&gt;They also avoid paying their portion of the payroll taxes,<p>No, they don&#x27;t.  They might avoid being <i>assessed</i> the payroll tax, but the economic incidence (the reduction in purchasing power after prices have adjusted in light of the taxes) is, per a well known result, independent of who assess the tax on, and completely dependent on the shape of the supply&#x2F;demand curves.[1]<p>&quot;Making&quot; employers &quot;contribute&quot; half of FICA is just a shell game.  If (on normal employees) you made employers pay all of it, they would (likewise) just cut wages by the exact same amount, as everyone&#x27;s after-tax income would remain the same and no one would have reason to deviate.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Tax_incidence" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Tax_incidence</a><p>&gt;&gt;The key concept is that the tax incidence or tax burden does not depend on where the revenue is collected, but on the price elasticity of demand and price elasticity of supply.