By BRIAN W. JONES<\/p>\n
Kristyn Hansen used to cut hair in Los Angeles nine hours a day, three days a week. She told the Los Angeles Times that she earned a 60% share of an $18 haircut and served around 30 clients a day. Her husband carried their health insurance. She said her job\u2019s flexibility allowed her to take five college courses and still live a comfortable life.<\/p>\n
This was all possible because Hansen is an independent contractor.<\/p>\n
However, that workplace flexibility has been all but eliminated by the courts.<\/p>\n
In April 2018, a California Supreme Court decision (Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court) upended how California defines an independent contractor. As a result, contractors such as Kristyn can no longer work with the flexibility she prefers and now she is earning less.<\/p>\n
In response to the Dynamex decision, many employers have been forced to change their operations, eliminating the flexibility and stability that many independent contractors want.<\/p>\n
To offset the increased expenses of payroll taxes, sick leave, vacation and other benefits, employers generally find they have to cut people or pay.<\/p>\n
In Kristyn\u2019s case, her employers now require her to work four days a week, have reduced her share per haircut to 15% and provide her a $15-an-hour salary. This amounts to about a $300 decrease in her weekly take-home pay from her original contractual agreement.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, millions of California workers are being forced to adjust to this new reality. The post-Dynamex law jeopardizes the livelihoods of contractors from such diverse industries such as barbering and cosmetology, education, health care, construction, technology, media and entertainment.<\/p>\n
As California\u2019s affordability problem worsens, many young adults see few options other than to leave the state for employment opportunities. The Dynamex decision will add to that outflow, unduly and negatively impacting California\u2019s young and diverse workforce, who increasingly prefer the flexibility and control that freelancing and independent contracting provides.<\/p>\n
According to a 2018 Bureau of Labor Statistics Economic report, 79% of independent contractors prefer their work situation to traditional employment.<\/p>\n
California\u2019s elected officials now have a very important decision to make, that of whether or not to continue allowing workers the choice \u2014 their choice \u2014 to be an employee or an independent contractor.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a measure pending in the Legislature \u2014 Assembly Bill 5 \u2014 that would arbitrarily carve out politically favored vocations from the Dynamex ruling but still keep other struggling vocations under tight restrictions. I soon will be reviewing this measure as it comes to me for a vote.<\/p>\n