Last year, California enacted AB-5, legislation that could force app-based companies to make anyone who finds work on their platforms employees. The law has already created confusion and unintended consequences for dozens of industries.
California’s broad-based, blunt-instrument law, has resulted in independent musicians being warned they’ll no longer be able to record in many studios and truck drivers learning that their pay could fall significantly. A few weeks ago, Vox announced it would lay off 200 freelance journalists in an effort to comply with the law.
Despite the issues California’s legislation has already created, the New York Daily News reports that many New York legislators seem interested in passing a similar law.
New York is already a national leader in providing non-traditional workers access to traditional benefits. Almost 25 years ago, New York created a first-of-its-kind fund, the Black Car Fund, to provide protections to drivers. For decades the fund was limited in the kinds of services it could provide. However, thanks to a groundbreaking piece of legislation signed by Gov. Cuomo in December, it can now offer a broad range of protections and benefits, including health care.
Today, rideshare and for-hire vehicle riders in New York pay a small fee on all their trips that is allocated to the Black Car Fund. In exchange, the fund provides benefits including workers compensation, vision care, telemedicine, mental health care, wellness services and more.
Experts have talked about a portable benefits fund for gig economy workers for years. In many ways, the Black Car Fund was, and remains, the closest thing in the country to a true portable benefits fund. And it works, covering more than 130,000 drivers across more than 400 bases.