California is the home of both the highest and the lowest points in the continental U.S. — Mt. Whitney at 14,495 feet and Death Valley at -282 feet. As far apart as these two sites are on the altimeter, they’re less than 100 miles apart on the odometer.

That’s a lot of up and down. If you follow California’s developing law on Independent Contractor vs. Employee tests, you’ve also seen a lot of ups and downs recently. If a pending bill passes (as expected), businesses using independent contractors may be about to experience a new low.

Remember the Dynamex case? As explained here, that’s the California Supreme Court decision that enacted a strict ABC Test for determining whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor under California’s wage orders. As we discussed here, though, the ABC Test only applies to certain state law employment claims. Other less stringent tests still apply when analyzing whether a contractor should really be considered an employee under other state employment laws.

But that may be about to change.

Assembly Bill 5 would adopt the Dynamex ABC Test as the way to determine whether someone is an employee under all parts of the California Labor Code and under state unemployment law.

In its current form, the law would exempt certain licensed professions from being subject to the ABC Test. Extensive lobbying efforts are underway by various trade associations to carve other trades out of the law as well. For those professions excluded from the law’s reach, the test for determining whether a contractor is really an employee would be the S.G. Borello balancing test, a much less stringent standard than the Dynamex ABC Test.

The bill is now pending before the state senate. If it passes, it will become even harder to be a legitimate independent contractor in California. The state with one of North America’s highest peaks will become a virtual Death Valley for contractors trying to maintain their independent status.

We’ll continue to follow the status of this bill.

© 2019 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.