From my reading of California Assembly Bill 5, the goal is to protect workers from corporations who classify the workers as “independent contractors” instead of “employees” in order to avoid paying them adequate benefits. I wholeheartedly support that goal. However, some businesses and workers, including many travel agencies, prefer and rely on using the independent contractor classification to operate.
The bill specifically exempts:
- Insurance agents
- Physicians and surgeons
- Securities brokers and investment advisors
- Direct sales salespeople
- Real estate agents
- Hair stylists/barbers who rent booths from a salon
Travel advisors/agents/consultants aren’t exempt, but they should be added to the list. I need your help to convince the California state legislature to add travel advisors/agents to the exemption list.
Journeys Unparalleled acts in many ways like the businesses listed above. I am an independent contractor affiliated with the host travel agency Travel Experts. I pay them a monthly fee in order to access their technology platforms and get many benefits that they have negotiated as a well-established, award winning travel agency for their independent consultants, such as liability insurance, Preferred Partnership with the Virtuoso consortium (which allows me to get my clients wonderful amenities and direct access to luxury travel suppliers globally), access to their Air Desk and Rail Desk, and 24/7 emergency help desk, to name but a few. However, I make my own hours, establish my own rates, have my own book of business and clients, do my own research, decide for myself which suppliers to use, make bookings for my clients, and handle my own accounting. I keep all of my profits or reinvest them into my own business. It is very similar to a hair stylist renting a booth at a salon; I pay for the overhead and support, but I operate as an independent business.
If I were unable to be an independent contractor, as this bill would suggest, I would either have to close Journeys Unparalleled and join a travel agency as a regular employee, or I would need to start my own agency from scratch, forcing me to sever current ties and lose access to all the benefits I and my clients currently receive. As a solo practitioner, I wouldn’t be able to afford the same level of benefits and it may take me many years (if ever) to be able to get back to that level.
Additionally, I currently have two independent contractors who work with me as a booking assistant and an admin assistant/travel concierge. They have been invaluable to the growth of Journeys Unparalleled. If I were unable to keep them as independent contractors but instead had to hire them as traditional employees, the cost would be prohibitive.
The bottom line is that I don’t want to be an employee of a travel agency. I prefer to define my own work and keep the profits I work hard to earn. My associates also want to maintain their independent contractor status so they can work as much or as little as they want (and earn as much or as little as they require) and don’t have to be beholden to a strict employer-employee relationship.
I don’t oppose CA Assembly Bill 5, I only want travel advisors/agents to be added to the list of exempt professions.
I implore you to contact your California state reps (click here to find your State Senate and Assembly representatives, then click on their name, and use their Contact or Email buttons to send them a message) by JULY 2 and urge them to add travel advisors/agents to the list of exempt professions.
Thank you,
Margot Kong