Contract workers in California should be protected. Assembly Bill 5 doesn’t do it

Vox Media announced it is cutting ties with about 200 California freelance writers because of AB5, the state’s new law governing independent contractors. Writers, independent truckers and freelance photographers have filed suit, saying the law will wreck their livelihoods. More court cases are anticipated.

The supposedly benevolent law was intended to help the very people who are suing. It prevents companies from staffing up with gig workers who receive no job protection or benefits, setting stiff new restrictions over who qualifies as an independent contractor.

Unfortunately, it’s also a prime example of lawmaking by people who make big salaries and never bother finding out what life is like for the everyday workers who make a living in the gig economy. It offered blanket exemptions to groups with strong lobbying capabilities – doctors, lawyers, real estate agents and the like – and left most of the rest gasping for air, including nurses, musicians, stand-up comedians and interpreters. Tutors, who can be college students who work just a couple of hours a week for established companies, must become employees with assigned shifts. Psychologists are exempted but not marriage and family therapists. Veterinarians were given an out but not dog walkers.

The new law, which takes effect in January, also endangers freelance writers (I’m a freelancer, but so far appear to be escaping harm) by limiting them to 35 articles per year for each client. It doesn’t differentiate between briefs that take 10 minutes and investigative stories that might take months.

Why 35? An arbitrary number.

California is ignoring the fact that editors outside the state can hire writers from anywhere. They don’t have to deal with AB5 and many won’t. Meanwhile, traditional publications are suffering from loss of ad revenue; many have been letting go of the staff they have. Most aren’t about to start hiring.

Scripted, an online platform for contract writers to find gigs, is suspending the accounts of all California writers. One writer said work from the site accounted for a hefty portion of her income during tough years. Vox said it will hire 20 or so part-time and full-time reporters to write about the sports news than the 200 freelancers it previously employed, which might end up good for those hired (though many part-timers have practically nothing in the way of benefits) but has been devastating news for 180 others.

Ten percent of American workers are in the gig economy. In California, 1.6 million people are estimated to do this work full-time. Some want regular jobs, others dread the idea.

Even transcriptionists, who turn taped material into written text, are being harmed.

“I was an [independent contractor] transcriptionist for years,” Jessica Tucker of Loma Linda wrote on Facebook. “My client is an out-of-state company. Due to AB5, they elected not to work with California [contractors] anymore, so I lost my job.”

Even Uber and Lyft drivers are divided on the topic. Some want the regular pay and benefits of a job; others prefer to pick their shifts and territories to maximize their income.

Those who prefer to work as contractors include parents who want to stay home with their young children and disabled workers who need to work from home or at times when they feel well enough. Others simply like to set their own hours and working conditions, decide when they will take vacation, deduct their business expenses and simply be their own bosses.

That’s not to say the idea behind AB 5 doesn’t have merit. There have been abusive situations in which big companies have replaced full-time workers with contractors, depriving them of benefits while increasing the cost of working. In fact, AB5 was supposed to be the legislative answer to a state Supreme Court decision against a delivery company that took exactly those steps.

But while this law might protect some Californians, it also threatens the very workers and small businesses with which Democrats have historically allied themselves. Yet instead of vowing to clean up a bad bill, its author, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), has been defensive.

Gov. Gavin Newsom should work with lawmakers to pass emergency legislation delaying enforcement of AB5 while the Legislature revamps what could otherwise end up being a disastrous law for hundreds of thousands of workers.

Potential adjustments: Exempt small businesses and people who work less than 10 or 12 hours a week for each client or who make at least twice the state’s minimum wage. Rather than changing contractors’ status to employee, consider adding job protections for those in the gig economy, along the lines of New York City’s Freelance Isn’t Free Act.

Regardless, the damage has been done: Companies don’t fully understand it and many don’t want to deal with it. Those that can hire out-of-state employees will do it rather than worry about the complexities.

Note to the Legislature: Destroying the livelihoods of contractors is not the same as protecting them.

This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 6:00 AM.