THR:
A new bill that caps freelance submissions may make writing financially unsustainable for many workers even though the legislator behind the law insists that the goal is “to create new good jobs and a livable, sustainable wage job.”
California-based freelance writer Arianna Jeret recently learned about Assembly Bill 5 and is now concerned she and her colleagues in CA may soon be speaking about their jobs in the past tense.
Jeret, who contributes to relationship websites YourTango.com and The Good Men Project, says freelance writing has helped support her two children and handle their different school schedules. Her current gigs — covering mental health, lifestyle and entertainment — allow her to work from home, from the office and even from her children’s various appointments. “There were just all of these benefits for my ability to still be an active parent in my kids’ lives and also support us financially that I just couldn’t find anywhere in a steady job with anybody,” she says.
Jeret is now coming to terms with how her lifestyle will change come Jan. 1, when AB 5, California legislation aimed directly at the gig economy that was signed into law Sept. 18, will go into effect.
The bill, which cracks down on companies — like ride-sharing giants Lyft and Uber — that misclassify would-be employees as independent contractors, has been percolating through the California legislative system for nearly a year. It codifies the 2018 Dynamex decision by the State Supreme Court while carving out some exemptions for specific professions.
But the exemption for freelance journalists — which some have only just learned about via their colleagues, press reports, social networks and/or spirited arguments with the bill’s author on Twitter — contains what some say is a potentially career-ending requirement for a writer to remain a freelancer: If a freelance journalist writes for a magazine, newspaper or other entity whose central mission is to disseminate the news, the law says, that journalist is capped at writing 35 “submissions” per year per “putative employer.” At a time when paid freelance stories can be written for a low end of $25 and high end of $1 per word, some meet that cap in a month just to make end’s meet. read more
We need a law to ban new laws!
Wa, wa, wa, it won’t stop until voters WAKE THE HELL UP! Socialism controls every part of the life you owe to the government. Socialism IS slavery. Enjoy.
You got any dreams; We want them too. -Richard Pryor.
Sense has never been a requirement for any California law.
Stupid do-gooders who want to control everything and everyone end up being useful tools for stuff like this: law pushed by unions for their own benefit, and of course the Democrat politicos they support.
(Then again, it’s so difficult to feel sorry for progressive California writer types. Maybe they should get a clue?)
California is hostile to private business. What someone legally does to make a living should be of no concern to the state.
But “a magazine, newspaper or other entity whose central mission is to disseminate the news” can still farm that work out to “Becky” in Bombay more than “35 ‘submissions’ per year per ‘putative employer.'”? Right? Or there’ll be Republican heck to pay! Federal heck.
Watch Commiefornia real close.
It is the canary in the coal mine
and America is the coal mine…
Wide spread civil unrest will be the
first thing to happen.
So: a writer’s “anti dog-eat-dog” bill?
Cali begins to go full Atlas Shrugged.
I often say (and am not original in saying so) that USA is the Great Experiment, that within the bounds of the Constitution states are welcome to make their own policy and let the people decide via voting and moving. Sadly, it looks like I am going to have to vote with my feet.
Get government the PHUCK out of our lives!
Government approved “fake news” will be exempted.
No matter how bad Cali sucks the lefties will always support the nannies who run the place. Now some of the folks there are moving to get away from stuff like this and are bringing that same philosophy with them when they vote.
Left Coast Dan, you’d be welcome here in North Idaho.
Wouldn’t this apply to bill writers also???
Bad judicial decisions make bad laws.
The root of the problem?
“It codifies the 2018 Dynamex decision by the State Supreme Court while carving out some exemptions for specific professions.”
Tell Katey to bar the door.
Have you noticed that NO law EVER passed by democrats EVER has the predicted result?