This Paragraph Must Die

It's writing rooted in bias that describes what independent contractors are not, instead of what we actually are.

“Independent contractors often lack benefits and protections mandated for employees, such as minimum wage and overtime pay.”

Sigh. There it was again.

This time, the paragraph was in a story that Law 360 published about independent contractors.

All of us are sick to death of this paragraph and its variations, which have become the standard way that publications describe what we are not when writing about us.

Far too many writers covering independent contractors can’t bother to learn about and describe who we actually are, so they fall back on this negative framing from our opponents, letting bias do the heavy lifting in their stories.

The Groundhog Day of Descriptions

We’ve seen this language so many times that now, whenever I read it, I feel like Bill Murray’s character in the movie Groundhog Day.

It has shown up in CNN’s reporting:

Put simply, independent contractors are cheaper for companies to hire. Employers don't have to offer them benefits like health insurance and 401(k)s, pay them overtime or give them paid days off. They don't have to pay into state unemployment insurance or worker's compensation funds on the contractors' behalf.

In NPR’s coverage:

The ruling mostly upholds a voter-approved law, called Proposition 22, that said drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft are independent contractors and are not entitled to benefits like paid sick leave and unemployment insurance.

In Reuters:

Employees are entitled to the minimum wage, overtime pay, unemployment insurance and other protections not afforded to contractors, and can cost businesses up to 30% more, according to several surveys.

In The Record, one of the largest newspapers in my home state of New Jersey:

By designating workers as independent contractors instead of employees, businesses avoid paying into the state system for benefits including disability, unemployment and family leave. The practice also deprives workers of traditional protections like minimum wage and overtime.

This language is the single-paragraph version of the laundry list of questions that unionists repeat when trying to define independent contractors as being less than unionizable employees.

We are not less than anybody. We are different. Usually, by choice.

Let’s Costanza This Thing

To fully understand how ridiculous this language is, let’s see what might happen if these reporters followed the lead of the great philosopher George Costanza and did the opposite of what their instincts have led them to write again and again.

Seinfeld’s “George Does the Opposite” episode

Imagine if this was how the copy read every time the press described an employee:

Put simply, employees are more expensive for companies to hire. Unlike independent contractors, they have no freedom to choose when or where they work. Employees can be forced back into an office environment they dislike. Employees also lack the power to choose projects and tasks that are a good fit for them. They can only take time off with permission, even for a few hours.

My guess is that a lot of the staff employees who write articles about workplace classification would have a problem with anyone describing them that way.

It is wrong to describe entire groups of people as something they are not. We don’t describe cats as animals that are unable to bark. We don’t describe sunflowers as lacking the ability to sprout rose petals. No sportswriter ever described a power forward as lacking the skills to tackle a quarterback.

News outlets should not define independent contractors as lacking the characteristics of employees. Writing based on the belief that one is better than the other is the textbook definition of bias.

We need to call out this biased writing about independent contractors every single time we see it. Request corrections. Criticize it on social media.

Exposing and correcting this problem in reporting about independent contractors is necessary to help stop freelance busting, once and for all.