Who Are The New Freelancers?
The unemployment insurance that the PUA offered isn’t the only safety net that freelancers aspire to.
“I want to have access to health insurance that actually takes care of me and my family,” said Jones, the hair stylist. Her family relies on policies made available by Obamacare provisions that have been challenged in Washington. “I want to not stay up at night worrying whether or not Congress is going to suddenly take that away,” she said.
Health care is precisely why companies fight to avoid having to pay benefits for contractors, said Joan Williams, a law professor at the University of California, Hastings. While other benefits like paid leave are “a small drop in the bucket,” companies often have to budget up to 45% more when hiring to cover health-care-related costs, she said.
Corporate Carveout
With few national protections, important parts of the freelance fight are happening at state level.
Seven states plus the District of Columbia currently allow independent workers to opt into paid family- and medical-leave programs, according to A Better Balance, a pro-worker advocacy organization. Others are examining whether their rules for classifying employees need to change.
A 2019 law in California illustrates some pitfalls in state-level efforts.
The measure was supposed to make it harder for employers to classify their workers as independent contractors. But gig companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash—precisely the ones it was aimed at—won exemption after spending $200 million campaigning for a ballot initiative that voters approved last year. Corporations proved able “to buy themselves a carveout,” said Espinal.
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, the Democrat behind the law, said state actions can’t compare with a federal initiative like the PRO Act. “Any bill I pass is not going to be as strong as a collective bargaining agreement,” she said. Private-sector collective bargaining rights are generally governed by federal law, and states are restricted from addressing them.
In some states, freelancers don’t have any local or federal protections.
Dallas resident Elizabeth Silva Conrad, 51, began freelancing as a graphic designer when she lost her full-time job in 2015. She relied on the PUA for three months last year when her small-business clients shut down.
Silva Conrad said her family had a safety net all along because of her husband’s full-time job, which comes with “great medical, dental and optical insurance.” But she knows things are tougher for many of her Texan peers.
“I’m fortunate,” she said. “I know a lot of other women out there don’t have that.”
—With assistance from Josh Eidelson.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.