Tough Lessons of the CRA: Part II
Lawmakers who invoke this particular list seem to believe that by destroying our careers, they're helping us
Right around the same time that I headed to Capitol Hill, trying to persuade a majority of lawmakers to use the Congressional Review Act to protect independent contractors against freelance busting, I also took some meetings with congressional staffers via video calls.
Those video meetings left me deeply frustrated about the fact that some people with real influence over independent contractor policymaking have no idea how we work.
They’re repeating what they’ve heard elsewhere, and it’s just plain wrong.
The Laundry List
The freelance-busting crowd often claims that misclassification is the problem they’re trying to solve. Misclassification is widely understood to be a company labeling someone an independent contractor, but instead treating the person like an employee.
That’s illegal. It has been for a long time. State and federal regulators have tools to prosecute it. They do so on the regular. Even the freelance-busting crowd admits that misclassification only affects a minority of independent contractors nationwide.
Despite those facts, congressional staffers in the meetings I attended repeated a laundry list of questions that I’d heard U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., read into the public record when I testified before Congress last year.
These questions put the misclassification premise on steroids. They are based not on the idea that a minority of independent contractors should be reclassified as employees, but instead on the idea that all of us are victims because we are not the same as employees.
Watch this 90-second exchange between Rep. Scott and Laura Padin, a witness for the Democrats from the union-backed think tank National Employment Law Project:
That’s me sitting next to Ms. Padin, trying to use a Vulcan mind trick to get Rep. Scott to ask me the same series of questions. Unlike Ms. Padin, I’m an actual independent contractor. I’ve been one by choice for the past 20 years, after about a decade in the kind of staff job that Rep. Scott seems to think is a better way of earning a living.
Rep. Scott didn’t ask me anything that day. Even more frustrating was that more recently, when I was on video calls and in person talking with congressional staffers, they all assumed that Ms. Padin’s responses were the end of the story. This was especially the case if the staffers worked for Democrats.
They believe that all independent contractors are, by definition, worse off than all employees.
It’s not true. Not even close.
How I Would’ve Answered
If Rep. Scott had asked me the same questions, here’s how I would have answered.
Do independent contractors have a guaranteed minimum wage and overtime?
No, as an independent contractor, I’m not entitled to the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour or overtime based on that amount.
Nor would I want to earn a living at that level. It’s less than I made with tips when I dished pizza on the Jersey Shore boardwalk 35 years ago as a teenager. For many years now as a professional freelance writer and editor, I have earned in the low six figures.
Are independent contractors covered by unemployment insurance?
No, but like the majority of independent contractors, I feel more secure being my own boss than I ever did as a staff employee with unemployment insurance.
Unlike staff employees, I have multiple clients and streams of income. No single client controls—or can take away—my entire income the way an employer can.
The pandemic led some of my clients to pull back all at once. That was my worst loss of business in two decades. Even so, I maintained the majority of my income and was able to bring on new clients pretty quickly to fill the hole.
Do independent contractors get workers’ compensation?
No, I’m not entitled to workers’ compensation if I am injured on the job.
Then again, I’m not sure how I could be injured on the job. I type on my laptop computer, usually in my home office or out on my porch if the weather is nice.
Unlike when I was a staffer who had to finish my shift no matter what, nowadays if my eyes get tired from staring at the screen, I log off and take my dog for a walk on the trail that’s about five minutes from my house. Eye strain is my biggest injury hazard, and I feel just fine about how I’m protecting myself against it.
Do independent contractors get health care, pensions, paid sick or family leave?
Not the same way that employees do. I buy health insurance as an individual in the marketplace, and I work with a financial adviser to make sure I’m saving enough for retirement. I also keep enough savings in case I get sick and need time off to heal.
Yes, that means I perhaps need to think a bit harder than employees do about all of those things, but in exchange, I get complete freedom. I’m fine with that tradeoff.
At the same time, if you want to talk about how horribly overpriced health insurance is for independent contractors—and about how some lawmakers seem to believe that giving everyone access to affordable plans is unfair to unions—I’m happy to have that conversation with you. Our nation’s health-care system is an overpriced exercise in torture, for many employees and independent contractors alike.
Are independent contractors covered by OSHA safety regulations?
No, I’m not covered by the government’s standards for a safe, healthy environment. But again, I’m sitting in a chair typing on my laptop at home. I’m perfectly safe.
I am sometimes exposed to a little bit of smoke if it’s winter and I light up the fireplace. I also sometimes have to shut the door to block the noise if my neighbors are mowing the lawn. These are pretty much the only concerns in my environment.
Do independent contractors have a right to join a union?
No, and that’s fine. Like most Americans, I have no interest in joining a union.
I wish nothing but the best to employees who are union members—good for them if they prefer to work that way—but I do not see unions offering anything that would make my situation better than it is today as an independent contractor.
Please, Stop ‘Helping’
It’s astonishing how many of today’s lawmakers and their aides think like Rep. Scott. They seem genuinely stunned when they speak to independent contractors like me, as if it never occurred to them that we may actually have reasonable answers to the laundry list of questions.
They believe that when they embrace freelance-busting policies, they are helping us. In their minds, they’re our saviors.
In reality, are threatening our chosen careers and way of life.
We need to keep meeting with them and their staffers, to dispel this notion so they can understand the truth.
I promise to keep doing more of that myself.
Right after I go out and walk my dog.