Thread by @JessicaMeigs

Oh, it's thread time. And this is one that everyone should read. And share. Because EVERYONE should know this information that's being buried in the news cycle.

The PRO Act, or HR 842, is a bill currently getting ready to be voted on in the House of Representatives. Last I heard, the date for voting is on 3/8.

This bill is being masqueraded as a bill that supports the rights of workers to unionize.

Buried in the bill is a clause that will directly impact the lives of 57 million American independent contractors: the ABC Test.

This test purports to establish the circumstances under which a worker can be considered an independent contractor versus an employee for the company they perform work for.

The problem with the ABC Test? It’s literally impossible to pass it and remain an independent contractor.

The ABC Test dates from the 1930s, back when the way people did work was drastically different than the way it is now. In the 1980s, the ABC Test was replaced with the one that’s currently in use by the IRS today.

Today’s test to determine if a person qualifies as an Independent Contractor is simple and straightforward: A worker is an IC if they control how and where and what will be done to accomplish the outcome the client wants.

It is, essentially, work under your own terms, not someone else’s. An IC chooses when they work, how much they work, what work they want to take on, and they receive little guidance on how to perform that work.

So long as the outcome the client wants is achieved, the client doesn't control how that outcome is arrived at--only that it is, in fact, arrived at.

This is an ideal living situation for many people: women who have children, the elderly who want to live independently, people with disabilities, caregivers, etc.

Those who push the PRO Act want to abolish this ability for an IC to choose how and when and how much they work based on their personal life circumstances.

Those who push the PRO Act seem to be living under the delusion that this means that all the clients that an IC has will be willing or able to hire them as employees, so it doesn’t really matter if the IC loses IC status.

They are so very wrong. Case in point: the state of California. In September 2019, California passed Assembly Bill 5, or AB5.

AB5 contains the ABC Test, identical to the ABC Test contained in the PRO Act.

Almost immediately, over a million freelancers and independent contractors were left without jobs in the state of California.

This impacted literally every single IC field in existence in California. Except dog walkers. There was a carve-out for dog walkers.

AB5 had a disproportionate impact on self-employed and independent contrators who were women and minorities.

The PRO Act is the same. It will have a dramatic and disproportionate impact on independent contractors who are women and minority workers.

The PRO Act will take away the ability of people to choose when and how much they want to work.

It will virtually eliminate approximately $1.2T of the US economy overnight. Because at least 85% of the 57 million American IC workers will lose their IC status--and therefore will lose their livelihoods.

Don’t take my word for it. Just look at how hard the IC community in California is fighting to get AB5 repealed.

The very people this bill was purported to help don’t want it and are begging for it to be overturned. Shouldn’t that tell you something about how bad this bill is?

And the PRO Act takes AB5 national. And it won’t just impact some nebulous ICs who you don't know.

How many of you use Uber? Lyft? That driver that comes to pick you up when you order an Uber ride? They’re an independent contractor.

Their IC status allows them to choose exactly when and how much they want to work for Uber that day. If they’re using Uber as supplementary income for their day job, they can choose when to do Uber work in their free time.

They can work as much or as little as they’d like and make as much or as little money as they would like to make on any given day.

The PRO Act will outlaw this. It will force Uber to, in theory, hire that driver as an employee. This means that Uber gets to dictate when and how much the employee works.

And Uber has already stated that they can’t afford to hire all of their drivers as employees. That would devastate the company. Same with Lyft.

So this means precious few IC workers for Uber/Lyft will be brought on as employees. Which means fewer Ubers and Lyfts available. Which means higher prices for Uber and Lyft rides.

Are you a self-publishing novelist? If so, that editor you like to hire to edit your books before you release them? Well, you won’t be able to anymore. Not unless you can afford to hire them as an employee.

Do you use a virtual assistant that's an independent contractor to help you manage your social media? Nope, can't use them anymore, either. Not unless you can afford to hire them as an employee.

Are you a freelance journalist who writes columns for magazines and newspapers and websites? You won’t be able to anymore. Because you can’t pass the ABC Test in the PRO Act to prove your work is in a different industry than the publisher.

Those are just a small sample of the types of affects that the PRO Act’s ABC Test will have on an incredibly small sample of types of ICs.

If you want to see, from the mouths of the people directly affected by the ABC Test in AB5, which is used word for word in the PRO Act, exactly what the ABC Test has done to them, go visit the FB group Freelancers Against AB5.

Spend some time reading the different stories about people losing all their clients overnight, losing all their income overnight, losing literally everything they have overnight.

Then ask yourself: if this bill is so great, why are the people it purports to help fighting so hard against it?

Then write to your representatives and senators and ask them to vote NO on the PRO Act unless the ABC Test is REMOVED from the PRO Act!

And share this thread with your friends/on your timeline so people are at least aware of what Congress is attempting to do to America's independent contractor workers.

Encourage them to speak out, to contact their congresspeople, and to help stop this nonsense before it irreparably damages the IC community's livelihoods and negatively impacts us all!

And if you want to keep up with the progress on the fight against the PRO Act/ABC Test and AB5, please be sure to join the Freelancers Against AB5 group on Facebook: facebook.com/groups/Freelan…