What was the impact of AB5 on California’s marginalized communities?

Pacific Legal Foundation ^ | March 27, 2025 | ALISON SOMIN

[grundle]

Instead of giving these workers additional employment benefits, the result is that they are less likely to be hired at all.

The California SAC heard testimony from workers from a diverse array of industries offering their experiences with AB5, including court reporters, translators, cosmetology workers, and exotic dancers. Many of these workers were women, immigrants, people of color, and from other politically disadvantaged groups.

Esther Hermida, a representative of the American Alliance of Professional Translators and Interpreters (AAPTI) testified about AB5’s impact on thousands of citizens in her industry comprised of 75 percent women. One professional translator, Ildiko Santana, reported she started her small business in 2000 as an immigrant and woman of color. She lost all 50 clients and all her income in 2020 when AB5 went into effect.

The SAC heard similar testimony from the trucking industry, which disproportionately employs African Americans and Hispanics. The committee learned that in June 2023, the City of Los Angeles terminated a 132-year-old program called the As-Needed Haul Truck Program. Eighty-seven percent of the drivers were racial and ethnic minorities.

AB5 also appears to have had a detrimental impact on small performing and fine arts organizations. Judith Flex Hella submitted written testimony describing how the concert dance scene, comprised mainly of small companies run by women and minorities, struggles to comply with the law. Gail Gordon founded a small nonprofit opera company in honor of her mother, a Holocaust survivor, that presented music by Jewish composers suppressed by Nazis. In written testimony, Gordon said she is no longer able to put on operas because production costs have increased by about 70 percent, due to AB5.

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TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: ab5; alisonsomin; california; clownifornia; demagogicparty; evilcaliforniaclowns; labor; tyranny

[Repeal The 17th]

???California SAC???
???AB5???

[grame]

Thank you

[Governor Dinwiddie]

article: "In written testimony, Gordon said she is no longer able to put on
operas because production costs have increased by about 70 percent."

Things are tough all over.

Oh well. She still has these operas to choose from:

• "The Young and the Restless"
• "General Hospital"
• "Days of Our Lives"

[SunkenCiv]

The rest of the AB5 keyword, sorted:

• This Labor Day, Ask Why States Like California Restrict Freelance Work [09/01/2025]
• California's Ninth Circuit Issues Another Body Blow to AB5 [03/19/2023]
• Biden's Labor Secretary Nominee Wants to Ban Freelance Workers-"Overnight, it would become illegal... to continue earning a living." [03/08/2023]
• Large trucker protests over California's gig worker law AB5 shut down Port of Oakland terminals [07/20/2022]
• Clogged California ports face new labor risk from trucking [07/20/2022]
• California's AB5 Labor Classification Law About to Throw Another Major Wrench in the Supply Chain, and 70,000 Truckers in Limbo [07/09/2022]
• California's AB5 Set to Worsen Supply-Chain Woes [07/02/2022]
• Lorena Gonzalez will leave the Assembly to lead one of California's most powerful unions [01/03/2022]
• California Drove Truckers Out of Business. Now Store Shelves Are Empty-Democrat regulations are holding the entire economy hostage [10/25/2021]
• California Drove Truckers Out of Business. Now Store Shelves Are Empty [10/23/2021]
• Prop. 22 is ruled unconstitutional, a major blow to California gig economy law [08/20/2021]
• California Ban on Trucking Contractors Is Back [05/09/2021]
• Why millions of freelancers fear a Biden presidency may put them out of work [10/17/2020]
• US election: California's AB5 employment legislation is Democratic gift to Donald Trump [09/15/2020]
• California Gov. Newsom Signs Critical AB5 Exemption For Music Makers Into Law (good news in CA for a change) [09/13/2020]
• What Will Be Left of L.A.'s Music Scene After the Pandemic? [08/24/2020]
• California Dems Seek Death Penalty for Uber and Lyft [08/22/2020]
• Would a President Biden mean the death of freelancing? [08/20/2020]
• California is on the verge of driving out another business [08/13/2020]
• Let Them Go on Welfare. California Democrats know their new law is costing modest-income people their livelihoods -- and they really just don't care. [07/13/2020]
• Trump is planning to ban H-1B and other work visas [06/12/2020]
• California legislators pit blacks against Asians in brainless move to bring back affirmative action [06/12/2020]
• Biden Vows to Outlaw Work. California's anti-contractor law has led to massive job losses and a backlash even among liberal workers, but the Democratic nominee wants to impose it nationwide. [06/11/2020]
• Biden Backs Democrat Declaration Against Independence [05/29/2020]
• CA Senator to Unemployed Freelancers Begging to Work: You're Upset Because We Took Away Your "Lollipops" [05/15/2020]
• California Senator to Unemployed Freelancers: You're Upset Because We Took Away Your "Lollipops" [05/15/2020]
• California pol tweets '[bleeping] Elon Musk' after announcement to move Tesla [05/10/2020]
• Lorena Gonzalez's AB5 is Contributing to Coronavirus Deaths But She Still Won't Back Down [03/25/2020]
• California's AB 5 kills off 40-year Lake Tahoe Music Festival [03/17/2020]
• California Wedding Industry Turned 'On Top of Its Head' by Freelancing Law [AB-5 hurts women. Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez says, "I'm sorry you feel that way. This is not a bad bill."] [03/17/2020]
• New Law Could DESTROY Independent Music [California liberals complaining about AB-5, which was passed and supported by liberals] [13 minute video] [03/17/2020]
• 'Moderate' Biden backs radical California regulation that destroyed freelance jobs [03/10/2020]
• California's Gig Economy Is Under Attack. "Companies can simply blacklist California writers and work with writers in other states, and that's exactly what's happening." [03/05/2020]
• Judge Says Instacart Misclassified its California Workers (AB5 hurts CA workers again) [02/26/2020]
• A California-style Brexit. Freelancers are rising up in opposition to the state's new law regulating "gig workers." [02/13/2020]
• The AB5 backlash: Singers, actors, dancers, theaters sound off on freelance law [02/13/2020]
• The Democrats and Their Prophetic Failure. Again. [01/28/2020]
• California Runs Off the Road. The new state labor law AB5 is causing trouble far and wide. [01/24/2020]
• The 2020 NAMM Show will honor Joni Mitchell as well as unleash a slew of new gear (no mention of AB5) [01/11/2020]
• California Court Says Truckers Exempt From 'Gig Worker' Law (Breaking) [01/10/2020]
• Workers Resist California's Newest Bad Law [01/04/2020]
• In California, New Year Brings New Regulations for Businesses Laws on privacy and classifying independent contractors take effect Jan. 1 in the Golden State [01/01/2020]
• ASTA Cautions New York Legislators About Independent Contractor Bill (CA's AB5 threatens in NY) [12/24/2019]
• California Freelancers Sue To Stop Law That's Destroying Their Jobs. Pol Says Those 'Were Never Good Jobs' Anyway. [12/23/2019]
• California Governor Signs Law on Gig Economy That Could 'Gut the Music Industry [12/20/2019]
• 'It feels cold and heartless': Hundreds of California freelancers have been fired before the holidays over a state law meant to help Uber and Lyft drivers [12/19/2019]
• California's new employment law has boomeranged and is starting to crush freelancers [12/12/2019]
• For-Hire Backfire [09/14/2019]

[metmom]

One professional translator, Ildiko Santana, reported she started her small business in 2000 as an immigrant and woman of color. She lost all 50 clients and all her income in 2020 when AB5 went into effect.

Wow, a twofer victim class status.

Cry me a river.

[Adder]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Assembly_Bill_5_(2019)

They thought they were going to make companies pay benefits to independent contractors. Instead, companies quit using them...hence the boo hoos in this article.

[Strident]

of course. companies and entrepreneurs behave rationally. unlike democrats who are infested with magical thinking.

[cgbg]

Yup—the Democrats brag they are punching up when they pass these laws but it turns out in the real world they are punching down.

[bk1000]

“ Many of these workers were women, immigrants, people of color, and from other politically disadvantaged groups.”

You mean like the ones who have just been exposed for stealing $billions?

[grobdriver]

Alison needs a lesson in "journalism".

What the hell IS AB5?

I infer it was the minimum wage bill, but all she had to do was insert in parentheses, just once at the beginning, "AB5 (The Minimum Wage bill)"...

[Repeal The 17th]

Thanks.

[DugwayDuke]

California’s AB5 (Assembly Bill 5) is a 2019 law that makes it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors, forcing them to treat many as employees, especially in the gig economy (like Uber, Lyft) and trucking, by using the “ABC test” to determine worker status for benefits like minimum wage, overtime, and paid leave, significantly impacting many industries and sparking debate over worker rights versus business flexibility.

[TBP]

That’s the objective.

[Mastador1]

The ‘journalist’ who wrote this obviously felt if played up the race bait people would be more sympathetic, they are a moron, the vast majority of Americans are fed up being told that certain people need to be treated special. The author should have just stayed factual because this is a bad bill that hurt people across all lines.. The fact is this bullshit that the communist democrats passed affected every independent contractor in the state, not just the ones with a darker skin tone.