New rules in California could reshape the gig economy

IN A JOLT to California’s gig economy, the state’s lawmakers approved on September 11th a landmark bill, AB5, that will force many firms to classify independent contractors as employees. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, had pushed hard for the change. As he argued in a Labour Day op-ed in the Sacramento Bee, firms must no longer be allowed to “shirk responsibility” and should cough up for things like medical benefits, unemployment insurance and paid sick days. The bill’s sponsor, Democratic assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, has argued it will help workers, “not Wall Street and their get-rich-quick IPOs”.