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Video Shows How Anti-Independent Contractor Bill S863 Would Harm Working Moms, Caregivers, and People with Disabilities

Fight for Freelancers NJ launches second video in anti-S863 series

TRENTON, N.J., FEBRUARY 20, 2020 — Fight For Freelancers New Jersey, a nonpartisan, grassroots group of 1,100 independent contractors, creatives, and businesses, has launched the second video in its series urging lawmakers to reject Senate Bill 863 (S863) and instead enact a modern labor law that uses the IRS common law test.

S863 would decimate the livelihoods of thousands of New Jerseyans who choose to work as independent contractors. They include working mothers, caregivers for children and ailing parents, and people with disabilities, many of whom become independent contractors because controlling their work-life balance is their top priority.

“Three of the four founders of Fight For Freelancers New Jersey are working moms, and some of us are caregivers for elderly parents, too,” says co-founder and freelance writer Jen Singer. “There is no way that working in a traditional W2 job would allow any of us the flexibility we need to manage our lives. Choosing independent contractor work gives us the time and space we need not only to be great professionals, but also to be great moms and daughters.”

S863, which defines employee status, would change the way New Jersey uses the regressive ABC Test. Developed in the 1930s, the test applies outdated criteria to today’s tech-powered, mobile, and innovative workforce. According to the New Jersey Civil Justice Institute, S863 is even stricter than California’s ABC Test-based law, AB5, which has caused thousands of California’s independent contractors to lose income since it went into effect January 1, 2020.

If enacted in New Jersey, S863 would effectively render illegal the chosen professions of thousands of creative professionals, such as writers, photographers, graphic designers, musicians and more.

The number of women breadwinners who are independent contractors is up 90 percent since 2001, per a recent report from the IRS and U.S. Treasury Department. And the Pew Research Center says 4 in 10 working moms are household breadwinners, up from 1 in 10 in 1960.

“As a freelance writer, I earn a great income and still make it to basketball games and track meets. I’m my own boss,” says Gwen Moran, a co-founder of Fight For Freelancers NJ. “Federal data shows that in the New Jersey-New York region, we have more writers than anywhere else in America. And our annual mean wage here is more than $81,000. I love my career and the flexibility to be there for my daughter.”

S863 — and, specifically, the ABC Test at its rotten core — would virtually wipe out the creative middle class by:

• Making it nearly impossible to be legally considered independent contractors

• Putting creatives at risk of losing copyright ownership of their work

• Leaving New Jersey’s independent contractors subject to blacklisting, as California contractors are experiencing now

• Forcing creatives to seek W2 work in sectors like journalism, which is experiencing the greatest level of layoffs since the Great Recession

“We made this new video so lawmakers can understand how S863 would hurt working moms like us, along with other people who prioritize work-life flexibility,” says Debbie Abrams Kaplan, a freelance writer and co-founder of Fight For Freelancers NJ. “Labor laws should work for us all, including parents, people with disabilities, and caregivers for aging parents. S863 doesn’t do this.”

The Fight For Freelancers NJ video series calls on lawmakers to replace the ABC Test with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) “common law” test, which accommodates the modern, creative workforce, including independent contractors who want to keep their work-life balance. Vote no on S863 and the outdated ABC test. Vote yes for the modern IRS test.

WATCH the new two-minute video at the Fight For Freelancers NJ website: https://fightforfreelancers.com/videos/

#IRSnotABC       #FightForFreelancers

www.fightforfreelancers.com