Who We Are

Band leader, Musician

Bradley Madsen

kimkavin

As a musician and band leader, sometimes I have no gigs, but will be contracting musicians for upcoming work. Other times, I have multiple gigs at various sites in the tristate area (my record is four gigs in one day, leaving before 7 a.m. and returning at 2 a.m.).

Why I like being an independent contractor: I can make a living playing. There are very, very few organizations that have the amount of work necessary to employ a musician full-time. The vast majority of highly successful music companies have enough work to employ musicians part-time. If I were employed by one office exclusively, I’d be working part-time, and not enough to qualify for any sort of health and retirement benefits.

What I want lawmakers to know: You need to talk to lots of people in lots of industries that consist of mostly independent contractors to understand why they want to be independent contractors.

I’ve built my entire life and career around being an independent contractor. Don’t devastate my livelihood.

Writer

Laurie Tarkan

kimkavin

I’m a longtime freelance journalist who has written regularly for The New York Times, many women’s and consumer magazines, and tons of websites. I became a freelance writer because most magazine articles were outsourced to freelancers rather than being written in-house by employees. When my kids were born, writing as a freelancer became a perfect way to balance work and family while reducing child-care costs.

One of my children has suffered from chronic migraines, and it has been extremely helpful for me to be available at home during the day. She had to miss many, many days of school, and it would have been hard to manage that situation had I been working in New York City at a full-time job.

Having been out of the traditional workplace for many years, it would be incredibly difficult for me to get an on-staff job. I know because I’ve tried. Employers are afraid to take a risk on hiring a freelancer, despite my depth of experience. And I wouldn’t want a staff job anyway: The ones that are available pay only about two-thirds of my current income as an independent contractor.

I am a divorced mother of two children, with one in college and the other soon to be in college, and there is no way that I could support our financial needs without my work.

What I want lawmakers trying to misclassify me to know: You are hurting older women, single women, and those caring for children. You are failing to recognize that these types of laws hurt small business owners who spent a lifetime building a reputation and a business, and who are choosing to bank on themselves to succeed.

What you are doing to freelance journalists is akin to closing a well-known, successful restaurant and telling the owner to go get a job somewhere else.

Writer

Lisa Fields

kimkavin

I’m a freelance writer who focuses on health, nutrition, fitness and psychology content. I’ve done this work for more than 13 years. I write articles for traditional journalistic publications, as well as related content for companies. I start my day a little before 9 a.m., after my son gets on the school bus, and I work until 3 p.m., when my daughter gets home from school. I then spend some time with my kids (driving them to activities, helping them with homework) and work a few more hours in the evening, after they go to bed.

Why I want to remain an independent contractor: I’m a single mom, and the freelance lifestyle allows me to be present for my children. I can write at noon or midnight, and nobody cares as long as I meet my deadlines (which I always do).

My career choice has recently been lumped in with the gig economy, the buzzy term that’s been used to describe anyone who does work as an independent contractor. But my career predates all of the current buzz about side hustles and gig workers. It’s a model that works for me and allows me to single-handedly support my household.

What I want lawmakers to know: I’ve worked hard to establish myself during the past decade-plus, and I am well regarded in my field. It would be tragic if I were forced to abandon my business model.

Executive, leadership and life coach

Julie Ketover

kimkavin

I chose the entrepreneurial path after many years of working in the legal industry, as a lawyer and business professional. After having my second child, I grew weary of my full-time corporate job and began to think about ways in which I could do work I loved, make money and balance the demands of parenting and maintaining a household.

Gradually, I shed the remaining vestiges of legal work. Today, I am an executive, leadership and life coach. In the past six months, I have worked on my own business-building efforts in my private practice and have taken on independent contractor work with multiple employers.

I relish the flexibility of this professional path I’ve chosen. It enables me to make my own schedule, take care of my children and be there for them as they grow up. It also allows me not to be solely responsible for client generation.

What lawmakers need to know: I choose to work as an independent contractor. Many of us choose the freelance path for personal reasons. We want to be independent contractors. Many of us are working moms.

Online ESL Teacher

Kelly McCrea

kimkavin

Several years ago, my husband lost a job he had held for 12 years. To help provide for our family, I began teaching 4- to 16-year-olds how to speak English through an online platform called VIPKid. I make my own hours, which means I can work in the very early mornings, leaving the rest of the day to focus, with my husband, on our other home-based business of online resale. I’m earning decent money, and I have the freedom to be a mom to my large family.

My online teaching income kept food on our table and gave me the opportunity to grow into a career field that I’m passionate about.

What I want lawmakers to know: I am not exploited. Please don’t make it even harder on us to live and work here.

Furniture assembly, Residential home inspector

Adam Tate

kimkavin

I own a furniture assembly business and work as a residential home inspector. I enjoy being an independent contractor in these lines of work because I have lots of flexibility with my time and income.

What I want lawmakers to know: I think that legislation to help exploited, misclassified workers is great, but there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Don’t assume that we are all employees until proven otherwise. I am not the same as a misclassified worker. We should not be in the same pool.

Grant writer, Medical education writer, Professor

Patricia Gellasch

kimkavin

I was a bedside nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit. I continued my education and became a family nurse practitioner. From there, I decided to branch out and get involved in medical education, writing grants and CME/CE content. I worked full-time for a company, traveling more than three hours a day to its office in North Jersey. That got old. I returned to clinical practice and started freelancing a little each month in the CME/CE industry.

When I had my second child, I decided to focus just on freelancing and working only one day per week in clinical practice. The choice gave me the flexibility to be at home with my two children. I slowly built a business that started out grossing $12,000 per year in 2009. Today, I earn six figures.

And, to make sure I never had to go back to clinical practice, I pursued my Ph.D. in nursing education and research. I also work adjunct at The College of New Jersey as a professor, but I can’t do that full time because I won’t make enough money to support my family.

Why I want to remain an independent contractor: I enjoy the freedom. I am a mom of two kids and need the autonomy. I also have an illness, and this type of work helps me maintain full-time employment on my own time.

Massage therapist

Dana Watson

kimkavin

While I am fortunate to have secured part-time employment as a massage therapist with a hospice organization, it is not enough to sustain a living on its own. I rely on private elder clients, and I earn additional revenue through my company, Relative Touch, where I hire other independent-contractor therapists who are skilled in this massage niche. I pay them more than I pay myself.

Why I prefer to be an independent contractor: Viable employment opportunities in the massage industry are rare. When available, the jobs are provided by corporate chains where therapists are overworked and severely underpaid, leading to an average of minimum wage at best. I can earn a better living by remaining an independent contractor and being my own boss. I can also do better work than offering cookie-cutter McMassages.

Online ESL Teacher

Moira Larrea

kimkavin

Why I’m an Independent Contractor: Every morning, Monday through Saturday, I get up before dawn to connect with and teach English to children in China, through an online app. I teach up to six 25-minute classes each morning. I’ve been doing this for two years and I love it. It’s my dream job.

I choose to be an independent contractor for several reasons. I like the flexibility of choosing my own schedule and the ability to work from home with no long commute. My hourly pay rate is better as an independent contractor than it was as a salaried employee.  

It’s also better for my health and well-being. I have chronic Lyme disease, which comes with chronic pain, lowered immunity, and fatigue. At my salaried, brick and mortar job, because of limited sick time,  I was forced to go to work when I was ill. I would end up being treated for bronchitis multiple times a year and had severe asthma flare ups. Because I work shorter hours from home, when the fatigue from my illness overcomes me, I have the flexibility to get the rest my body needs. My hours and flexible schedule also allows me to focus on caring for my family and home. Because I only work three hours in the mornings, I have the energy to keep my home in order.

Many of the people who are independent contractors don’t have the option or want to be “employees.”

Interpreter

Hector Reyes

kimkavin

I’m retired from law enforcement, and now I work as an interpreter. Various agencies hire me for jobs that last anywhere from one to eight hours.

I enjoy this work, because it lets me have more time to spend with my family. I need to make more money than my pension affords me, as I have just finished putting two sons through college and have another one who is a junior in college. This work allows me to make more money than a regular job would, while at the same time it gives me the flexibility to spend more time with my family than my previous job ever allowed me to do.

What I want lawmakers to know: You appear to be trying to protect some workers, but in attempting to do so, you are destroying the livelihoods of many others.