California’s Assembly Bill 5 has been in the news lately, particularly in our industry, because of its effect on franchising. But yesterday I caught this article from Columbia Journalism Review and was stunned. (It was one of those moments where my jaw dropped and then I yelled, to no one in particular, “Who approved this?!”)
According to CJR, Assembly Bill 5 now limits “freelance writers, editors, photographers and editorial cartoonists” to be hired for up to 35 separate “content submissions” each year.
It’s all based on this “ABC test,” which helps determine who is and isn’t a freelancer. The “B” prong, CJR reports, poses the biggest risk for freelancers as employers can only contract out work that is “outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.” For an organization in the business of journalism, they can’t use freelancers to do journalism. At least for more than 35 pieces.
Here’s why that is incredibly problematic.
- Some freelancers contribute daily or weekly pieces. Freelance writing, in many cases, doesn’t pay much per piece, but there’s money in quantity. You can consider yourself among the lucky few if you land yourself a client that commissions daily or weekly pieces. But under Assembly Bill 5, your work is cut from 365 pieces — or 52, for weekly contributions — to 35. That is a huge slash in pay.
- So go find more clients? It’s not easy to land a steady freelance gig. I’ve lost steady work simply because publications shutter, editors unexpectedly leave or get let go, or budgets change. It’s nothing I did wrong; it’s just the nature of the business.
- So go find a full-time gig? First, many freelancers chose that life. They like the flexibility and some make way more money than they could as a staffer. And there aren’t a lot of full-time staff jobs available. I’ve seen countless opportunities over the last few months offering editor or writer positions at 35 hours/week with no benefits — essentially, a contractor/freelancer position.
- Won’t this encourage publications to hire full-time employees rather than farming out assignments to freelancers? Maybe, but it’ll be much easier and cheaper to simply hire a bunch of freelancers and give them each 35 pieces each rather than to create more full-time, benefitted positions. Many pubs simply can’t afford to hire people full-time.
While California is the first state to do this (as usual), others may follow suit, like New York. With how many media outlets are based in New York, let’s hope it doesn’t.
