Snippet: Thank You, California ☇

John Ness for SB Nation:

Now comes the bittersweet part: In 2020, we will move California’s team blogs from our established system with hundreds of contractors to a new one run by a team of new SB Nation employees. In the early weeks and months of 2020, we will end our contracts with most contractors at California brands. This shift is part of a business and staffing strategy that we have been exploring over the past two years, but one that is also necessary in light of California’s new independent contractor law, which goes into effect January 1, 2020. That new law makes it impossible for us to continue with our current California team site structure because it restricts contractors from producing more than 35 written content “submissions” per year. To comply with this new law, we will not be replacing California contractors with contractors from other states. Rather, we’re encouraging any contractors interested in one of our newly-created full-time or part-time employee positions to apply (you can find them here). We know many of our California contractors already have other full-time jobs and may not have the bandwidth to apply, but we hope to see many of them join us as employees.

Not living in or near California, I was completely out of the loop on this new law (Assembly Bill 5), but it seems that in an effort to protect people may have thrown the baby out with the bath water. Since this law applies broadly, some companies are playing it safe and also taking drastic steps with unfortunate side-effects. SB Nation’s take is only one side of it, but it’s worth educating yourself a bit about it, as more places start to question the status of “independent contractor” and the role they play with companies like Uber, Lyft, Grubhub, DoorDash, and so on.