Vox Media Fires Hundreds of Freelance Writers, Blaming California's 'Gig Economy' Law

[DEAD7]

This is about people who are treated like employees by workload but not in stability and benefits.

The number of full time positions created by this will be a joke, and the number of freelancers hurt will not... the reality is that these companies will still be hiring freelancers, only now none of them will live in California.
...California based freelancer must now, find full time work, be underemployed and/or legally homeless, or leave the state.
Leaving the state being quite popular these days.

Seems like your more concerned with sticking to the corporations than you are about California workers having gig options.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

But that’s not happening. Vox media doesn’t pay that well (58k for senior writers) and it’s California offices are in Los Angeles & San Francisco (According to its site) so we know that money isn’t going far in those places. I don’t see the way this helps.

Do you know how that kind of pay compares to what they were giving freelancers?

"Vox had prior issues with its workers. A class action lawsuit was filed by over 100 SB Nation site managers for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. One plaintiff alleged that she was required to work up to 40 hours per month and only paid a $125.00 stipend. In June, workers at Vox walked out of their offices in protest."

So before Vox could pawn off a full-time job worth of work into 4 freelancers getting a combined $500/month with no benefits. They literally weren't even making minimum wage and were suing the company for it. Now it's paying someone $4500/month with benefits and y'all are complaining that ain't enough money.



$125 for 40 hours of work. Fair Labor Standards violations. Class action lawsuits against them by their own "contractors". THAT is the status quo y'all were rooting for.

 

[DEAD7]

Do you know how that kind of pay compares to what they were giving freelancers?

"Vox had prior issues with its workers. A class action lawsuit was filed by over 100 SB Nation site managers for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. One plaintiff alleged that she was required to work up to 40 hours per month and only paid a $125.00 stipend. In June, workers at Vox walked out of their offices in protest."

So before Vox could pawn off a full-time job worth of work into 4 freelancers getting a combined $500/month with no benefits. They literally weren't even making minimum wage and were suing the company for it. Now it's paying someone $4500/month with benefits and y'all are complaining that ain't enough money.



$125 for 40 hours of work. Fair Labor Standards violations. Class action lawsuits against them by their own "contractors". THAT is the status quo y'all were rooting for.

Vox Media employees stage one-hour walkout to protest working conditions

They walked out for an hour and claimed they love working for Vox...
Link to lawsuit?

 

[Ethnic Vagina Finder]

Wouldn't they be able to bypass this by simply forming an LLC

When I had my own delivery business, the company I subcontracted for would only fukk with drivers that had an LLC or S-Corp.

Are people that dense?

If you are freelancing, and you're generating that much income from writing, it would be wise to form a legit business.

People on both sides are lazy. I recon both sides, don't want to pay taxes.

 

[Rarely-Wrong Liggins]

200 freelancers replaced by 20 actual employees (split between full and part time it seems). One tenth. The fact that it took a state law for this American Company to reduce labor (personnel numbers) by 90% in this area, something that the business machine masturbates to, highlights the exploitative nature of the gig "economy."

Just imagine how much those 200 freelancers were paid to make them more cost effective than 20 full /part time employees.

America is brazy yo. You have people with full time jobs also doing what was once full time work as odd side jobs making less than teenagers with part time jobs. People cobbling together four or five gig jobs just to make ends meet. You hate to see it.

 

[DEAD7]

The same people who take the only companies that can afford to pay real wages with benefits should exist are the same ones who decry the giant corps that are left after their regulations remove startups and smaller businesses from the field.


Uber reported a loss of 3 billion iirc in 2018 and progressives are coming for them.
Not sure how they survive.

consumers lose again...

 

[Robbie3000]

Wouldn't they be able to bypass this by simply forming an LLC

When I had my own delivery business, the company I subcontracted for would only fukk with drivers that had an LLC or S-Corp.

Are people that dense?

If you are freelancing, and you're generating that much income from writing, it would be wise to form a legit business.

People on both sides are lazy. I recon both sides, don't want to pay taxes.

Right? I wouldn’t want a law to take opportunities from people. A lot of writers cut their teeth doing freelance stuff. That should still be an option.

 

[rapbeats]

How does taking away their side gig(giving them fewer options) make them better off?

you're asking the wrong question, we had this same discussion when talking about the minimum wage going up in San Fran... and what would happen to the mom and pop pizza place.

I said its not hard at all. most people just look at things as they are and not as they should/could be. for the should/could be to happen, we will have to hurt first during the transition period. there is no way around that.

how things are right now. You have a pizza spot, that starts off selling 100 pizzas a day(fake number just roll with it), 100 pizzas means you need 2 workers to pull this off. and it will be tight. so tight that if one person gets sick, the owner has to come in and help out. so you really need like 2.5 workers. 3 to be safe. Now you are selling 150 pizzas a day. so you need like 3.5 workers to be good. but no, you hire 5 workers so you the owner wont have to work either. and you were use to paying these people under a living wage in San Fran, like $8.00 per hour. Well the minimum is going up to 15 per hour. So now you're crying foul and saying you have to lay people off. Well the truth is, you never could afford to hire 5 people at a LIVING wage to begin with. its called a markets correction.

 

[rapbeats]

The same people who take the only companies that can afford to pay real wages with benefits should exist are the same ones who decry the giant corps that are left after their regulations remove startups and smaller businesses from the field.


Uber reported a loss of 3 billion iirc in 2018 and progressives are coming for them.
Not sure how they survive.

consumers lose again...

uber has a lot of other issues. bad example. use another one please. we cant use companies built on angel investors as a good example. come up with normal companies that started the normal way. not these techish firms. Give me a business that started out with someone getting a business loan and their own money. then lets talk.

 

[Strapped]

The 150 or so left with less than they had before may disagree with you...

edit: and Vox's product may(I believe it will) suffer... which could lead to even more people including those you've sought to help being left with less...

You are truely mad

 

[Pressure]

A lot of those people will still submit work for free.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

I'd think more content to choose from, from varied sources/perspectives surely generates a superior product.
If Vox is diminished, and more people are screwed im sure progressives like yourself will just claim it was for the best...

Thats like saying HL generates better discussion than panels of professional, knowledgeable experts

You still on this free market horse shyt after all these years

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

If 20-30 of those people have a real, paid job that they can build a family on and work benefits that go along with it, then that benefit is much greater than 180 other people having small side gigs that give them nothing more than pocket money and no benefits.

they eliminated 200 freelance jobs to create 20 part time jobs...last time i checked, a part time job wasn't rainbows and butterflies. some things are really meant to be a hustle, writing for a blog is one of them. no clue how much vox paid, but i used to write for a small sports blog and get $60-100 an article, that's a nice chunk of change for college student/recent grad. a lot of people just want to make some side cash from something they enjoy doing, but CA has basically eliminated their ability to do so

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Having a specialized group of people dedicated to a job full-time versus a mob of people submitting articles in their free time will likely lead to better content, not worse. You're going to have thought-out and developed work that progresses rather than just the superficial hot-takes that come from part-timers. Why do you think that people do better work as side gigs?

that's not the type of work they need for a sports blog - SB nation - or a real estate/architecture focused blog like Curbed. they get more money from traffic, the more content you have indexing in search, the better. this isn't the Atlantic full of think pieces or WAPO investigative journalism. they need a high volume of articles that are timely, easy to read, cover multiple teams/markets and need this daily. you need a network of freelancers for blog sites such as that. you're trying to turn their business into something it isnt

 

[theworldismine13]

Wouldn't they be able to bypass this by simply forming an LLC

When I had my own delivery business, the company I subcontracted for would only fukk with drivers that had an LLC or S-Corp.

Are people that dense?

If you are freelancing, and you're generating that much income from writing, it would be wise to form a legit business.

People on both sides are lazy. I recon both sides, don't want to pay taxes.

true but thats a lot of paperwork and in Cali its around 1000 a year for a corporation