--- title: New York's Freelancer Pay Law Is Good News for Gig Workers Everywhere description: Freelance and gig econome workers who are shafted pay now have a better system of recourse in New York City. authors: - name: Kristen Bahler role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/ bio: Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. Today, she leads Money's sponsored content channel and reader-favorite franchises like Best Places to Live and Best Places to Travel. education: Northeastern University, MA Journalism at_money_since: 2016 articles: 52 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-bahler/ published: '2016-10-28T14:30:54.000Z' modified: '2016-10-28T14:30:54.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - freelancer - Gig Economy - pubdesk - salary word_count: 254 canonical: https://money.com/new-york-freelancer-pay-law/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Working at home](https://img.money.com/2016/10/gettyimages-505095190.jpg) The freelance economy is [on the rise](https://money.com/gig-economy-booming-obamacare/?iid=sr-link2), and new legislation is finally (finally!) making it easier for the self-employed to get the pay they deserve. The New York City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to pass the [Freelance Isn't Free Act](http://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2530972&GUID=61F8754B-80AF-493E-895E-D6D17209776E&Options=ID%7cText%7c&Search), a measure that requires anyone hiring a freelance worker to agree in writing to a timeline and procedure for payment, and sets up a system of recourse for those who are shafted pay. Under the bill, employers will have an agreed-upon window after a freelancer renders services to make payment in full. Repeat offenders could be fined up to $25,000. For gig economy workers, a historically underpaid population that survives on a stream of work—and pay—contingent on an employer's word, the news is a long-awaited step towards pay equity. The legislation is believed to be the first of its kind, and is expected to reverberate throughout the national freelance ecosystem. New York is one of the largest hubs of gig economy work with as many as 4 million freelancers working in NYC alone. A [report from the Freelancers Union](https://fu-web-storage-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/content/advocacy/uploads/resources/FU_NonpaymentReport_r3.pdf), one of the architects of the bill, found that more than 70% of those 4 million freelancers report problems with receiving payment. But this isn't just a local problem: About half of all freelancers nationwide have said they've encountered trouble getting paid. A [petition](https://www.freelanceisntfree.org/) from the group that aims to bring the legislation to the entire country is currently snaking its way through social media. As of this writing, it had about 9,000 signatures. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/new-york-freelancer-pay-law/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Career Advice", "item": "https://money.com/career-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Freelancing", "item": "https://money.com/freelancing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "New York's Freelancer Pay Law Is Good News for Gig Workers Everywhere" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/new-york-freelancer-pay-law/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/new-york-freelancer-pay-law/", "name": "New York's Freelancer Pay Law Is Good News for Gig Workers Everywhere", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-10-28T14:30:54.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/new-york-freelancer-pay-law/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/new-york-freelancer-pay-law/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-10-28T14:30:54.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "New York's Freelancer Pay Law Is Good News for Gig Workers Everywhere", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/10/gettyimages-505095190.jpg", "width": 5760, "height": 3840, "caption": "Working at home" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kristen Bahler", "url": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/#author", "description": "Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. Today, she leads Money's sponsored content channel and reader-favorite franchises like Best Places to Live and Best Places to Travel.", "image": "https://img.money.com/2016/08/kristen.png?w=350&h=430&crop=1", "email": "kristen.bahler@money.com", "jobTitle": "Managing Editor", "alumniOf": "Northeastern University, MA Journalism", "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-bahler/" ], "worksFor": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-10-28T14:30:54.000Z", "description": "Freelance and gig econome workers who are shafted pay now have a better system of recourse in New York City.", "abstract": "Freelance and gig econome workers who are shafted pay now have a better system of recourse in New York City.", "@id": "https://money.com/new-york-freelancer-pay-law/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-10-28T14:30:54.000Z", "wordCount": 254, "keywords": [ "freelancer", "Gig Economy", "pubdesk", "salary" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Career counseling", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Career_counseling" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Freelancer", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer" ] } ] } ] } ```