Posts Tagged: employee

Opinion

For many workers, ‘gig economy’ has a dark side

A delivery person -- an independent contractor? -- on the job. (Photo: Davide Bonaldo, via Shutterstock)

The expanding gig economy in California is often praised for giving workers flexibility and independence. Be your own boss, set your own schedule, companies tout, and these companies would like us to think that drivers, cleaners and personal shoppers actually prefer the gig economy to traditional employment. The rosy spin ignores the reality for California’s low-wage workers.

Opinion

Dynamex ruling sparks confusion

Workers in Bakersfield on the job during the construction of a two-story home. (Photo: Richard Thornton, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: A rare burst of spontaneous political combustion occurred earlier this year in Olympia, Washington, when hairstylists, barbers, and cosmetologists mobilized against a legislative bill that would have banned booth rentals, the practice by independent contractors of renting a chair or a station at a salon to make their living. What’s going on here, in Washington state, and in every state in the nation has been a long and continuing battle to precisely define when an independent contractor really is independent and when he or she is in truth an employee.

Opinion

Dynamex decision threatens workers’ flexibility

A California freeway at rush hour, with traffic that includes commuters and rideshare drivers. (Photo: EGD, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: My wife and I are union members working for a union employer in the Sacramento area. As full-time employees, we make a fair living, but not nearly enough for us to be able to live the life we want. In order to supplement our wages, we have chosen to work as independent contractors driving for app-based delivery and rideshare companies that service Sacramento.

News

Just who is an independent contractor?

A sweeping new California Supreme Court ruling restricting who is an independent contractor is shaking up an exceptionally diverse range of industries. The ruling, issued in April, affects an estimated 2 million independent contractors working in healthcare, beauty salons, gig economy jobs like Uber and Lyft, journalism, music, real estate, education, financial planning, agriculture, construction, technology, insurance, transportation and more

News

CalPERS eyes long-term rate hike

The CalPERS' governing board during a meeting several years ago at the pension fund's headquarters. (Photo: CalPERS board)

CalPERS is considering small increases in employer and employee rates over decades to reduce the risk of big investment losses, a policy that also would lower an earnings forecast critics say is too optimistic. The proposal is a response to the “maturing” of a CalPERS system that soon will have more retirees than active workers. From two active workers for each retiree in 2002, the ratio fell to 1.45 to one by 2012 and is expected to be 0.8 to 0.6 to one in the next decades.

News

A deep dive into California’s lobbying laws

State Capitol, Sacramento. (Photo: Wikimedia)

ANALYSIS: The 2014 Legislative Session produced a number of bills that would have substantially changed the rules that affect lobbying activity. The Legislature passed legislation that would have zeroed out lobbyist gifts and lowered the gift limits for all public officials to $200, as well as eliminated gifts of golf, spa treatments and a host of perks for public officials. However, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed all these bills.

News

Proposed pension initiative targets local changes

The leaders of two local pension reforms, former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio, are working with a coalition on a statewide initiative to help local governments make cost-cutting pension reforms. During a break at the Reason Foundation’s third annual Pension Summit in Sacramento last week, the two men said they are “on the same page” and working with a coalition on the details of a proposed initiative for the November 2016 state ballot.

News

Judges’ pension contributions eyed

Payments seven judges make toward their pensions would be cut nearly in half by a bill approved last week in a Senate committee, despite a warning from the chairwoman of a “slippery slope” undermining the governor’s pension reform.

News

Bigger health care bite for state retirees

The rapidly growing cost of state worker retiree health care, a more generous benefit than received by active state workers, soon could be taking a bigger bite out of the state general fund than pensions. As if trading places, a new forecast expects the annual general fund payment for state worker retiree health care, now $500 million less than the payment for pensions, to be $500 million more than the pension payment in six years.

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