Younger Americans are increasingly freelance workers. Put in the parlance of the day, they are gig workers. The sort of folks California’s AB5 screwed over so badly that Uber and Lyft may pull out of California. The Whole state. And Joe Biden wants a national law like AB5 for America.
AB5 was a sop to unions. The Democrats running California were happy to oblige. The initial effects were disastrous. While targeting business models like Uber and Lyft, it disrupted hundreds of occupations, from writers to artists to any contractor whose work is paid by multiple employers over the course of a year.
Court workers, performers, home health professionals, truckers, musicians, engineers, software developers, temps of all sorts, and yes, folks who do ride-share for a few extra bucks a week.
California has tried to fix it, but with little success, because the problem is the problem; AB5’s rules, even after some song and dance do-overs, still require businesses that hire gig workers as employees and not independent contractors.
More and more Americans have started freelancing, joining what is known as the gig economy. According to Upwork, 59 million Americans work as freelancers. This is up 2 million year-over-year, and there is an 8% increase in the number of people working as freelancers full-time.
There are many reasons individuals choose to work in freelance or gig positions. According to Upwork, 48% are caretakers, and 33% live with someone who is disabled. A full 75% of people who left an employer to work as a freelancer report making the same or more in salary and the freelance economy increased 22% last year to $1.2 trillion in 2020.
Most contractors are freelancing because they do not want to be anyone’s employee but themselves. That’s the point. And there are millions of them across the United States. Numbers that are increasingly dominated by Gen Z and Millenials.
Half of all freelance workers are Gen Z, and 44% are millennials. Perhaps instead of solving the daycare issue, Democrats may want to consider letting people work in whatever arrangement they prefer. Instead of “fixing” healthcare with expensive one-size-fits-all approaches like Obamacare, they may want to create plan design choices, which will allow these workers to purchase an appropriate plan.
And that’s a great comparison. Freelancing or contracting is literally you as master of your domain. You work when you want, take the work you want, and refuse work you do not. It is the opposite of federally mandated anything. If you prefer free and open competition among service providers who compete to meet the needs of a business vying for your services, why isn’t that also the best way to handle insurance? Any insurance.
Actually, it is, but the government has been in the way for decades. The solution is not more regulation; it’s less. The same is true for freelancers.
Biden plans to apply an AB5-like law to every freelancer across the country. All of you. Including the 44% of you who are Gen Z and Millenials. The government is coming for your job. Not to take it from you but to take away the freedom you enjoy by working for yourself on your terms.
You don’t have to love Donald Trump or tweeting end-around to get past the media blockade, but he has no intention of messing with your choice of occupation. In fact, I would not be surprised if he has a plan to get the government a bit more out of your way.
That’s been his MO all along. Free up the American worker and free up the economy. He did it in short order, and the nation blossomed. He’ll do it again if you give him a chance. Biden and Democrats will do the opposite. Just look to states like New York and California. Templates for Federal Democrat meddling. Places American workers and job creators are increasingly putting in their rearview mirrors.
