Hr Payroll Stinger

hr-payroll Stinger

Procedural arsenal for hr-payroll-worker-bee, the Legion AI Army's HR infrastructure and payroll decision specialist. This Stinger encodes the five core decision moments a software startup encounters in its people-ops lifecycle, grounded in 2026-current research.

Routing table — which guide handles which request

The four hard rules

These are non-negotiable. Every recommendation must honor them, regardless of which guide is being applied.

1. Classify before recommending. Worker engagement model first; platform second. Recommending Gusto to a company that needs EOR for 5 international employees wastes months of implementation work.

2. Size the company every time. Headcount (current + 12-month projection), US states with employees, countries with workers, funding stage, and equity maturity are all inputs to the recommendation. Do not skip this step.

3. Surface misclassification risk explicitly. 1099-vs-W-2 misclassification is a multi-year IRS and DOL liability — up to 3 years of back taxes for negligent misclassification, 6 years for intentional. This must appear prominently, not as a footnote.

4. Hold the legal-advice fence. The Angel provides decision frameworks and flags risk; it does not provide legal opinions. "Consult an employment attorney" and "consult a CPA" are mandatory at AB5/DOL analysis branch points and at any tax-consequence decision.

Research foundation

This Stinger was built from 13 external source notes in research/external/ covering all major platform comparison surfaces, EOR pricing intelligence, worker classification law, and 2026 regulatory changes. Key data points:

• Domestic payroll pricing (2026): Gusto Simple ~$40-$49 + $6-12/employee; Rippling ~$8 base + modules, typical $20-$30 total/employee; Justworks ~$59-$99/employee (PEO, health benefits bundled); Paychex Flex — enterprise custom pricing.
• EOR pricing (2026): Deel ~$599/employee/month; Remote.com ~$599/employee/month; Oyster ~$499 Essentials / $599 standard; Rippling Global — custom.
• Contractor management: Deel ~$49/contractor/month; Remote.com ~$29/contractor/month; Oyster ~$29/contractor/month.
• Classification risk: IRS 3-category common law test (behavioral control, financial control, type of relationship) is the federal baseline; California ABC test (AB5) applies for CA workers; Germany introduced a €50,000 penalty for misclassification in 2025.
• 2026 regulatory: EU Platform Work Directive (December 2, 2026 deadline), Germany €50k penalty, Minnesota PFML launching 2026, FLSA salary threshold restored to $35,568 after court ruling.

Open questions from research (stinger-forge flagged; verify before recommending):

• Gusto Simple base: $40 (Eagle Rock CFO) vs $49 (StackFYI) — verify at gusto.com/pricing
• Rippling modular total cost: $20-$30/employee estimate — Rippling requires demo for exact pricing
• Deel-Carta integration: Carta does NOT list Deel as a direct integration partner — verify before finalizing guides/05-carta-handoff.md
• 3 new PFML states in 2026 (Minnesota confirmed; identify 2 others)
• Oyster Essentials $499 vs $599 — verify at oysterhr.com/pricing

When this stinger applies

Load this stinger when hr-payroll-worker-bee is invoked. Typical triggers:

• "Gusto vs Rippling — which should we use?"
• "We just hired our first employee in Canada — how do we pay them?"
• "Is my freelancer a 1099 contractor or should they be W-2?"
• "We need to hire someone in Germany — EOR or our own entity?"
• "We just closed Series A — do we need Justworks for benefits?"
• "Should I set up Carta before or after payroll?"
• "What are our multi-state payroll compliance obligations?"
• "We're moving from Gusto to Rippling — what's the process?"
• "We have 3 US W-2 employees and 8 international contractors — what platform covers both?"

Do NOT load for:

• Performance management, OKRs, 1:1s (no peer Angel covers this yet; defer to library-worker-bee)
• Recruiting, ATS platforms, offer letters (future talent-worker-bee)
• Immigration / work visa strategy (flag to consult immigration attorney)
• Accounting software selection beyond payroll integration (future finance-worker-bee)
• SSO/identity provisioning for the payroll platform (auth-worker-bee)
• HR data schema design for custom tables (db-worker-bee)
• Contractor invoice payment flows (payments-worker-bee)

Folder layout

hr-payroll-stinger/
+- SKILL.md                              (this file — master index)
+- guides/
|  +- 00-principles.md                   (scope boundary, four hard rules, misclassification escalation)
|  +- 01-platform-selection.md           (domestic payroll decision tree: Gusto/Rippling/Justworks/Paychex)
|  +- 02-classification-matrix.md        (W-2 vs 1099 vs EOR vs PEO decision matrix)
|  +- 03-international-eor.md            (EOR platform selection: Deel/Remote/Oyster/Rippling Global)
|  +- 04-benefits-brokerage.md           (startup benefits: Gusto/Rippling Benefits, ICHRA/QSEHRA, brokered)
|  +- 05-carta-handoff.md                (equity admin integration timing and Carta connection)
|  +- 06-compliance-hotspots.md          (multi-state nexus, AB5, FLSA, PFML, EU/UK EOR changes)
|  +- 07-migration-playbook.md           (moving between providers: Gusto→Rippling, 1099→EOR)
+- examples/
|  +- seed-startup-domestic.md           (3-person seed startup hiring first W-2 employee)
|  +- series-a-global-team.md            (15-person US team + 3 international contractors: Gusto+Deel vs Rippling Global)
|  +- contractor-reclassification.md     (1099 contractor → W-2 employee reclassification walkthrough)
+- templates/
|  +- decision-memo.md                   (structured output template for platform/EOR recommendations)
|  +- audit-checklist.md                 (compliance audit checklist for existing payroll setup)
|  +- classification-worksheet.md        (worker classification worksheet using IRS 3-category test)
+- reports/
|  +- README.md                          (what past audit reports look like; accumulates over time)
+- research/
   +- research-plan.md                   (scripture-historian: queries, budget, time window)
   +- research-summary.md                (executive summary: top 5 sources, 5 open questions)
   +- index.md                           (manifest of all source files)
   +- internal/                          (command brief reference)
   +- external/                          (13 dated source notes — see index.md)

Cross-Angel handoffs

Refresh cadence

• Pricing tables: verify annually or when a major platform announces pricing changes (Gusto and Rippling both made changes in 2025; Deel/Remote/Oyster pricing is semi-annual).
• Regulatory content: re-run scripture-historian at shallow tier after any major IRS, DOL, or NLRB rulemaking; after each California AB5 amendment; or when a new PFML state program launches.
• EOR guide: refresh after any major EU, UK, Germany, or LATAM regulatory change. The EU Platform Work Directive (December 2026 deadline) will require a 2027 refresh.
• FLSA salary threshold: verify at dol.gov after any federal court ruling or DOL rulemaking.

Forged by stinger-forge from hr-payroll-worker-bee-command-brief.md and research/. Part of the Legion AI Tools Factory by Mario Aldayuz a.k.a @thenotoriousllama.