Posts tagged AB5
Side Hustles in Focus as Gig Worker Laws Stir Uncertainty
May 1, 2024 // In the debate over the classification of gig workers, Massachusetts finds itself at the center of a legislative whirlwind, echoing a lengthy battle around California’s AB5 Gig-worker law. Proposals to reclassify Uber and Lyft drivers as employees rather than independent contractors have sparked heated discussions about labor rights and the unintended consequences of regulatory measures.
Opinion: PRO Act Just Gives Unions More Power
April 24, 2024 // Big Labor bosses who desire more resources and power (often in order to steal them or direct them to radical political agendas) hope the PRO Act will complete an 80-year campaign to make America more like Europe, with the strikes, economic sclerosis, and socialist planning for which that continent is known. With the PRO Act having powerful allies in the White House and Congress, it’s time for opponents of Big Labor to take note.
Key shipping company shutters operations; bankruptcy uncertain
April 23, 2024 // The U.S. logistics industry has been battling with financial distress this year with companies filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy to liquidate, Chapter 11 reorganization, downsizing operations or just shutting down operations.
Opinion: Your freelance job is in jeopardy (Radio)
April 18, 2024 // The DOL issued a rule creating a very strict and confusing definition of a 1099 worker which will certainly have a chilling effect on the entrepreneurial environment and the opportunities available to freelancers. A similar bill was passed in California (AB5) and it devastated small businesses and freelancers. Pacific Legal Foundation is now representing Kim and other plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the DOL. I want to thank Congressman Tom Kean Jr. for sponsoring action on behalf of the New Jersey delegation to push back against this intrusive and egregious assault on independent contractors.
California Carrier and Freight Brokerage Ceasing Operations, Blames AB5
April 18, 2024 // “I blame AB5 for the main reasons our company is closing,” Chaul told FreightWaves on Tuesday. He said all hope that his company would survive faded in March after a federal judge in California rejected trucking and trade associations’ legal challenges to stop enforcement of AB5, a controversial state law that severely restricts the use of independent contractors. “California is a hostile place to operate a business,” he said. “This law has created a hostile operating environment and an environment of unfair competition.”
My Congressional Testimony: Flexible Benefits for a Flexible Workforce
April 17, 2024 // My testimony today focuses on legalizing independent contractors’ access to fringe benefits. My three key points are: 1. Independent contractors lives would be enhanced if they had access to benefits. 2. States are experimenting with various portable benefits models so that workers care not forced to choose between structured employment with benefits or flexible work without benefits. 3. Federal policy can provide a safe harbor for state and local experimentation with these portable benefits systems.
Trucking groups appeal AB5 ruling to Ninth Circuit
April 16, 2024 // California signed AB5 into law in 2019. The worker classification law is based on the ABC Test, which requires a business to demonstrate three factors are established before a worker can be deemed an independent contractor. The “B prong” of the ABC Test appears to prevent a trucking company from classifying a truck driver as an independent contractor regardless of the level of control or any other factors. The California Trucking Association and OOIDA contend that AB5 imposes undue burdens on interstate commerce in violation of the dormant Commerce Clause. In addition, OOIDA and the state trucking group have said that the law’s decisions on who it exempts violate the U.S. and California constitutions’ equal protection clauses.
A New Law Could Affect Your Retirement Side Hustle Income
April 10, 2024 // Kavin owns her own freelance writing and editing business in New Jersey and leads Fight For Freelancers USA, a nonpartisan coalition of freelancers from across the country that spans professions from translation to interior design. Around 20% of group members are ages 55 to 64 and nearly 10% are age 65 and older. Some members turned to freelancing after suffering age discrimination that cost them a traditional job, says Kavin. "They still want to work and earn, and the way they're able to do it is as independent contractors," she says. Kavin says she does well as a freelancer and does not want a traditional job, even if she could find one at her age. "It's a lot harder to find a traditional job in your 50s than in your 30s, especially one with the significantly higher level of income that I've been able to achieve as a freelancer," she says. "If I lose this self-employed business that I just spent 20 years building up, there may be no other place for me to go."
What the Biden Administration Could Learn From California’s Attempt To Ban Independent Contracting
April 8, 2024 // In other words, the president promised to replicate AB 5 nationally but has failed. I can only surmise that the Los Angeles Times doesn't pay much attention to California news, either. As noted above, AB 5 isn't the victim of Congress or industry—but of massive, angry blowback from California freelancers, many of them Democrats—in multiple professions who didn't appreciate losing their jobs. The story focused on San Francisco's settlement with a company that connects workers with hospitality industry jobs, so AB 5 is still wreaking havoc. The most aggravating part of the Times article cites a study from the pro-union Economic Policy Institute, which finds "blue-collar workers classified as contractors are losing out on as much as $16,700 a year compared with what they would have made as regular employees." Perhaps it should show how much money these workers are losing when companies axe their jobs because of the AB 5-style mandates. When it comes to economics, union think tanks, reporters, and the Biden administration are as clever as those proverbial worms.
COMMENTARY: Like AB5, CA’s Fast-Food Minimum Wage Hike Results in Layoffs, Closures, and Higher Prices
April 4, 2024 // It certainly wasn't a victory for the consumer. First, the prices of fast food started to tick up, then Pizza Hut drivers were laid off. The FAST Act is now fully in effect, and so are the unintended consequences. Tuesday, April 2 saw reports of fast-food restaurants cutting hours, laying off workers, and some completely shuttering their businesses. Welcome to California, where a Big Mac combo will cost you $25.00 and be served to you by a robot. Stevie Wonder could have seen this coming; but hey, power to the people, and all that.