California State Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez authored the controversial Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), which puts a strict definition on who is an independent contractor and who is a company employee. AB5 went into effect on January 1, 2020 after it was approved by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019.
The implications of this law have been felt in the the strip clubs almost as soon as it was passed. With the fact that strippers are forced to be employees the managers and owners of major adult entertainment centers are now being super selective on who they have become an employee. Which means because we live in a racist homophobic trans phobic non-supportive of immigration or immigrant country. A lot of those choices have been very biased and very segregated actually. Because of the large numbers of documentation the most marginalized are no longer in the clubs. Which means a lot of these marginalized dancers are forced to do survival sex work now. Which causes these workers to be unsafe. Also the stripper or adult entertainment workforce has drastically drop since this law was inacted. Some clubs went from having 50 dancers to 30 dancers. Some clubs 200 to 100 dancers so not only are they being biased based on race and gender and other illegal things, they are now with the help of AB5 has cut the workforce in half and forcing many strippers to not have a job. The clubs are charging the dancers outrageous fees so that they can cover the insurance and other cost of having employees. Lastly the Stripper who are mother have lost their Medicare for their children. All becasue of AB5, nobody asked us if we wanted to be reclassified. It was forced on us.
California’s economy has underlying troubles including severely underfunded public pension system, and affordable housing, the volatility of a state revenue stream heavily dependent on personal income taxes tied to capital gains, and weakening infrastructure, and a declining system of public education etc.
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