When You Give All Workers New ‘Rights’, Some Lose Their Job. OBVIOUSLY.

Could New Gig Economy Laws Prevent You From Working?

Designed to be helpful, some say the legislation is bad news for them

By Deborah Lynn Blumberg| March 16, 2020

In Fair Lawn, N.J., Kathy Wilder Bichler, 53, has come to rely on her flexible work schedule teaching English as a second language online to children in China. Freelancing for an online education platform means she can care for her disabled husband, Andrew. The money she makes supplements his insufficient Social Security disability payments.

But lately, Bichler has grown concerned that legislation in the works in New Jersey aimed at correcting what’s known as “worker misclassification” will jeopardize her family’s well-being. It’s designed to turn independent contractors into employees, to provide minimum-wage protection and benefits.

A similar bill became law in California in January (known as AB5) and others are under consideration in New York, Washington, Illinois and Massachusetts. A national version — the PRO Act — was resoundingly approved in the House of Representatives. The bills have largely been supported by Democrats, who say they’ll help protect workers’ rights, especially people like Uber and Lyft drivers who work so much for those companies that many say they’re essentially employees.

The intentions were good in creating legislation for gig workers, but already the California law has had an unexpected and wide-reaching negative impact on the state’s freelancers

If the New Jersey bill passes, Bichler says, it will become impossible for her to pay the bills and contribute to her kids’ college tuition, while putting her and her husband in a precarious financial situation heading into retirement.

Independent Contractors Are Worried

Like Bichler, many of the 15 million freelancers and independent contractors across the country — about one in 10 U.S. workers — are worrying about their livelihoods due to the gig-economy legislation.

Here’s what’s happening:

The bills define employee status for legal and tax purposes and would make it more difficult for workers to be classified as independent contractors. Without that classification, companies wouldn’t be able to hire people to perform freelance work. Instead, they would have to bring them on as employees.

The legislation could disproportionally affect middle-aged and older workers. Many of them depend on independent work after losing a job. Others freelance to ease into retirement, depending on the income as they care for their parents or to keep them afloat. Many older adults turn to freelancing after experiencing age discrimination. According to AARP, three in five older workers have seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace.

From 2005 to 2017, the percentage of people 55 and older working as independent contractors jumped by nearly 19% according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute.

How a California Law Is Backfiring

Being able to work as a freelancer is “something I think about every day,” says Bichler. “Social Security disability doesn’t really go that far, and with my husband’s doctors’ appointments, me having a traditional job was really off the table.” Working from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. lets Bichler attend medical appointments with her husband and manage his medications.

Already, since AB5 went into effect January 1, the company Bichler freelances for has said it will stop offering new work to contractors in California. Since January, freelancers across the state have suffered from lost work and reduced income, particularly freelance writers, who — according to the new law — can produce no more than 35 articles a year for a client before becoming classified as employees.

Bichler’s company is honoring current contracts with its California workers, but contracts are renewed every six months. She’s concerned it won’t renew with California freelancers and believes that if similar legislation passes in New Jersey, she’ll be sunk.

Some New Jersey freelancers are hopeful that legislators will tweak the legislation to better support them, however.

Meantime, Bichler is making contingency plans to relocate to another state. She’s also selling possessions to build a nest egg. “If it’s not nailed down, and I think somebody might buy it, I’m selling it,” she says.

The intentions were good in creating legislation for gig workers, but already the California law has had an unexpected and wide-reaching negative impact on the state’s freelancers — from writers to translators to musicians to therapists.

Many of them are happy with their work situations and say they aren’t being exploited. But companies are shying away from hiring them.

The Stiff ABC Test

That’s because of the part of the law revolving around what’s known as the ABC test, created in 1937 for California worker classification during the Great Depression. It requires all workers to pass a stringent, three-pronged test to qualify as an independent contractor.

The hurdles are greater than those already required by the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Labor. The IRS test determining who is an independent contractor has evolved over the years to keep up with the changing nature of work.

“What company is itching for a flood of fifty- and sixtysomethings to come aboard?”

Under the ABC test, workers must be 1) free from the control and direction of the hiring entity; 2) perform work outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business and 3) be customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed. A company that misclassifies a worker — intentionally or not — is now subject to hefty fines.

What Freelancers Say

But some freelancers and independent contractors in their 50s and 60s say they can’t work as employees.

“The W-2 jobs are not there for us,” says Jen Singer, 53, a Red Bank, N.J.-based freelance writer, writing coach, ghostwriter and co-founder of Fight for Freelancers USA, a group opposed to the legislation. “That’s why we’ve created our own businesses.”

Freelancing allows Singer to care for her 82-year-old mother, who moved into assisted living last summer after her father died. Singer has freelanced for 25 years.

If Congress passes the national version of the California law, the PRO Act (introduced by Virginia Democrat Rep. Robert Cortez Scott and co-sponsored by more than 100 member), says Singer, millions of entrepreneurs and other freelancers would lose work and freelance businesses they’ve built.

“And what company is itching for a flood of fifty- and sixtysomethings to come aboard?” she says.

That bill is not expected to pass in 2020 in the Republican-majority Senate, but could later if the balance of power changes this fall.

In El Cerrito, Calif., Stephen Beale, 61, has felt the effects of AB5 firsthand. A journalist with 20 years of experience, Beale was laid off from a full-time editorial job at Agility PR Solutions last May. As he unsuccessfully searched for a full-time job, he decided to pursue freelance writing.

“AB5 has definitely made that difficult,” says Beale. “If the law weren’t in place, I would be very aggressively going after clients to get steady work.” Instead, he’s continuing to apply for full-time work, but believes potential employers see him as too old to bring him on full-time.

Beale has fallen behind on his rent, is behind on his credit card payments and is selling personal items so he can buy groceries and pay his utilities. He’s also created a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for his living expenses.

“AB5 is an overreaction to what was obviously a problem, but it’s causing a lot more problems than it solves. It’s a real mess,” says Beale.

From Next Avenue, here.

Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky: The Uncomfortable Question for Comfortable Jews

Why Be Jewish?

“Why Be Jewish?” is probably the most important mp3s you will ever listen to. “Why Be Jewish?” is the number one question every Jew should be able to answer.  After listening to this you will have the answer and a much deeper understanding of being Jewish.

From Simple to Remember, here.

MBD: Yemos Hamashiach

ונזכה

Mar 19, 2019

Provided to YouTube by IIP-DDS

ונזכה · Mordechai Ben David

משיח

℗ Mordechai Ben David

Released on: 1992-09-05

Producer: Mordechai Ben David
Music Publisher: Mordechai Ben David
Composer Lyricist: Mordechai Ben David
Composer: Mordechai Ben David
Lyricist: Mordechai Ben David

Auto-generated by YouTube.

From YouTube, here.

COVID-19 and the Hype

By Rabbi Dr. Yosef P. Glassman, MD | February 04, 2021

Every life is sacred and should be saved when possible. Start there.

On Purim 5781 (תשאף=gematria for “take a deep breath in”) the Jewish community, along with the rest of the world, will mark a year of Nahafochu. Yet traveling to Lakewood, Monsey or Brooklyn, one might mistakenly think that the dreaded coronavirus has been eradicated. Masks are rare, except in supermarkets. It is not clear whether the animus is “Hashem ya’zor” versus “we’ve passed this test already” versus lack of trust in government.

However, the lack of public masking, en masse, is a notable flashpoint. Indeed, ultra-Orthodox Jews are in the spotlight as one of the many groups who seem to defy public health recommendations, both here and in Israel. It does indeed look like our compatriots are blatantly disregarding laws around the virus and perhaps, one might argue, bucking modern science in order to avoid the inconvenience of a mask. But are the Jews truly disregarding science? Is current practice and law purely based on science, and is it consistent? Let’s examine our view of the pandemic from a less emotional and more objective eye; this is demanded of us. The inconsistencies might make you reconsider your Purim plans or lack thereof.

Inconsistency #1: Plastic dividers. New plexiglass dividers, shower curtains and splash guards are now a common part of the scenery. To be sure, a virus could easily go around or through the hinge of the aliyah “penalty boxes” in most shuls. These dividers are notably new petri dishes that house many bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. Other than blocking a direct sneeze, they are highly symbolic at best. Not only are we not cleaning these surfaces often, but even worse, the supermarket touchpad for the debit cards are a bacterial and viral nest. Rarely are they cleaned between customers.

Inconsistency #2: Nursing home deaths. The statement, “Over 400,000 Americans dead from COVID-19 over the past year” is quite shocking. Yet, pre-COVID19, approximately 400,000 Americans nursing home residents died of other infectious diseases yearly. Picture CNN putting a tally of nursing home deaths on the screen as it is now with COVID. It would look similar in number. Additionally, 33 percent of nursing home residents die every year and 50 percent pass after three years of entering nursing home on average of all causes1. Alarm bells need to be consistent to be effective and believable. No one should die of preventable disease. We needed to wash our hands with soap for decades prior to 5780.

Inconsistency #3: Death rate. Americans are dying now at a rate of 8.977/1000 people/year. This is similar to 1978 America. Only two years ago, Americans died at a rate of 8.697/1000, which is still pretty high compared to the rest of the world (7.6/1000 people/year). Compared to China, whose death rate rose from 7.26 to 7.4/1000/year over the past year, we are doing poorly, but we were doing worse last year as well. That said, in 1950, the world was dying at a rate of 20/1000/year.2 One cannot place a cold number on the death of one person and we as doctors and society need to try to prevent every preventable death. Yet, it is truly hard to label this entire phenomenon as a pandemic as the CDC defines it: an event in which a disease spreads across several countries and affects a large number of people. Yes, over 100 million people worldwide have contracted the dreaded virus, and over 2 million out of a total 7.674 billion have sadly and unfortunately died. These numbers sound large, yet relatively speaking, this translates as a cold stat of 1.3% COVID + and and only 0.026% dying. All numbers are relative. Compare this to 2019, when 2.6 million people died of other communicable lower respiratory infections (0.034% of the world). Was that large? Sure it is larger than Bnei Brak and Meah Shearim combined, but it may not even qualify as a halachic magefa. Ask your local Orthodox rabbi. And, by the way, in case you needed another positive reason to make aliyah prior to Moshiach, one must know that in 2019 the overall death rate was 5.328/1000/year in Israel, dropping to 5.323 in 2020, COVID included. Food for thought.

Inconsistency #4: Selective alarm bells. Public health messaging alarm bells are quite arbitrary. Of course, the doctor’s individual and public health goal should always be ZERO preventable deaths, but if one is to be true to statistics and science, one must look at what the American government’s attitude truly is around public health at large. We are sounding the “public health” alarm bell at this time, but one of the greatest public health emergencies is far from contained—tobacco. Deaths from highly addictive cigarette related disease tops 500,000 per year in the U.S. in a typical year, (10 percent second hand). Nicotine ads are geared toward children and there is limited recourse. Additionally, run-of-the-mill alcohol remains, statistically speaking, more deadly and costly to society than crack and heroin; yet liquor stores remain thriving, while they often sell cigarettes and collect taxes for the American government. Do we see the paradox? Ban cigarettes to be true. Alcohol should still be open to responsible adult use, but needs heavy education and a cup of ice.

Inconsistency #5: School closings: German researchers have proposed that closing certain parts of society (e.g., schools) while leaving others open (e.g., liquor stores) has created a mushroom cloud effect and has spread the coronavirus even faster. By the way, kids have three times the greater risk of dying from flu, God forbid, than from COVID-19. Also children are 16 times less likely to die from COVID-19 than adults. Recent studies from Georgia have shown that schools are not superspreaders. Teachers should and could take caution, as they are older, but even this caution needs to be put into perspective.

Inconsistency #6: Deadliness of COVID-19 itself. The truth is that the deadly nature of COVID-19 is not necessarily the virus itself, but the underlying inflammatory state of the host. Deaths were 12 times higher among patients with reported underlying conditions compared with those without reported underlying conditions (19.5% versus 1.6%)3. Very often, “previously healthy” patients with COVID-19 became hospitalized as the virus unmasked an underlying dormant illness. We Americans were already at risk, overweight and carrying an inflammatory sac of fat around our pancreas (myself included), literally poison to all organs. COVID-19 triggers the attention of the already overdriven immune system and makes a big surprise party around the lungs and many blood vessels. Couple that with the inflammatory plaques around the coronaries and aortas building up since age three. Thus, COVID-19, in its thrombotic and clotting nature, has allowed these fatty plaques to clog further into heart attacks and strokes. Yes, the disease itself hits the lungs and even leads to blood clots in the lungs, but the real culprit is the immune response combined with underlying inflammation. COVID-19 is the unmasker of baseline inflammation. It is the unmasker of a poor diet. It is the unmasker of lack of exercise. Indeed, deaths from non–COVID-19 causes (e.g., Alzheimer disease, diabetes, heart disease) increased sharply in five states with the most “COVID-19 deaths.”4 The real alarm bell is the underlying conditions that put us at risk.

Inconsistency #7: Masks. The World Health Organization tells us that it is hard to expect the gold standard of a randomized controlled trial comparing mask wearers to non-mask wearers. This is for ethical reasons. It would be similar to comparing the building homes with a flowing sewage system versus those without sewage systems, and seeing which household contracted more disease. Public health measures often can only be observed for results. Causality is difficult to ascribe despite the obvious. This is similar to masking. We only have some studies that are not robust. Only one observational study has directly analyzed the impact of mask use in the community on COVID-19 transmission. The study looked at the reduction of secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Beijing households by face mask use.5 It found that face masks were 79 percent effective in preventing transmission, if they were used by all household members prior to symptoms occurring. That said, the source of 80 percent of all COVID infections remains unknown. The remaining known 20 percent is likely at home and restaurants, or any other place you can think of that one hangs out in crowds with potential prolonged exposure.

It is clear that masks must help to at least stop infected drops from exiting a person’s dalet amos; whether they prevent infection likely depends on the mask itself (N95 versus shmatte). Yet, know that any place that people feel the most comfortable, they take masks off for long periods (e.g., restaurants and home, most commonly), where virus can linger and spread. Sure, your fellow family diners don’t mean to spread COVID-19 to you, but if infected, it is very likely from your nearby loved one, not the passing haredi at Whole Foods. And perhaps the optics aren’t good when black and white Jews are maskless, but true mask advocates need to be consistent, wearing them round the clock, even at home. Lack of societal rule consistency leads to both conscious and subconscious questioning of the sincerity of public health recommendations and rightly screams hypocrisy.

Every life is sacred and needs to be saved, but COVID-19, overwhelmingly and scientifically speaking, is not the death sentence that is projected on the news. It is real. It is not a hoax. Be careful. Protect the elderly and immunocompromised. But at the end of the day, the Infinite Creator is the Dayan HaEmet, even with all our efforts.

1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6143238/

2 https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/death-rate

Coronavirus Disease 2019 Case Surveillance — United States, January 22–May 30, 2020. Weekly / June 19, 2020 / 69(24);759–765)

Woolf SH, Chapman DA, Sabo RT, Weinberger DM, Hill L. Excess deaths from COVID-19 and other causes, March-April 2020. JAMA. 2020; 324 (5): 510-513.

Y. Wang et al., Reduction of secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in households by face mask use, disinfection and social distancing: A cohort study in Beijing, China. BMJ Global Health 5, e002794 (2020)


Rabbi Dr. Yosef P. Glassman, M.D. lives in Bergenfield and is the director of hospital medicine at a community hospital in Lakewood, where he leads the COVID-19 unit. He is also CEO of HADARTA.org, which encourages elder aliyah specifically to Safed.

From Jewish Link, here.