Freelancers fear California's new gig worker law will wipe them out

John Conroy's first glimmer of California's new approach to freelance journalists came last fall, when an editor at a travel publication that provided a large share of his income abruptly informed him that its parent company would cease using California-based freelancers.

"That cost me several thousand dollars of much-needed income," says the Los Angeles writer, 67. He's making do, barely, on Social Security benefits and savings, but otherwise is "hanging on by my fingernails."

Freelance writers and photographers in California are in a panic that Conroy's case is the canary in the coal mine that signals a sharp contraction in their opportunities for work.

The initial blow - and the trigger for the employer's decision in Conroy's case - was the California Supreme Court's so-called Dynamex decision of 2018, which tightened the rules for when a worker must be considered a company's employee rather than an independent contractor. But what's generated more angst among the freelancers in journalism is Assembly Bill 5, a statute enacted this year that codified the Dynamex decision and expanded its