California’s landmark labor law aims to make nail salon workers, predominantly Vietnamese women, full employees rather than contractors in an industry known for labor violations.
Like thousands of other Vietnamese-American women in California, Emily Micelli started painting nails to support herself. She turned that weekend job into a two-decade-long career as a manicurist, and now offers her own nail art designs at an upscale Newport Beach salon.
This year, she found her livelihood upended by a few words in the state labor code.
Like other workers in the beauty industry, state-licensed nail technicians were granted an exemption from Assembly Bill 5, the sweeping 2019 law targeting the gig economy that required many employers to classify workers as employees rather than independent contractors.
For nail salons, the exemption was temporary. When it ended on Jan. 1 this year, thousands of manicurists across the state found themselves in legal limbo over their employment status. Many, like Micelli, value their working conditions as independent contractors where they can choose their clients and set their own schedules and are unwilling to be reclassified as hourly employees of the salons where they work.
Lawmakers, backed by unions and workers’ advocates, are now rushing to extend the exemption again — but still only temporarily.
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