Posted on 08/20/2020 9:52:41 AM PDT by karpov
My company uses a lot of independent contractors. I have employees but, given the nature of the work my firm does (short term projects), it makes more sense for me to hire specialists to perform certain tasks rather than bring on a new employee. I have been using essentially the same group of independent contractors for the past 10 years. Some of them work as little as 10 hours a month, others as much as 30 hours a week depending on the jobs we have.
Clearly, I'm not the only small business doing this. Sites like UpWork, Fiverr, Guru and Freelancer.com have created work for literally millions of freelancers, independent contractors and side-hustlers over the past few years. Ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft have built their businesses around independent contractors. So have publishing, media, trucking, construction, landscaping, technology and countless other smaller firms similar to mine.
For the employer, hiring an independent contractor (otherwise known as a "1099 contractor," which refers to the IRS form that employers must submit to report their payments every year) has many upsides. You're not required to pay employer taxes, health insurance or other employee benefits. But it’s not just the employers who benefit. Most of the 1099ers I've met – and all of the ones I work with – prefer the relationship. It offers them more control, allows them to be entrepreneurial and gives them the ability to charge what they want and pick and choose the work they do and the people they work for.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is a supporter of a new law in California – Assembly Bill 5, or AB5 – that fundamentally changes the way companies treat their freelancers.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
the death of democracy
Not really. They (despicables) actually want democracy (mob rule). Look at the despicable cities and want they are going through now. That is the goal.
Isn’t there some controversy over her status or something?
Didn’t we have a Dem Congress under 0bama?
In preferred contract work in my last 5 years of professional life.
What you don’t get is that this has bigger implications if the Democrats would win the Senate, and the presidency. It would be the first thing they would put into affect nationwide. January 2020 Congress passed the following bill. But since there’s a Republican Senate it went nowhere.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that effectively would nationalize the provisions within California’s AB5 law, which severely constricts the ability of companies to hire independent contractors.
The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, introduced in Congress last year, expands the definition of “employee” and “employer” to discourage the classification of workers as independent contractors, with language that mirrors the three-pronged “ABC” test in AB5 to determine independent contractor status. An amendment attached to the bill clarifies that its ABC test “does not preempt any state laws governing the wages, work hours, workers’ compensation, or unemployment insurance of employees.”
The legislation was approved along party lines in the Democrat-controlled House. The bill has a much more difficult road in the Republican-majority U.S. Senate, however, where it is not expected to pass. “It’s a messaging bill that has no chance of passing” in the Senate, said Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., in opposing the bill on the House floor.
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/house-democrats-approve-federal-ab5-legislation
Surely they can’t believe that crippling the innovative growth and livelihoods of millions of “gig economy” workers will be good for America?
The incurious and shallow media makes this about “Uber.”
Trouble is this will crater the economy after Biden takes over.
It all rides on the election.
Contract work was a GREAT experience for this IT Project Manager.
Paid very well and allowed substantial flexibility.
At the interview I would always interview the client.
What is the project objective, who are the stakeholders and what is the budget?
Rarely would I find a company that could answer those.
Cha Ching.
> Didn’t we have a Dem Congress under 0bama? <
Yep. And for a short while Obama had a filibuster-proof Senate. That gave us Obamacare among other things.
But as others have noted, I think the filibuster will be gone if the D’s take the Senate. And today’s D’s are much more radical than the ones back in 2009. The only thing that would be in our favor would be the Supreme Court. And with Roberts running that show, who knows?
Oh, there will be an election on Nov 3rd. Then on the 5th or 6th it will start to be overturned state-by-state as the judges force the counting of piles of unpostmarked ballots. Some even marked R, for show, but probably 10:1 D. They might even overplay their hand and do 100:1 D. Once they have enough votes in that state they will stop.
That’s kinda what I mean. Maybe I should have said, “normal election”. I didn’t because too many would have said no election is “normal”. But by “normal”, I mean at least we will know who won, 2000 and that lunacy, finally stopped by the SCOTUS, notwithstanding.
That would be the least of your worries under President Biden and later President Harris it would get even worse.
Nope, Death of the Republic.
Before the COVID-19 shutdown the economy, gig workers and freelance workers were a small but significant part of the boom in almost full employment we were having.
It was resisted by the unions and the Democrat politicians the unions controlled but laws against it weren’t in force yet.
Now that the California law is kicking in and Democrats country wide smell victory, expect gig and freelance work to be over. This will not be good for the economy and companies needing short term workers will have to pay more for it.
Would the death of freelancing be good for America, or bad for America?
See how clear it becomes?
Gee, I hope not. I was laid off this year, decided to retire, and that made me a few bucks short every month (okay, well, more than a few). I was looking forward to being a Door Dash or Shipt person. After 50 years of 9-5 and a 6-hour daily commute, it tickles me to think I could make the few bucks I need in this way. Go away, Biden...back to your basement and stay there.
Maybe our president will pull another rabbit out of the hat.
God be with us.
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