Fluent in English, Spanish, and sign language, Sophia Aguirre has worked as an interpreter for 30 years.
Whether it’s serving as a translator for video programs that enable the hearing-impaired to communicate by phone, or teaching American Sign Language to deaf children in their homes, Aguirre has helped countless Americans engage in daily life.
For them, there’s no question that her work is “essential.” But since January, Aguirre has struggled to maintain employment.
While COVID-19 hasn’t helped, the real obstacle is a new California law: Assembly Bill 5. The measure, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year, is so notorious that in the Golden State, it’s known simply as “AB5.”
Despite mounting pushback in California, Democrats want to take it nationwide, passing the Protecting the Right to Organize Act—dubbed the PRO Act—through the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year.
“AB5 will not only disrupt my life; it will destroy my life,” Aguirre said of the measure. “It will devastate me.”
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Since AB5 took effect in California on Jan. 1, Aguirre said, agencies have been hesitant to hire her for translating work. Uncertain of AB5’s new terms, companies now view independent contractors as a risk.
“Instead of being an asset to them, we’re a liability,” she said.
As a result, Aguirre’s income has been slashed.
The Story Behind AB5
In essence, AB5 requires companies to reclassify “gig” workers as full-time employees. It was designed to target the gig economy; specifically, companies such as Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash, which rely on thousands of independent contractors to provide their services. In exchange for flexible hours and the ability to come and go as they please, these workers forgo benefits such as health insurance, sick leave, and more.
Proponents of the measure argue that by severely regulating the type and scale of work independent contractors are allowed to perform, employers will be forced to hire them as full-time employees with benefits. However good the intentions were, in practice, AB5 has put independent contractors and small businesses out of work.
AB5 mandates three strict conditions that employers must meet in order to classify a worker as an independent contractor, rather than as an employee. One condition that has been particularly problematic for independent contractors requires that they perform “work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.”
That means that if Aguirre is acting as an interpreter for more than a few hours at a company that enables people with hearing disabilities to communicate over the phone, she now must be fully employed by that company instead of being an independent contractor who can set her own hours.
In addition to hurting her pocketbook, the policy hurts Aguirre personally. A single mom with two sons, she values flexibility over benefits or a salaried paycheck. Like many Californians, she’s an independent contractor by choice.
Taking Away a Yogi’s Flexibility
A traditional 9-to-5 job also never made sense for 54-year-old Jennifer O’Connell. A writer, yoga instructor, and career-reinvention coach, she prefers taking on an assortment of projects, rather than just one.
“It didn’t matter what time I did work, because I was talking to schools across the world,” she said. “That allowed me flexibility during my day to go teach my regular [yoga] classes for my part-time W-2 job and then come back and maybe work on an article, do interviews, or work on yoga certifications.”
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Because of AB5, O’Connell said gyms and yoga studios can no longer hire her for occasional anatomy lectures anymore.
“They are moving training online, and that affects people like me who would go around and do lectures,” she said. “The small mom-and-pop studios aren’t going to open their doors again.”
The implications for O’Connell’s career have been so bad that she and her husband briefly considered leaving the state. But instead of leaving, O’Connell is fighting back, hoping that lawmakers and the constituents who vote for them hear her story and finally listen.
“Hopefully, the temperature of the electorate is very much tired of this kind of stuff,” she said. “If we stay loud and vocal, it could very well turn the presidential election, or at least influence it.”
A Writer’s Lost Dreams
JoBeth McDaniel doesn’t know O’Connell or Aguirre, but she can identify with their stories. A California freelance writer, McDaniel has enjoyed the perks of working for herself, since it helped pay her way through college in the 1980s. Her byline has been published in Life, AARP Magazine, Hearst Magazines, The New York Times, USA Today, and more.
In pursuing a career as an independent contractor, McDaniel creates and manages her own schedule, and avoids a three-hour commute in busy Los Angeles County. She doesn’t have to request time off for the doctor, to take a vacation, or when she wanted to care for her dying father. Traditional benefits aren’t something she wants or needs.
“There are all these very adult decisions that are at play when you freelance,” McDaniel said. “AB5 pretends that the state knows better than we do in making those decisions.”
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In addition to limiting the amount of writing freelance workers can publish, AB5 brought McDaniel’s passion project to a grinding halt. For years, she’s been working on a book and wanted to produce an accompanying podcast. She paid for podcast training and was prepared to hire independent contractors to help produce and edit her work, but after consulting with lawyers and people in the industry, she concluded that because of AB5, “I just can’t do it right now. The risks are too high.”
That not only leaves McDaniel out of work, but also the contractors she wanted to hire.
“I just stopped all of it,” she says. “It was heartbreaking. I had put so much time into it.”
The Lasting Effects
AB5’s impacts don’t stop there. The measure has hit a variety of occupations: videographers, handymen, musicians, truckers, computer coders, and more. As part of the Chasing Work campaign, the Independent Women’s Forum is highlighting the diverse ways workers are being hurt.
For Aguirre, AB5 will “place me in a different social-economic status,” she said. And that’s not to mention the impact it will have on all those she helps.
O’Connell said that if AB5 isn’t repealed, she’ll lose her flexibility and choice. “They don’t want people having vocational and economic freedom,” she said. “They want you chained to the union. They want to make everyone a class of workers tied to the system.”
For McDaniel, AB5 is taking away her ability to work for herself. It’s “anti-American,” she said. “Self-employment is the American way.”
An estimated 36% of U.S. workers are involved in the gig economy, the vast majority by choice. With an economy now struggling because of COVID-19, the ability to work is more important than ever.
Instead of squeezing workers from the economy, politicians and lawmakers should do the opposite; namely, pursue policies that give Americans more choice, more flexibility, and more opportunities to work.
AB5 hurting those who need jobs, & everyone loses, NO, very scary
Effect all.
Everyone loses .
Remedy & scrap AB5
Typical of politicians desires to “fix” a problem that doesn’t need fixing and not looking at the long-term effects or consequences.
Unfortunately, many rules and regulations dealing with jobs are put in place by people,who,have never held a real job.
And yes, regulation definition is to “choke off”.
Talk about destroying people’s lives and their independent spirit! The governor needs to be removed so that their citizens can find jobs that they enjoy and work at the times they need to in order to support their family. This is bullying, controlling, and Hilter tactic!!
If California wants the whole nation to be like them, perhaps it is time for them to secede from the United States and become a country of their own making!.
The United States will not have to use our taxpayer dollars to bail them out of their “anti-capitalism” government.
You don’t need to work, we will support you & that way you are right under our thumb. When we say jump, all you can do is how high. Just what the Dems want.
AB5 caters to the Unions plain and simple! Yellow Cab drivers were Union and because so people paid outrageous taxicab rates. When Uber and Lyft came along they could charge less and were more price competitive than Yellow Cab rates. The Union complained to our Progressively Communist Democratic Governor who panders to All Unions for their votes. By making AB5 affecting ANY Independent Contractor, it forces EVERY industry to be forced to pay “union” level wages because they now had to hire everyone as an employee thus having to pay a “minimum” wage and provide other benefits thus having to raise all their rates and fees for their products and services!
And the general public has to pay more from their pocketbooks. If businesses can’t compete, they are forced out of business!
It’s the liberal mindset that we are not capable of making these decisions ourselves. The government knows better. CA has been trying for years to do away with independent contractors. We sold our business utilizing ICs over 10 years ago when we saw the writing on the wall. Oh, and moved out of CA.
Freedom is on the ballot in November. States that eliminate small contractors opportunities may be supporting unions. California is crippling the freedom to work before the election.
Karl Marx is very vehement in his vision of “””heaven”””: No worker shall do as he or she pleases! every worker will be chained to his or her work. And will receive the exact same salary the next worker receives. Very simple. There is NO single minded business.
Maybe, instead of living in “california”, all the smart people should get out of the Rapist and Racist claws of the worthless political idiots who govern the state so poorly. It is sometimes better to evade STUPIDITY, than to fight a lost battle. The taxes are absolutely ignominious. The politics are atrocious. The corruption is absolute. And the stupidity is without bounds. What is the definition of senility? Should it be the definition of STUPIDITY? in this case?
By the way, in the Southern States, there used to be a very famous Railway.Do you know what I am talking about?
NO??? The Underground Railway. Slavery: this is what the people in “””california””” are under right now. They are forced to pay for things that are UNLAWFUL.
Democrat’s ability to tax and regulate is just another means to them to destroy our country, our economy, our culture, our political system, even our history. Their party has turned into an out of control anti-American, rabid communist mob bent on destroying the United States via anarchy, and chaos to replace it with a foreign globalist-communist run puppet regime. Reagan inspired American youth to have pride in their country, unite, be bold, optimistic, and be constructive; Obama divided,and instilled them with hatred for their country and its history, made them pessimistic, cynical, fearful, and destructive. Venezuela is just one election away if we don’t watch out for voter fraud and start opposing Democrat’s creeping tyranny one proposition, and one unconstitutional law at a time all over the country. Time to teach them that No means No.
Sucks to live in California! Get out while you can! Before they close the borders!
AB5 is an assault on the basic right to work all Americans have and much more.
AB5 protects nothing, harms workers and employees.
It literally muzzles free speech by government action- a clear violation of the First Amendment.
It will allow the government to shut down music, performance art, worship and so much more.
This is yet another example of how the “progressives” are actually today’s tyrants.
vote them out along with their communist regulations
“…has worked…for 30 years.”
Clearly a racist. Don’t take my word for it, no less an august institution than the Smithsonian tells us so.
Seriously, The whole idea here is to get workers organized into trade unions that government can plunder and use to guarantee the re-election of every left wing candidate, no matter how awful.
And this will cause these people to organize, as they have unique needs and expectations that cannot be met by typical wage slave jobs. The article tells us as much. This will inevitably lead to conflict with employers, and that will lead to unionization.
TAXPAYER LIVES MATTER
This is setting up workers that are becoming more independent as technology keeps changing. The powers that be, whether union or government, can’t control free independent prosperous educated people so make it impossible to get out of government control! This HAS to be unconstitutional since this is depriving those workers of their right to pursue happiness! Any Constitutional scholars out there that can comment on this?
If you shake the country, all of the Nuts rattle down into California. That’s why we “went sane” and fled the mayhem for greener pastures!
Make no mistake about it. The Dems are in bed with the unions! Eliminating independent contractors, Uber, etc are what the unions want so everyone will have to join a union. Get a right to work law passed.
There are no independent citizens in a Totalitarian State, just ask Joe Stalin and the dizzy fools who control California. You must be part of the Commune. How dare you think you can be independent in the Bolshevik state of California, “the Ghoulish state” where the gold has long turned to dross.
part of Ca. wanted to become another state. That wasn’t that long ago this was happening. it was getting so bad out there, they couldn’t take it anymore then the virus appeared. this law is ridiculous. We have loads of independent workers, some own their own company, some work for others.
Big brother knows what is best for you, welcome to 1984, Orwell got everything right but the time frame, he forgot to take into consideration LAWYERS need to drag things out, the longer they make a “case” last the more money they make, without reguard to who gets hurt. Lawyers are dems and they should NOT be allowed to be lawmakers, big time conflict of interest. We need more WORKING people to represent us to level the playing field and get AMERICA BACK. PRESIDENT TRUMP is the perfect example, he is NOT a politician, look what he accomplished in his first term, he has done more for the people than pelosi, biden, schiff, nadler,”chuckie” and all the rest in thier entire carreers, decades of nothing.
Our time is not the days of Upton Sinclair. Americans can make their own choices. Government does not know best. Long Live Capitalism!
California doesn’t belong here. Let’s give it to Mexico. If a state can secede from the union, can’t the union secede, or kick out, a traitorous state? They act like a country of their own, not abiding by the norm of the rest of our country. Let’s cut them out like a brown spot on a banana.
Get ready because if Biden wins your next president will be from California and your VP will be from California Harris and Pelosi , cause Biden won’t last a day.
When will this “trickle down” to gardeners and the day laborers? Never.
“Governor” Newscum is a scumbucket.
JoBeth McDaniel echoes my thoughts exactly: “AB5 pretends that the state knows better than we do in making those decisions.” As usual, the state wants to run business from the top down. Big mistake. It’s all about control with the leftists–more taxes, more regulations, more involvement with lobbyists and unions, and less freedom for individuals to determine their own paths.
Limit, control, suppress. Aren’t we sick of this by now?
But, But it is for their own good, We know better than they do, the government must take over your life, Tell you what is best for you to think, how to think and where and how to live. The government will tell you what to eat, drink; where to live, when to bathe, how much water to use, what brand of soap, or whether you need to use soap. Nothing is required on your part except give us all your money, all your power, all your liberty and freedom.
As a musician, I can add that this law has also made it very difficult for musicians to find freelance gigs. As is COVID-19 wasn’t bad enough, even before that appeared AB5 has been deterring many venues from hiring live musicians or bands if they are independent contractors. The law was ill-conceived, very poorly crafted, and is definitely a major detriment to the economy (as if California didn’t already have enough ways of driving people and business out of the state and into friendlier environs). It is questionable whether it can even be fixed without scrapping it entirely, which most people here prefer.
Silent majority ARISE !
Wait till Hollyweird gets wind of this ! They don’t mind infringing on my rights , but this will also negatively effect them! Ha Ha you idiots!
People know best. Politicians do not. Dems out in 2020. America in!
Typical socialist move, control the people and force them into a situation they did not choose.
AB 5 was proposed and signed into law without the lawmakers doing any research.
Most people who are independent contractors want to be independent ! They never got a say in the matter.
Also, there was no consideration for people like independent truckers, who haul goods across state lines.
Many drivers were going to miss out on revenue because they couldn’t go into California.
This is a bad idea that needs to get unwound.
While I realize some of these folks don’t want to leave California, there is really not option. Get out.
This reminds me of the old movies where the bad guys control the town, where are Gene Autry, Durango Kid, and all the other law men who used to save the people ? We have met the enemy and it is us.
It is another key step to socialism. First you take control of people’s healthcare (Obamacare), then you take control of their finances. Independent contractors and the self-employed are the enemy of socialism as they are much more difficult to control. If you make everyone an employee, then the government can tell corporations how their employees must act. The last step is to take away guns. CA is well on its way as you can’t even buy ammo in the State without a background check.
I should go back and say that 1st you have to make people stupid – but CA already achieved that with a unionized school teacher staff that has been an absolute waste of $50 billion per year (YES – that is with a B).
CA’s tech industry desperately needs H-1 visas to bring math and science people from China, India, & Europe because CA graduates very few kids that know math and science.
Welcome to the Peoples Republic of ☭alifornia (located here on the Left Coast), where the motto of the State should be (if not already is), “We will always seek to pass all legislation that is 180º opposite of what we should truly be doing to actually benefit the people.” This AB5 legislation should be rated as the lowest order of “brain farts” to come along in a long while.
The ☭alifornia Demsheviks truly believe that you can put out a fire if you only douse it with enough gasoline, and they have been lining up in droves to form “bucket brigades” (gasoline buckets, of course) to assist in their misguided dystopian efforts to “help” all of the Deplorables under their elitist noses. Yes, we have a bumper crop of fools and blooming idiots in control out here in ☭alifornia, where the inmates are running the asylum of our State. Unfortunately, this bumper crop of fools has reached the level of an extreme infestation. A personal dose of COVID-19 for each libtard is probably the only practical solution to our Orwellian dilemma.
Thats what u get 4 voting Democrat
They say they r 4 u but like a snake in the grass sooner or later they will bite u
After reading all the comments I am astounded that people are surprised by anything that happens in California. That being said, “elections have consequences” and California is either far left or welfare dependent. For some hard to explain reason, the electorate continues to trust the untrustworthy and refuses to give any outsider an opportunity to make a difference. Californians persist in their mistaken belief that Democrats have the answer and it is only getting worse and they continue to vote for them year after year. I wish them continued angst. Most people know what kind of person does the same thing over and over expecting a different result.
THIS CLOWN ( being kind ) cares only! for Votes/paycheck/benefits/power/and himself.
UNIONS!! just a huge cashCow. Supports DEMS and takes what is not theirs by force or else.
“Hopefully, the temperature of the electorate is very much tired of this kind of stuff,” she said. “If we stay loud and vocal, it could very well turn the presidential election, or at least influence it.”
This is part of the problem. This has nothing to do with a national election. This has everything to do with State elections. A lot of people don’t seem to understand this basic concept.
If you hate The United States of America, vote for Democrats.
If you hate the State of California, vote for Democrats. (And a vote for California Democrats is a vote FOR AB5.)
I wonder who the people complaining about AB5 voted for.
Of course its from kalifornia and the desk of gaffy nitwit,will those slugs ever learn.
This is nothing short of more socialist crap. California is pushing the collective mentality beyond recognition.
This is all about Unions. The liberal Democrats in CA – want them counted as employees so the Unions can unionize them for union dues – so the Union can then send money to the Democrats in the state government of California. CA should get out of the United States – they are a negative drag on tax dollars anyway. And about 30% of their population is illegal aliens anyway. Mexico is moving to California – person by person. The President, while on a visit to CA late last year was asked why was he visiting CA — his reply –“so I can be near my people”.
I live in CA, and am so sure we have both undocumented people voting and other voter fraud to the point it is impossible to get the state back to a right side position.
The Democrat Party is Communist! Stand-up for America!! Remove Every Democrat!!!!!