Posts tagged independent contractors
Trey Price: PA worker classification bill would repeat California’s mistakes
August 10, 2024 // The best evidence to date suggests that government worker reclassification mandates do not help workers, but rather harm them. Taking a failed policy from one state and hoping it will work better in another is not a good use of time or money. Pennsylvania’s HB 2411 will almost certainly produce unintended consequences, such as introducing new barriers for firms to hire workers, just as it did in California.
Drayage carrier notifies NJ independent contractors of changing business model
August 9, 2024 // In December 2023, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo and New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin filed the first lawsuit under a 2021 law that permits the state to file suit in New Jersey Superior Court against employers who have allegedly misclassified workers as independent contractors. According to the state’s complaint against STG Logistics and STG Drayage, the suit “seeks to halt the companies’ alleged practice of misclassifying drivers as independent contractors and to recover up to millions in back wages, penalties and fines for more than 300 truck drivers.”
Commentary: Beware the Vanilla Slugger
August 8, 2024 // Study after study shows that the vast majority of independent contractors wish to remain as we are. Any government policy that limits our freedom to choose self-employment is a weaponization of regulatory language. It’s trying to force us to become something we do not want to be. It’s plain and simple freelance busting. Unionized employees and independent contractors are equals as Americans. We have the right to choose how we earn a living. Everyone should respect us and our rights, because that’s how we roll here in the land of the free. We’re all about liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Commentary: Kamala Harris Is Bad News for Gig Workers
August 8, 2024 // Though framed as an overdue deliverance for besieged workers, AB 5 was a gift to labor bosses who dreamed of organizing California gig workers, especially ride-share drivers, and who lusted after the potential dues they could rake in. It was also one of the most-detested laws passed in California in memory. There was no grassroots movement behind AB 5, no uprising among freelancers. It was a top-down scheme fueled by union agitation and then, like so many other lousy public policies hatched in California, unleashed across the country. AB 5’s impact was immediate — and ugly. Workers’ opportunities were narrowed. Many lost their incomes. Businesses faced higher labor costs, and entrepreneurs felt the chill of the dead hand of activist policy-making. The promise of the gig economy, expected to expand globally by roughly 123 percent over the next five years, turned bleak in California. With their businesses in the balance, Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash generously funded a ballot initiative, Proposition 22, that would classify “drivers for app-based transportation (rideshare) and delivery companies as ‘independent contractors,’ not ‘employees.’” Voters approved it overwhelmingly. App-based drivers favored Prop. 22 — four out of five said they were “happy” that it passed, 76 percent said it “benefits me personally,” and 75 percent recommended that lawmakers pass “similar laws in other states so drivers across the country can benefit.”
State of the unions: 8 facts you need to know about unions in Colorado
August 8, 2024 // Colorado is a modified “right to work” state because, under the state’s Labor Peace Act, workplaces with unions may hold a second election to become an all-union workplace. If at least 75% of eligible workers approve its Labor Peace Act election, the workplace becomes all-union, meaning every worker must join the union and pay dues. The act was passed in 1943 as a compromise between unions and business owners. In 2023 and 2024 to date, nine Labor Peace Act elections have been held — six won and three lost, according to the Colorado Fiscal Institute.
Commentary: It’s the Side Hustle, Stupid
August 5, 2024 // These side hustlers are in addition to the millions of Americans who already earn all of our income as independent contractors. Many of us believe that this way of making a buck, with multiple streams of income, empowers us to avoid the kind of all-or-nothing layoffs that come with traditional jobs. Make no mistake: Having the ability to pick up a side hustle or go freelance is like a safety net in the back of many Americans’ minds. If, for whatever reason, we want or need to earn extra cash, we know this option exists.
VP Harris Would Erase Millions of Freelancer Livelihoods
July 29, 2024 // Harris told Randi Weingarten’s group that she, in tandem with President Joe Biden, is committed to Big Labor priorities like the PRO Act. She remarked, “President Joe Biden and I promised to sign the PRO Act into law, and I promise you I will keep that promise. Because when workers join together and demand what is fair, everyone is better off.” Even one Democrat PRO Act holdout and potential VP contender, Senator Mark Kelly, who represents the right-to-work state of Arizona, announced he “switched” his position and will now back this awful bill.
Kamala Harris’s War on American Workers
July 29, 2024 // Harris’s labor policy platform is designed to force every American worker into a union. Big Labor is one of the Democratic Party’s fattest cash cows, spending at least $1.8 billion to elect the Biden-Harris ticket and down ballot Democrats in 2020. The more union dues-paying workers there are, the more money flows into Democratic campaign coffers. The centerpiece of Harris’s plan is banning right-to-work laws, which allow workers to earn a living without being forced into a union as a condition of employment. Right-to-work laws, which protect more than 166 million Americans in 27 states, promote economic growth and prosperity.
COMMENTARY: Kamala’s “PRO Act” Would Ban Right-to-Work and Destroy Independent Contractors Nationwide
July 29, 2024 // The PRO Act is a return on the investment of the hundreds of millions of dollars that Big Labor poured into the Democratic Party’s campaigns to capture the House, Senate, and White House. Employers will be able to force workers into unions as a condition of employment, and union bosses will have access to personal information to bully workers into compliance. Tens of millions of independent contractors would face losing their jobs.
OPINION: Would Harris Be Better than Biden for Independent Contractors?
July 11, 2024 // It’s imperative for the tens of millions of Americans who earn some or all of their income as independent contractors to understand where she stands when it comes to money that is earned through self-employment. The record shows that Harris poses a real threat to independent contractors’ income, and for many of us, to our entire careers.