The American Society for Indexing held its 2025 Virtual Conference, “Spring into Action,” on Friday, April 25, 2025, and Saturday, April 26, 2025. Sessions were held virtually on Zoom each day.
In the third session on Saturday, Harnessing Your Superpowers of Persuasion, presenter Lila Stromer discussed freelancers and how we have never been defined legislatively. This federal oversight has led to bills over the years that could take away our choice to remain freelancers (instead misclassifying us as employees).
In 1938 the U.S. government passed the Federal Labor Standards Act, which defined the role of employer and employee, but did not define the role of independent contractor nor freelancer. Today, approximately 70 million Americans work as freelancers. Over the years, at both the federal level (e.g. the PRO Act), and in many states, (e.g. AB5 in California), bills/legislation and regulations have been written/passed that make it exceedingly difficult to remain freelancers.
AB5 is based on the “ABC Test,” criteria used for determining whether someone is acting as an independent contractor or should be considered an employee. The “ABC Test” offers challenges to freelancers because of ambiguities.
She also described a recent strategy among unions to develop “sectoral bargaining,” which shifts organizing and bargaining activity from individual workplaces to broader industries or sectors. The impacts of this are not clear yet, she said.
New federal legislation, H.R. 1319, is seeking to clarify the role of freelancers. She urged conference attendees to reach out to their elected representatives and advocate for themselves.
In the next blog posting, I will discuss the last Saturday session from the ASI 2025 Virtual Conference. For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, https://www.stellarsearches.com.