California's misguided restrictions on freelance writers, editors and photographers haven't created one new job, and likely have made unemployment even worse during the coronavirus pandemic.
As publishers cut jobs amid a plunge in advertising revenue, those newly unemployed people in California have even less possibility of earning income from freelance work.
Republican
lawmakers in the state last week failed to overturn a law that limits reporters and photographers to contributing 35 pieces of content to a single publication a year. After that, publishers are
supposed to hire those journalists as full-timers, an impossibility now that many publications are cutting jobs, reducing print frequency or going out of business.
The limitation on freelancers
was part of California's Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) that took effect on Jan. 1 — as part of a crackdown on ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft. The idea behind the law was to force the
companies to treat drivers as full-time employees instead of independent contractors, making them eligible for benefits like health and unemployment insurance.
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They also would have a right to
join labor unions, as many editorial employees have done for decades. Unfortunately, those union cards don't guarantee job security in a pandemic.
As it turned out, the federal government in
March expanded unemployment insurance to cover gig workers, though the surge in claims has created a frustrating bottleneck. The feds also started offering contract workers a chance to receive
forgivable loans through the Small Business Administration, which ignited controversy for favoring bigger companies.
With an unemployment rate estimated at 24%, California should want people to get back to work as quickly as possible.
That includes giving journalists a chance to earn freelance income among the publishers that have budgets for assignments and are unwilling to expand their overhead costs by hiring full-timers.
Many journalism jobs are well suited for work-from-home settings, requiring a phone and an internet connection to interview sources and research background information. Countless publications are
now operating virtually, exchanging emails and meeting by video conference.
Unfortunately, AB-5 is still in effect in California, with smug lawmakers like State Sen. Hannah Beth Jackson,
D-Santa Barbara, singularly personifying their contempt for freelance workers.
"I appreciate that some independent contractors are upset. AB 5 took away their lollipop,” she said during
a debate over a measure to overturn the law, spurring a withering response on social media.