Legislators Seek to Stop California’s Controversial Contractor Law From Spreading Nationwide

State and federal lawmakers are introducing legislation to stop rules limiting independent contractor work, after the U.S. Department of Labor issued a rule change Jan. 10 to recategorize many such workers as employees, using similar provisions as a controversial California law. At issue is Assembly Bill 5, passed in California in 2019, which reclassified many contract or freelance workers to employees, allowing them to receive benefits. The law outlines three legal criteria to define independent contractors, and any workers that fail the so-called “ABC test” must be classified as an employee instead. “AB 5 has been bad for workers, bad for our local economies, and bad for California as a whole,” Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez said at a Jan. 23 news conference while announcing her new legislation designed to repeal the law. “It is time to end the madness and help restore the American dream in California by repealing AB 5.”...