Posts tagged Mikie Sherrill
Freelance Busting: “They All Had A Different Answer”
October 20, 2026 // Senator after senator described statewide confusion about the rule among business owners, attorneys, accountants and constituents. Senators said people are constantly asking them about the legality of continuing to hire every conceivable kind of working person, from financial advisers to babysitters. One senator described what’s happening in some industries as “panic mode.” Another said he convened accountants in his district to ask about the independent-contractor rule, and “they all had a different answer.” Yet another asked, “Who’s the guru of the determining if you pass or fail the ABC Test?” and wondered aloud if there was going to be a Division of ABC Test Clarification within the state’s Labor Department.
Commentary: New Jersey Takes Aim at Freedom of Its Independent Contractors
October 16, 2026 // In 2019, the legislature voted in AB5, and it was quickly signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Enforcement went into effect in 2020, and as Karen Anderson, founder of Freelancers Against AB5, explained on her Substack, four years later, independent professionals are still experiencing the fallout.
New Jersey: Kim Kavin: Carveout Chaos Ahead
October 2, 2026 // Anderson is the founder of Freelancers Against AB5, the leading advocacy group in California that is still trying to figure out how to get that state’s ABC Test law repealed. She is currently a Future of Work Fellow with the Institute for the American Worker in Washington, D.C., an excellent program about labor and employment policy that I completed earlier this year. And, Anderson and I both testified before Congress on this issue in 2023, when her testimony included the following passage, some three years after California’s ABC Test law and a cleanup bill that followed it had gone into effect:
NJBIA: Latest Independent Contractor Carve-Out Bill Highlights Fatal Flaws of New ABC Test
September 15, 2026 // The rule, strongly opposed by NJBIA, New Jersey's business community, New Jersey freelancers and legislators from both sides of the aisle, has been paused until Oct. 1 to give NJDOL and lawmakers time to work out any needed statutory changes. But as there are only 16 days left until the rule takes effect and no statutory changes have been made, NJBIA has launched a grassroots campaign to urge Gov. Mikie Sherrill to delay the implementation of the rule until July 1, 2027. Further, Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-22) has also formally requested the Sherrill administration to pause the rule.
‘Severe Adverse Impact’
September 8, 2026 // Scutari’s action is good news for independent contractors like me. He is showing leadership on this policy issue in response to all the independent contractors and the broader business community who continue to stand in fierce opposition to the rulemaking, which attempts to impose the Labor Department’s own interpretation of regulatory language that defines who can legitimately earn income as an independent contractor throughout the state.
Commentary: The 2026 Battle of Trenton
May 12, 2026 // Unfortunately, my camera failed to record video of my testimony, and there is no video from the state—only an audio recording of the hearing. But suffice it to say that, as usual, I found myself in a hearing room largely dominated by men, testifying before a panel of senators who are all male, as debate raged about policy that economic research shows is already having a disproportionate and negative impact on women.
New Jersey Adopts ABC Test Rule
May 5, 2026 // Today, under the administration of Governor Mikie Sherrill, the State of New Jersey adopted the previous administration’s proposed independent-contractor rule that faced 3-to-1 opposition at last summer’s public hearing and 99% opposition during the written public-comment process.
NEW JERSEY: NJBIA Urges Sherrill Administration to Not Adopt Independent Contractor Rule
April 29, 2026 // Further, in data highlighted in Extremism and Entrepreneurism, a 98-page report from Freelance Busting founder Kim Kavin, there is already empirical research by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University showing that New Jersey’s ABC test applications have already resulted in the following from 1995-2024: a 3.81% decrease in W-2 employment a 10.08% decrease in self-employment a 3.95% decrease in overall employment a 7.40% decrease in women’s W-2 employment Kavin’s report also found evidence suggesting the underlying claim by labor groups to restrict independent contracting in New Jersey was based “largely on mischaracterized data and research.”
Freelance Busting: The ABC Test Defense
April 22, 2026 // And perhaps most important, according to all of the oral testimony and thousands of written public comments submitted to New Jersey’s Labor Department, there are zero people being unknowingly classified as independent contractors. You can download and read here the eight (yes, only eight out of about 9,500) public comments that individuals supporting the proposed rule change filed. Not a single one of them says the person was unknowingly working as an independent contractor.
Commentary: Four Lies And A Truth
April 1, 2026 // The New Jersey AFL-CIO dropped some real whoppers in an email to state legislators about independent-contractor policy.