Jennifer: I heard about AB5 in the spring of last year because I write about politics in California so it'd been on my radar. Everything I heard about it was Uber and Lyft, Uber and Lyft. Having worked in the court reporting industry before as a freelancer there too, they were talking about the Dynamex decision, which you referenced. I just didn't think it would impact me at all because it didn't, on the surface, seem like it would be anything that would affect a freelance writer.
Patrice: But unfortunately it does. As you rightly said, the focus has been on the gig economy, like the Ubers and the Lyfts, those big tech platforms that tend to employ contract workers who some people consider as independent small business owners, and would really force them to make them employees, allowing them to get access to benefits, traditional employee benefits, and over time pay different types of compensation mandates that the state requires. It's interesting that it fell on your radar as an independent ... as a writer and as a journalist. I'm guessing it started to pick up steam in different.....MORE
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