Possible changes to the United States labor law are raising eyebrows in some creative circles, where freelancers worry they could lose important freedoms due to legislation that redefines some independent contractors as employees.
“This is something that should be on everyone’s radar,” Kim Kavin, a freelance writer and editor based in New Jersey who co-founded the organization Fight for Freelancers in 2019, told Hyperallergic. She’s sounding the alarm about the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (or PRO Act) bill of 2021, concerned that it could harm not only freelance writers but also artists who operate as independent contractors. For now, the bill is stalled in the US Senate, which means creatives still have a chance to weigh in with their opinions. “Learn who your lawmakers are,” said Kavin, “and tell them you want to be able to choose freelancing.”
Kavin is particularly concerned about a provision in the bill called the “ABC Test,” which includes three criteria that distinguish independent contractors from employees. “You have to meet all three to be considered an independent contractor,” she explained.
Essentially, the ABC Test defines an independent contractor as someone who controls how they perform the service they’re providing, if the service is outside the usual course of the employer’s business, and if the service aligns with the nature of their independently established trade. The language of the bill reads:
(b) Employee.—Section 2(3) of the National Labor...
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