Thread by @davincidiva

[THREAD] Dear @PattyMurray , I received an email from you today earnestly asking for input. You wrote "I can’t tell you how important your voice is to me. What I hear from folks like you in Washington state drives everything I do in the other Washington." So I wrote you back...1/

Unfortunately, my email was returned undeliverable. Strange, since you so desire to hear from the public. So I thought I'd copy my letter here.
Senator Murray:
I am a one-issue voter.
I live in California under the crushing oppression of #AB5, now a.k.a #AB2257. 2/

This law has made California independent solo business owners like me ( I am a marketing consultant, writer and illustrator) unable to earn a living as before, because our clients and prospects understandably fear misclassification fines. 3/

The #PROAct, which uses the same archaic ABC test as #AB5, now threatens to make the lives of 59 million US-based freelancers by choice similarly impossible. know you are aware of this, yet you continue to try to insert the ABC test into all manner of legislation. 4/

Worse yet, the Biden administration is now looking at creating regulations to impose this draconian "test" where people like you were not able to get the votes to pass it in a legislative process.
Surveys show that 80% of people who work freelance are doing so by choice... 5/

...and would not accept a traditional job even if it were offered. We choose #freelance for myriad reasons:
• women escaping toxic workplaces
• creative expression
• time and location freedom
• remaining active, relevant & earning extra money in retirement... /6

• the ability to care for young children or elderly parents while earning a good living
• trying out a side hustle as a way of testing out a new career or earning additional income
• stepping back from a full-time career in one's 50s or 60's with a wealth of experience... /7

...and offering one's services in one's former industry as an ad hoc independent consultant
The reasons people choose #freelance instead of traditional employment are as varied as Americans' lives are, which is why we need more choice in how we work, not less. /8

No one disputes that misclassification happens. It has happened to me before I understood my rights. Fortunately, I saw my client's demands were out of line and negotiated a contract that was more equitable to me. I realize not everyone would know to stand up for themselves. /9

The answer is not easy, but it is certainly NOT the de facto outlawing of freelancing or hiring #freelancers. Demand for the #freedom and #flexibility of being an independent contractor is only growing in the internet age. /10

We need to figure out a way to accommodate and facilitate this expansion, not attempt to shut it down, as the #PROAct, and all laws containing he ABC test, effectively do.
Some solutions could include:
1. Enforcing classification laws already extant
/11

2. Substituting the more modern and flexible test used by the IRS to determine who can be an independent contractor for the ABC test that dates back to the 1930s sweatshop era
3. Educating #freelancers & employers so freelancers know when and how to stand up for their rights /12

4. Creating new classifications for so-called "gig workers" This business model was unforeseen when the old tests were created, and their situation and relationship with the entities paying them is VERY different from other #freelancers who make their own contracts ... /13

...such as as "knowledge workers," creatives, artists , coders, trainers, advisors, translators, editors, and all manner of consultants for example. One 1930's era "test" cannot possibly apply to us all. This should be self-evident in the 21st century, and yet here we are. /14

I've been very disappointed so far with your response (non-existent) to these reasonable concerns from me and my #freelance colleagues over the past couple of years, and don't know if you or anyone at your office will read this. /15

But I do wish and still hope that you would hear us, 59 million Americans and growing, and not only the big labor voices who quite understandably want to exterminate all choices except to be or to hire a W2 worker with a union membership.
Lisa Rothstein
La Mesa, California
/end