California nail salon industry wrestles with AB 5 fallout

The end of a temporary exemption to a state law requiring many employers to classify their independent contractors as employees is leading some nail technicians to say they are being targeted by a policy that lawmakers intended to protect them, writes CalMatters’ Jeanne Kuang.

California has over 6,000 nail establishments, and from 1987 to 2023, the number of licensed manicurists in the state tripled to over 125,000. In lieu of being an employee at a salon who earns an hourly wage, nearly a third are independent contractors with flexible hours and rates.

But in 2019, California passed Assembly Bill 5, a sweeping law mandating stricter worker classification rules in an effort to curb unfair labor practices within the gig economy. The law carved out an exemption for nail technicians, which ended this year on Jan. 1. Since then, some nail technicians have found themselves in a legal grey area where doing their job risks violating state labor rules. 

Because other beauty professions, such as hairstylists, have been exempt from AB 5, salon owners and some manicurists say that singling out the nail industry — which in California is predominantly made up of Vietnamese-born women — in the law is discriminatory. 

• Emily Micelli, an independent manicurist at a salon in Newport Beach: “I hope the government doesn’t force us to go into something where I have to comply with a salon. I consider myself a nail artist.”

But Lorena Gonzalez, the former San Diego Assemblymember who authored AB 5 and now serves as president of the California Labor Federation, said that lawmakers at the time found “more complaints specifically about misclassification and more findings about misclassification in manicurists than overall cosmetology.”

In 2013, state labor regulators accused one Southern California nail salon chain of misclassifying its workers as independent contractors instead of employees, based on how much control it had over manicurists’ hours and work. The state lost, and the chain is one of several other businesses suing the state over the 2019 law.

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As President Donald Trump’s administration carries out what it describes as the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history, federal officials have touted that deporting immigrants who do not have legal status will protect American jobs. 

But what really happens after a workplace immigration raid — such as the one that took place last month at an L.A. garment factory — and does deporting immigrants really help raise wages?

As CalMatters’ Nigel Duara and Jeanne explain, in June a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said “worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard … economic stability.” Last year on the campaign trail, Trump also inaccurately told a crowd in North Carolina that “every job produced in this country over the last two years has gone to illegal aliens.”

Studies have found, however, that raids can deflate wages and do little for American workers — many of whom rely on services that stem from low-wage, undocumented labor. Raids also tend to lead to more job turnover, and employers are no more likely to use immigration verification tools during hiring. Losing workers also shrinks the local economy, with one study estimating that mass deportations could cost California’s economy $275 billion.

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With no votes in opposition so far, a bill that would set new education requirements for police officers is breezing through the Legislature — yet the measure continues to draw criticism from both criminal justice reform advocates and some law enforcement groups, report CalMatters’ Cayla Mihalovich and Adam Echelman.

The bill would require incoming officers, with some exceptions, to receive either an associate degree, bachelor’s degree or policing certificate, which can be obtained from an accredited college or university. The degrees would not have to be related to law enforcement. 

Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a former Los Angeles Assemblymember who authored a 2020 law to raise some police education requirements, said the new proposal leaves a big loophole that allows one to sidestep the education requirement with prior military or out-of-state law enforcement experience.

And while many law enforcement agencies back the bill, representatives from some law enforcement unions argue the measure goes too far, and would worsen the reported statewide police shortage. Said the president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association: The new requirements “would be catastrophic to staffing.”

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