Last month, Governor Gavin Newsom signed California AB 5 into law. Kaia Partlow with the Santa Cruz Business Council sums it up in the link here: The Gig is Up: AB 5. In particular, this will impact Uber and Lyft drivers, janitors, housekeepers, campaign workers, and even Rabbis. And ironically, it may hurt Uber and Lyft drivers, as well as people of low income who supplement their income with “gig” services. Additional comments by Robert Singleton and David Doolin are:

"I think we need to view legislation like AB5 as a careful series of tradeoffs. It is almost certain that more and more states will pursue similar legislation, but we need to be careful with what that actually means to workers. I think we all want to make sure workers are protected and getting adequately compensated, but not all workers should be treated the same. Some people choose to work part-time, or have a more flexible work schedule with multiple side projects. Some do it out of necessity, because of childcare or having other responsibilities. We shouldn't eliminate that flexibility, so much as we need to clearly discern where it's appropriate. I think AB5 attempts to draw that line, for better or for worse, and now we have to decide if it needs to be moved.” Robert Singleton, ED Santa Cruz County Business Council

"Although the passage of this bill seems to provide protection to certain service providers that didn’t have that in the past, it severely limits the flexibility of those providers who want that flexibility. In addition, as an independent contractor a service provider can deduct his or her operating expenses from their taxable income which can dramatically lower their income taxes, as an employee they can’t. That will have a significant negative impact to those service providers effected by this law.” David Doolin, CPA Petrinovich Pugh & Company, LLP

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