https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/11/californias-new-employment-law-is-starting-to-crush-freelancers.htmlCalifornia recently passed laws determining who is a freelancer and who has to be considered a full-time employee (and eligible for benefits, minimum pay, etc.).
Unsurprisingly, it's having a nasty, and growing, impact on the entire gig market, with companies drastically reducing the amount of freelance assignments they're giving and some freelancers just getting hammered income wise. And, it's still being interpreted by the legislature and the courts, so the fallout isn't nearly over.
Of course, there's one solution that's being pushed...
"Professional Independent Consultants of America, which opposes the law, has advised its members to form an LLC or S Corp, get a business license, create a business infrastructure that includes elements such as a separate business bank account, create a website and a business email address at a domain only used for business, advertise, use written contracts and submit invoices for all work, not time sheets, according to Liz Steblay, co-founder. “Effectively, this law means that to be paid as a business, a freelancer or solo professional is going to have to be set up like a business and act like a business,” Steblay said in an email."
But wait! California, from what I understand, has massive amounts of red tape that people trying to do that have to climb through. And, it's supposedly expensive as hell.
Then there's this...
"“I don’t believe legislators realized the impact this had,” says Gene Zaino,"
That made me laugh, because in the run up to the law being passed various groups were predicting a lot of this, including companies out of state who hire California-based freelancers basically excluding Californians from consideration. And yet, the uberleft legislature couldn't wait to pass this, because government knows best, apparently. And other hard blue states like New Jersey, New York, etc., are considering similar laws.
Why do I care?
I've done a lot of freelancing over the years, including projects homed in California, Massachusetts, and New York. While I'm not doing nearly as much freelancing anymore, I understand the impact that it's going to have.
And, unfortunately, now that Virginia has swung back to complete left control and is moving more "progressive" by the minute, I see this in my state's future because there's a growing hue and cry among the morons about protecting worker's rights.
But, I have to wonder, are you really protecting a worker if he can no longer get work because your desire to protect him... *expletive deleted*ed him over in so many other ways?
NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
