he Biden administration has effectively declared war on gig work, with its Department of Labor proposing a new federal regulation inspired by California’s controversial AB 5 law that would limit people’s ability to be classified as independent contractors and work as they choose.
As Bloomberg Law reports, “The US Labor Department’s new proposed worker classification test has parallels to California’s ‘ABC test’ [a provision of AB ], which presumes workers are employees instead of independent contractors under the law.”
This proposal, if successful, would cruelly upset millions of lives. At least 57 million Americans are currently involved in gig work, a number expected to grow to more than 86 million within the next five years.
AB 5, which essentially bans independent contract and freelance work, was one of the most hated bills to emerge from the Sacramento sausage-making process in recent memory. Read more…
