California’s New Law That Vox Supported Just Cost Hundreds Of Vox Writers Their Jobs

By  James Barrett

Left-wing outlet Vox supported California’s controversial new law targeting “gig” workers — including contractors who work for ride share companies and freelance writers — arguing that those sounding the alarm over the law fail to understand how it’s really going to “protect” independent contractors. With the law going into effect in January, Vox Media has just informed hundreds of its freelancers that they’ve been cut. Out of the hundreds, only about 20 will potentially get a part-time or full-time job with the company.

In October, about a month after California’s Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) was passed, Vox’s Alexia Fernández Campbell defended the law by insisting to the outlet’s readers and freelancers that “the alternative to AB 5 would be worse“:

The law, which goes into effect in January, makes it much harder for companies to label workers as independent contractors (a.k.a. freelancers) instead of employees, a common practice that has allowed businesses to skirt state and federal labor laws.

Hundreds of thousands of independent contractors in California, ranging from Uber and Amazon drivers to manicurists and exotic dancers, will likely become employees under AB 5. So would many freelance journalists who do four or more assignments each month for one news outlet.