LOBBYING FOR THE PRESERVATION OF SMALL BUSINESSES

Janis Stevens, CEO, of Innovative Tub Solutions® , joins her NAWBO sisters for a day of lobbying on behalf of small woman owned businesses at the Capital in Sacramento CA.

The annual NAWBO Propel Conference is held each year in Sacramento, providing a venue for hundreds of women business owners to come together, learn, grow, and advocate for women owned businesses.  Janis serves on the NAWBO San Diego Board of Directors as Treasurer.

This year’s lobby day was focused around the Dynamix ruling whereby independent contractors (ICs) would need to pass the ABC test, meeting strict and limited criteria to be considered an independent contractor.  This would adversely affect small businesses in that many of their ICs would be required to become employees, thus increasing payroll costs, benefits, and driving up overhead.

Business owners, from all over California, shared stories with Senators and Representatives about the negative impact this ruling and ABC test would have on their businesses.

The ABC test, an employment-classification test in California that presumes workers are employees rather than independent contractors, was first adopted in April 2019 by the California Supreme Court in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court. Under this test, the burden is on the employer to demonstrate that every worker is not an employee by proving all three of the following:

• The worker is free from the control and direction of the hirer in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of such work and in fact.
• The worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.
• The worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business of the same nature as the work performed for the hiring entity.

In 2018, thanks to the efforts of NAWBO California, SB826, was passed into law.  Senator Hannah Beth Jackson, along with other Senators, and Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire of 2020 Women on Boards, NAWBO California and hundreds of women business owners, worked for 7 years to get the bill passed.  SB826 requires California publicly held corporations to add one seat to their board of directors for women in 2019 and 2 seats by 2020.  Over one hundred board seats are due to be added for women in 2019, or penalties will be issued.

Founded in 1975, the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) is the unified voice of over 10 million women-owned businesses in the United States representing the fastest growing segment of the economy.

The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) propels women entrepreneurs into economic, social and political spheres of power worldwide by:

• Strengthening the wealth creating capacity of our members and promoting economic development within the entrepreneurial community
• Creating innovative and effective change in the business culture
• Building strategic alliances, coalitions and affiliations
• Transforming public policy and influencing opinion makers