After two years of fighting for our right to remain our own bosses, we have come to a disturbing conclusion: A shocking number of lawmakers are actively trying to destroy our livelihoods.
The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee made that much clear with its 11-10 vote on Jan. 13 to advance the nomination of David Weil as administrator of the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor. Weil, the author of "The Fissured Workplace," believes that the decline in unionized employees, coupled with the rise of independent contractors like us—who, at 59 million strong, comprise a third of the U.S. workforce—has created a great fissuring, or breaking, of our workforce that requires correction.
His advancement is just the latest battle in the war we’re being forced to fight to keep our chosen careers. The first-wave attack came in 2019 with California’s Assembly Bill 5, which severely restricted the legality of independent contractor work. Proponents said AB5 would punish companies that intentionally misclassified employees as independent contractors, and would make those folks legally eligible to form unions (which independent contractors, as small-business owners, cannot do).
It sure did. Horrible ones.
AB5 created zero new unions and precious few traditional jobs. Instead, most companies cut ties with California’s independent contractors, damaging so many livelihoods that the state passed an emergency measure exempting more than 100 professions....
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