{"id":20541,"date":"2019-09-18T15:14:32","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T23:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/california-governor-signs-law-protecting-gig-economy-workers\/"},"modified":"2019-09-18T15:14:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T23:14:32","slug":"california-governor-signs-law-protecting-gig-economy-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/california-governor-signs-law-protecting-gig-economy-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"California Governor Signs Law Protecting Gig Economy Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Richard Gonzales<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, speaks at an August 28 rally in Sacramento, Calif., calling for passage of AB5 to limit when companies can label workers as independent contractors.<\/p>\n

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Rich Pedroncelli\/AP<\/p>\n

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Rich Pedroncelli\/AP<\/p>\n

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping new labor law Wednesday extending wage and benefit protections to about a million workers and aimed primarily at drivers contracted by ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft.<\/p>\n

Newsom had argued<\/a> that when workers are misclassified as independent contractors rather than as employees, they lose basic benefits such as minimum wage, paid sick days, and health insurance.<\/p>\n

“The hollowing out of our middle-class has been 40 years in the making, and the need to create lasting economic security for our workforce demands action,” Newsom said in his signing statement.<\/a><\/p>\n

“Today, we are disrupting the status quo and taking a bold step forward to rebuild our middle class and reshape the future of workers as we know it,” Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego, the author of AB5<\/a>, said in a statement<\/a>. “As one of the strongest economies in the world, California is now setting the global standard for worker protections for other states and countries to follow.”<\/p>\n

Both labor groups<\/a> and the ride-hailing companies, such as Uber, anticipate national implications from the signing of AB5.<\/p>\n