If you’ve read any of my past Stet posts on the war against Independent Contractors -- the group in which most of us writers belong -- you may be interested to know that in Illinois, the Freelance Worker Protection bill has passed both houses of the Illinois State Legislature. It isn’t a stretch to say that Governor Pritzker will most likely sign it into law. 

This does not bode well for freelancers, given that it sets the table for passing some form of the ABC Test (which is based on California’s destructive AB5 law). While “Freelance Worker Protection” sounds benign, it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing that can negatively affect Independent Contractors of every stripe, as well as the businesses that hire us. It adds rules upon needless rules that we’ll all potentially have to obey – never mind that the majority of us freelancers have been fully capable of successfully managing our own careers and the business relationships with those who hire us.

If you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, I invite you to read any one of my previous postings:

Fight for Your Right to Work (May 2023) 

Update: Is Your Freelancing Life in Danger? (March 2023) 

Is Your Freelancing Life in Danger? (November 2022) 

For this June Stet, I was planning on asking you all to contact your IL representatives and express your opposition to the Freelance Worker Protection bill and the looming ABC Test. Now that that point is moot, perhaps contacting the Governor should be the next step. While it may be futile, it may communicate to Mr. Pritzker that this matter is not going unnoticed, and provide some hint as to why Illinois is hemorrhaging businesses, big and small.

If there are effective next steps we all can take, I will inform you either in an email or the next Stet.

-- Laura Stigler