WageTime is payroll for IT and technical staffing agencies: W-2 and legitimate 1099 consultants settle in one run, salaried beside hourly, and a benched H-1B consultant still draws a full paycheck.
IT services and staffing firms are heavy users of the H-1B program (SIA). Add corp-to-corp vendors, salaried engineers who earn no overtime, hourly support staff who do, and a remote bench scattered across state lines, and payroll here is not one process repeated. It is four questions that generic small-business payroll answers wrong by default.
The senior architect bills through their own LLC corp-to-corp, the mid-level developer is W-2, and a specialist is a legitimate 1099. Three engagements, three ways taxes are handled, three different year-end forms or none. Payroll built for one employment type makes you run the other two by hand, or misclassify someone and inherit the back taxes.
A salaried software engineer can be exempt from overtime under the computer-employee exemption. The help-desk tier-2 next to them, paid hourly, is not. So overtime is owed on half the roster and not the other half, and the line runs through job duties, not job titles. Payroll that treats everyone as hourly, or everyone as salaried, gets one group wrong every week.
When a sponsored consultant rolls off one project and waits for the next, the law does not treat that week as unpaid downtime. Under the H-1B rules the required wage keeps running (20 CFR 655.731); a lack of billable work is not a reason to stop the check. Payroll that pays salaried staff only when hours come in will short a bench week and create real exposure.
The developer lives in Texas, the client is in New York, and your office is in a third state. New York and a handful of others apply a convenience-of-the-employer rule that can tax the home-office days as if worked in-state. A remote IT bench turns state withholding into a per-consultant puzzle your HQ address cannot solve.
IT pay rates are high, so a single weekly run moves real money, and clients on net-45 or net-60 pay long after the consultant does. A payroll platform that charges per run taxes every Friday and every off-cycle correction. Weekly or biweekly cadence should be a setting, not a surcharge.
A programmer, systems analyst, or software engineer can be exempt under the FLSA computer-employee exemption (DOL Fact Sheet #17E), but not automatically: hourly help-desk, QA, and support staff still earn time-and-a-half past 40.
| Consultant | Pay basis | Overtime |
|---|---|---|
| Priya N.Software engineer, salaried | $132,000/yr | Exempt, no OT |
| Devon R.Systems analyst, salaried | $118,000/yr | Exempt, no OT |
| Marcus D.QA analyst, hourly | $46.00/hr | OT over 40 |
| Lena K.Help desk tier 2, hourly | $28.50/hr | OT over 40 |
Replaces the blanket “everyone is salaried” or “everyone is hourly” setting that underpays one group of consultants every single week.
WageTime runs the two payroll populations in one place and keeps the third honest: W-2 consultants get withholding and a W-2, legitimate 1099 independents are paid gross in the same run with a 1099-NEC at year-end.
| Consultant / firm | In this run | Year-end form |
|---|---|---|
| Priya N.W-2 salaried | Payroll | W-2 |
| Lena K.W-2 hourly | Payroll | W-2 |
| Jordan T.1099 independent | Payroll | 1099-NEC |
| Ravi S. Consulting LLCCorp-to-corp, paid via your AP | Vendor | None |
Replaces the second system opened just to pay the 1099s, and the misclassification that turns a payroll shortcut into a back-tax bill.
The salary keeps running: H-1B rules require the required wage as guaranteed salary, and a lack of billable work is not unpaid time (20 CFR 655.731), so WageTime pays a bench week like any other salaried week.
Replaces the salaried run that pays only when timesheets arrive, and the benched consultant whose check quietly did not.
Withholding here follows the consultant, not the company: WageTime reads the resident state from the home address and the work state from where the assignment actually sits, remote or on-site, and withholds from that answer.
| Consultant | Withholding applied | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Priya N.Jersey City NJ · remote (home) | NJ resident | Geolocated |
| Marcus D.Austin TX · convenience rule | NY worksite | Review |
| Lena K.Pittsburgh PA · remote (home) | PA + local EIT | Geolocated |
| Devon R.Tampa FL · nonresident days | NY state + NYC | Review |
Replaces the spreadsheet that withholds everyone to the office state, and the nonresident notice that arrives a year after the engagement ended.
Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.
Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month
HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.
See a demoOften, but not automatically. A programmer, systems analyst, or software engineer can be exempt under the FLSA computer-employee exemption when paid at least $684 a week on salary or $27.63 an hour, and their duties meet the test (DOL Fact Sheet #17E). Help-desk, QA, and junior support are usually non-exempt and still earn overtime. WageTime pays both in one run.
A W-2 consultant is your employee: you withhold taxes and issue a W-2. A 1099 independent is paid gross as a person and gets a 1099-NEC. Corp-to-corp means you pay the consultant’s own LLC or S-corp on its EIN with no withholding. WageTime runs the W-2 and 1099 populations in one payroll; the classification itself is your decision with counsel.
Yes. WageTime pays W-2 employees and legitimate 1099 independent contractors in the same run, so a project team that mixes both settles together, and W-2s and 1099-NECs are both produced at year-end. Corp-to-corp vendors are paid as businesses through your accounts payable, not as part of the payroll run.
Generally yes. H-1B rules require paying the required wage as guaranteed salary and do not allow unpaid benching when the lack of work is the employer’s (20 CFR 655.731). WageTime pays salaried consultants every cycle whether or not hours were billed, so a between-projects week still draws its full salary. Compliance itself stays with you and your counsel.
Withholding depends on where the work is performed and each state’s rules, including convenience-of-the-employer rules that can tax home-office days as in-state work. WageTime resolves withholding from the consultant’s geolocated home and work addresses with reciprocity and overrides, and flags convenience-rule pairings for you to confirm with your advisor rather than guessing.
$50 a month for the company plus $10 for each person actually paid that month, with unlimited runs. Weekly costs the same as biweekly, off-cycle corrections add nothing, and a slow month costs less because you only pay for people paid. An agency paying 30 consultants and 3 recruiters in a month is $380, whether payday landed four times or five.
A team that mixes salaried engineers and hourly support, a 1099 or corp-to-corp consultant, and one person working remotely from another state. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo company: you’ll see exempt and non-exempt pay in one run, W-2 and 1099 together, a salaried bench week paid in full, and remote-consultant withholding resolved from the address.
Book a 20-minute demo