Politicians hate the “gig economy.” The simple reason is that it’s harder to collect taxes from freelancers than from employees. The California Assembly has passed a bill that would put many freelancers out of work, including writers. It would force clients to take them on as employees. That’s very unlikely to happen for the typical writer, who would simply lose the work.

As of this writing, the bill still has to be passed by the Senate. The text of California AB-5 is on the state website.

I’m not a lawyer and (fortunately) don’t live in California, but this kind of legislation could spread to other states. If it does, it will force a lot of writing work overseas, hurting people in every state.

Are you an independent contractor?

To qualify as an independent contractor under the bill, you have to satisfy three criteria. The first, that you’re “free from control” over the exact work you do, isn’t a problem. The third, that you’re “customarily involved” in the work, might be a problem for people just getting started, depending on exactly what the requirement means.

The second criterion, that you’re “performing work outside the normal scope of the entity hiring,” could be the killer. If you’re writing for a content broker (or less euphemistically, a “content mill”), writing is the normal scope of what they do. As I read it, this says that they would no longer be allowed to contract writing out to California residents.

A break for high-paid writers

There is an exemption for freelance writers, but it’s hard for most to satisfy:

(III) Work that is performed by a freelance writer who does not provide content to any one publication more than 25 times per year, if that person actually sets all of the following:
(ia) Hours.
(ib) Locations.
(ic) Rate of pay for work provided, except that rate shall be equal to or greater than two times the minimum wage for hours worked.

It isn’t clear what this means in a lot of cases. A lot of freelance writing isn’t for a publication but for internal use or syndication (documentation, press releases, etc.). California’s minimum wage is currently $12.00 per hour ($11.00 for businesses with 25 employees or fewer) and is scheduled to rise to $15.00. A lot of writers don’t bring in $30.00 per hour. Even those who do will be saddled with a major bookkeeping task to prove it. This requirement is an example of how regulation often hits people with low incomes the hardest.

The bill will certainly change before coming out of the Senate, if it passes. I’ve been told that there’s a lobbying group for writers that wants to raise the cap on the amount of work and eliminate the high-income requirement.

It’s for your own good!

Legislators, of course, claim they’re depriving you of a livelihood for your own good. The bill’s sponsor, Lorena Gonzalez, declared, “Big businesses shouldn’t be able to pass their costs onto taxpayers while depriving workers of the labor law protections they are rightfully entitled to.” You’ll be “protected” from earning a living as a freelance writer!

California has been known for insane legislation ever since its 1879 constitution explicitly banned the employment or importation of Chinese workers and provided for the removal of already resident Chinese. The constitution described Chinese immigrants as “aliens who are or may become vagrants, paupers, mendicants, criminals, or invalids afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases, and … aliens otherwise dangerous or detrimental to the well-being or peace of the State.” Then too, it was for the alleged good of the people prohibited from working: “Asiatic coolieism is a form of human slavery, and is forever prohibited in this State, and all contracts for coolie labor shall be void.”

When a politician claims to be “helping” you, run for your life!