www.app.com: In November 2019, I went from never having attended a political event — except to perform as a musician or bandleader — to testifying in Trenton against anti-independent contractor legislation that would have put me out of business.
Now, that horrible bill is back, reintroduced in the current legislative session as Senate Bill 863. I hope everyone is paying attention to how S863 can ruin the careers of musicians like me, and can wreck the fun of all of us in New Jersey who enjoy live music.
4 comments:
"It is sad that laws like this that are clearly so well intentioned are not fully considered with all the consequences they will have for certain industries like the arts. While the law could have great benefits for many industries, it could truly destroy industries like music and theatre, where designers are also usually independent contractors.
I wonder if there are easy work arounds that are being overlooked, though. Creating an LLC in one's own name, and contracting as an LLC with hiring organizations might get around it, or perhaps creating some sort of larger union-like organization which hires artists and contracts with hiring organizations. Then the umbrella organization could 'send out' its musicians or artists to the organizations that it has contracted with. It might work pretty well, although I'm sure there's a myriad of logistical issues that would need to be sorted out before that structure could really be efficiently operational. "
While this is not something extremely new, it is something that is reemerging and could effect a lot of people greatly. While the article focuses on the author's field of work as a freelance musician, this is something that very well could apply to many people in our industry. Many people in our industry, especially people in the design world like sound designers, media designers, lighting designers and scenic designers, often find themselves freelancing a lot. Many of these people find themselves jumping from one theater to the next versus being a full time employee for any single company, theater, or group. These people would be effected in the same way. I like what the unknown person above said, however, I wonder if there is a work around that could involve creating your own LLC. This is something that, if down properly, can be very cheap to do and may fix the tax issues. That being said, it may not fix all the issues with travel deductions.
I hadn’t heard anything about this until now but this seems like a well-intentioned bill meant to help most people, without taking into consideration those in less traditional careers. Making all employees contracted is meant to help alleviate stress from the uncertainty of some jobs and ensure stability. But it fails to take into account the nature of jobs, as the author points out, like music and theatre where freelancing and working as an independent contractor are the only realistic ways to keep working, as a single group or venue will most likely not have enough consistent jobs to sustain its musicians. In an ideal world, of course, we wouldn’t be worried about financial stability and be able to accept fewer, more long-term contracts, but as it is so many musicians and other artists live paycheck-to-paycheck and will be negatively impacted by this legislation. I hope this doesn’t pass, or at least can be amended to address the concerns of those in the performing arts.
This bill would be catastrophic for freelance artists. This is why it is so important for people to be informed about the arts. It is hard to recognize them as important to society even though they very clearly are because little emphasis is placed on them. This misinformation about freelance artists however does not just affect us. Many other professions that are traditionally freelance, such as truck drivers, would have been ruined by this bill. When this bill was first proposed back in November, truck drivers rose up against it and were able to have an exception granted for them. That is what needs to happen for artists. It will be challenging, but I believe there are enough from the music industry, visual arts, and theater to gather together in support of an exception for freelance artists. Presenting exactly how this will destroy the livelihoods of freelance artists like this article does will be imperative. It would be even more persuasive if the venues who would choose to limit artists due to the financial and bureaucratic burden this bill would bring on would also speak up.
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