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It would introduced in the House last week. I have heard reports that it has already passed, but I am not sure. Approximately 57 million freelance jobs will be impacted.
The AB5 law is a big part of the recall effort for newsom in California as middle and lower class people were affected.
I strongly suggest understanding this and contacting your Senators PRONTO.
With the rise of gig economy jobs such as driving for Uber and other forms of independent work enabled by the digital era, more than 57 million Americans now work as freelancers in some capacity. But President Biden just endorsed a radical labor law that endangers their livelihood.
House Democrats recently reintroduced the PRO Act, which, among many sweeping reforms, would make many commonplace forms of independent contractor (freelance) arrangements illegal. It’s based on a California law that was so dysfunctional even voters in the very blue state voted to change it.
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It purports to stop workers from being “misclassified” as freelancers in order to force companies to hire them full-time. But the PRO Act’s redefinition of freelance worker is so narrow that a worker can only provide a company with a freelance service that is outside its normal purview. For example, Uber is a driving company. It couldn’t hire drivers as freelancers, but it could potentially hire a janitor as a freelancer.
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Under the PRO Act’s framework, vital gig economy services we’ve come to rely on, such as Uber and Lyft, Instacart grocery delivery, and more, couldn’t exist as we know them. They’d either have to rearrange their business models radically and operate like the taxi cab companies and other outdated predecessors or go bankrupt trying to hire every single driver or delivery person as a full employee.
Millions of workers would lose the flexibility that made gig work attractive in the first place. The jobs that still did exist at these companies would quickly be forced to become the kind of 9-to-5 scheduled work many freelance workers intentionally sought to avoid.
This year, there’s something new on the naughty list for many Santas across California: AB5, the controversial independent contractor law that is keeping many of them from working.
The pandemic, they say, is hiding how AB5 is continuing to hurt them. Directed at gig-economy giants like Uber, Lyft and Doordash, AB5 was meant to protect independent and gig workers, providing them with benefits and preventing exploitation. It came into effect on Jan. 1st of this year, but a wide range of independent contractors and freelancers — including writers, interpreters, performing artists, and even horse handlers — said that the law hindered, rather than protected, them.
That has included many performers who make their living as Santa or Mrs. Claus, the kind of role that by its very nature will not be a full-time job.
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One Mrs. Claus says that she needs the flexibility that being an independent contractor provides her. Marguerite Kusuhara, 64, is an independent performer who has had a wide variety of gigs and work since the 1980s. She’s been a Mrs. Claus for the last five years, and last year, 2019, was the busiest she had ever been.
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Kusuhara’s plight highlights how women are disproportionately affected by AB5. Many women are working mothers or caregivers. “Policy makers need to recognize the many different reasons why people choose to work independently,” says Kelsey Bolar, a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Forum.
We didn't vote for this.
People need to be melting their Congressmen's phone lines and email. The country can't take these hits... COVID, nixing Keystone, this, this coming riots over the summer.
Now what you get in California is the government choosing which industries to freelance. The plan seems to be to cut them all out... wait for the squeaky wheel, and then lube it when necessary.
Essentially, AB 2257 enables most musicians and music industry employees to resume working as freelancers, identifying their employment statuses under the previous Borello test as opposed to AB5’s ABC test.
Plus, the just-enacted law (which was penned by the same individual who wrote AB5 itself) creates exemptions for youth-sports coaches, writers, photographers, graphic designers, and several additional professionals.
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A number of freelancers (including a sizable segment of California’s music community) voiced their opposition to AB5’s stringent stipulations, and Newsom has indicated that his state won’t allow traditional concerts to return until a COVID-19 vaccine is widely available.
Then there's the fine print...
Artists headlining an event with 1,500 or more audience members – and those playing a festival that sells over 18,000 daily tickets – aren’t exempt from AB5 under AB 2257. Additionally, neither are musicians performing with a symphony orchestra, at an amusement park, or in a “musical theater production.”
Celesta Rannisi: "What hospital or company is going to hire me to do home births?! I am a freelance independent home-birth midwife! Licensed by the state of CA. And registered with the North American Registry of Midwives! Lorena you're killing me by taking away my livelihood! I have been serving women 34 years! There is no transitioning available for me at my age of 62."
Lynn, tweeted by Kevin Kiley: "#AB5stories, Lynn: "I'm a transcriptionist. I work from home and love it. I'm not able to work outside the home now and wouldn't want to. I choose what work I want and when to work. After #AB5, the companies I work with had to cut off their CA workers. We lost our livelihood."
Candy Ibarra: "Candy Ibarra had six jobs at the beginning of 2020. Now she has none.
Kevin Matty: "I have lost over 50% of my 2018 income since the implementation of AB5 compared to my 2019 income. Now my clients that I've had for years don't want to give me too much work because they'd have to hire me as an employee and cannot afford it."
Dan Fung: "Doctors of Chiropractic are not exempt so basically they discriminated within the healthcare system. I just lost a contract where I would ironically treat injured workers and help them get back to work."
Oh no! The GIG economy folks are in danger, they might have to pay for unemployment insurance!
You know...the stuff that when things got bad the US government had to cover during the pandemic?
This is about them trying to find yet another way to pay people less money then the minimum wage. Its sad and pathetic. Yeah something should change-these people should not have gig employees that they dont cover the costs of.
Candy Ibarra: "Candy Ibarra had six jobs at the beginning of 2020. Now she has none.
No one should need 6 jobs. LOL. Think about that folks.
Quote:
Kevin Matty: "I have lost over 50% of my 2018 income since the implementation of AB5 compared to my 2019 income. Now my clients that I've had for years don't want to give me too much work because they'd have to hire me as an employee and cannot afford it."
Start your own LLC, and hire yourself out. Do 1099 work. Sounds like there is a different issue underneath this one.
Quote:
Dan Fung: "Doctors of Chiropractic are not exempt so basically they discriminated within the healthcare system. I just lost a contract where I would ironically treat injured workers and help them get back to work."
LOL. Nice! Discrimination...because you arent viewed as medical. Welcome to the world of being a chiropractor. You arent a doctor. That hasn't changed.
They want everyone working for the same few companies that the government does business with making the average American dependent on what the government does, not the people & businesses on a free market economy.
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