The vast majority of California’s independent contractors are still covered by the ABC test: Passage of AB 2257 caused only minor changes to AB 5 and the application of the ABC test

The vast majority of California’s independent contractors are still covered by the ABC test: Passage of AB 2257 caused only minor changes to AB 5 and the application of the ABC test Research Brief UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education June 2023 The vast majority of California’s independent contractors are still covered by the ABC test Passage of AB 2257 caused only minor changes in c. [...] In April 2018, the California State Supreme Court ruling in the Dynamex1 case established a new legal standard, called the ABC test, for determining if a worker is an employee or an independent contractor for the purposes of California’s wage and hour laws.2 Under the ABC test, a worker is considered an employee and not an independent contractor unless the work performed a) is under the worker’s c. [...] We find that after the revisions in AB 2257, the overwhelming majority of these workers are still in occupations covered by the ABC test and another large share are potentially covered by the ABC test. [...] Applying the original AB 5 exemptions to 2021 ACS data, we find that AB 2257 reduced the share of workers covered by the ABC test by 2 percentage points, and increased the share of workers in occupations covered by the ABC test unless strict criteria are met by 1 percentage point. [...] To estimate the difference between the share of individuals who are independent contractors in their main jobs under AB 5 and the share under AB 2257, we applied the original AB 5 exemptions to the 2021 ACS data and calculated the shares of workers covered by the ABC test and the share of workers covered by the ABC test unless strict criteria are met.