California Freelancer Says She Questioned How She Would ‘Survive’ Under This State Law
<p>A freelance writer and editor is speaking out about the negative effects of a recent California law, saying she questioned how she was “going to survive” after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the legislation, known as AB 5.&nbsp;</p><p>“The law ... was signed … on Sept. 18, 2019, and when I woke up that morning and I read about it, you know, the next day, I thought, ‘This is going to be an existential threat to my career,'” recalls Karen Anderson, founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancersAgainstAB5/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Freelancers Against AB5</a>, a Facebook group with over 18,000 members.</p><p>“I’m not going to—how am I going to survive?” Anderson adds of her thoughts at the time.</p><p>The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/business/industries/worker-classification-and-ab-5-faq.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">website</a>&nbsp;of the California Franchise Tax Board notes: “AB 5 is a bill the governor signed into law in September 2019 addressing employment status when a hiring entity claims that the person it hired is an independent contractor.”</p><p>Anderson says she has worked for almost 25 years as a freelance writer, an editor or managing editor, and a photographer. She says she<em>&nbsp;</em>“started investigating” the state’s new law “and I realized that … it encompassed all professions.”</p><p>“So golf caddies, videographers, photographers, nurse practitioners, whatever. So I thought, well, I want to find out how it’s affecting other people, not just me,” Anderson says of the law, adding:</p><blockquote><em>And so I started this public Facebook group just to see if I could hear some people’s stories and … sure enough, they started coming in in … November and December, people started losing their livelihoods overnight.&nbsp;</em></blockquote><p>Anderson, a participant in a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.heritage.org/jobs-and-labor" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Heritage Foundation panel discussion</a>, is&nbsp;today’s guest on “The Daily Signal Podcast.” She shares the No. 1 takeaway of the California law with listeners and discusses what’s being done to change it.</p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
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Show Notes
A freelance writer and editor is speaking out about the negative effects of a recent California law, saying she questioned how she was “going to survive” after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the legislation, known as AB 5.
“The law ... was signed … on Sept. 18, 2019, and when I woke up that morning and I read about it, you know, the next day, I thought, ‘This is going to be an existential threat to my career,'” recalls Karen Anderson, founder of Freelancers Against AB5, a Facebook group with over 18,000 members.
“I’m not going to—how am I going to survive?” Anderson adds of her thoughts at the time.
The website of the California Franchise Tax Board notes: “AB 5 is a bill the governor signed into law in September 2019 addressing employment status when a hiring entity claims that the person it hired is an independent contractor.”
Anderson says she has worked for almost 25 years as a freelance writer, an editor or managing editor, and a photographer. She says she “started investigating” the state’s new law “and I realized that … it encompassed all professions.”
“So golf caddies, videographers, photographers, nurse practitioners, whatever. So I thought, well, I want to find out how it’s affecting other people, not just me,” Anderson says of the law, adding:
And so I started this public Facebook group just to see if I could hear some people’s stories and … sure enough, they started coming in in … November and December, people started losing their livelihoods overnight.Anderson, a participant in a recent Heritage Foundation panel discussion, is today’s guest on “The Daily Signal Podcast.” She shares the No. 1 takeaway of the California law with listeners and discusses what’s being done to change it.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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