements.  http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/workhours/full-time.htm#.UI4A4MXR4bI It is how sales people's salaries are structured in a lot of industries.  It is structured this way to try to motivate or offer incentive for good sales people.    It is difficult to compare two completely different jobs based on salary alone, however, I would just say the market rate for their job is higher than your job.  Which is why they get paid more than you even before bonuses.  I look at it a different way.  You get paid your rate no matter what, for them to achieve what they should be making, they need to be successful at their job.  They don't have it easier, they have it harder.