Don't forget that AB5 was a response to the California Supreme Court. The court made a ruling that would have classified a lot more people as employees, and then the legislature wanted to clarify that for businesses so they wrote AB5.
The California Supreme Court ruling went into affect in January. Without AB5 things would be even more confusing now than it would have otherwise been, and the legislature is already looking at fixes to the law to deal with the other issues that have come up.
This line of reasoning assumes that the legislature couldn't have made up a third class of worker instead of lumping everyone as either an employee or a contractor. The courts cannot write law in the same way the legislature can, and so was much more restricted in what they could order. AB5 is just unimaginative.
Can the California state legislature create a new federal class of worker?
I keep seeing this in threads, but I don't understand the rationale. The United States Federal Government recognizes W-2 and 1099 filings, the State of California cannot invent a new Federal filing status or amend the United States Code, correct?
You know, I haven't heard that argument being raised yet. That's an interesting point.
I think California could have said "pay gig workers with a W-2 but you don't need to give them all the exact same benefits as employees (health insurance, 401k, disability)”. Basically I'm not sure that it matters much, but you are correct in that California cannot amend federal law.
The California Supreme Court ruling went into affect in January. Without AB5 things would be even more confusing now than it would have otherwise been, and the legislature is already looking at fixes to the law to deal with the other issues that have come up.