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About the Professional Beauty Federation (PBF)
California Nail Techs Regain Right to Work Independently
Manicurists in California will once again regain their right to work independently as booth renters. Advocacy from the Professional Beauty Federation helped reverse an earlier decision.
by Staff
April 24, 2025
3 min to read
A press release from the Professional Beauty Federation (PBF) carried good news for California manicurists.
According to the release, the PBF collaborated with the influential California Labor Federation to reverse the sunset provision of Assembly Bill 5 (“AB5”) that had stripped manicurists of their right to booth rent. When this legislative deal — soon to be amended into AB 1514 — is signed into law, manicurists across California will regain their right to work independently as booth renters, as currently enjoyed by the other beauty and barbering segments—hair and skin.
“For over a year, we’ve worked alongside policymakers and stakeholders to address this inequity that unfairly targeted California manicurists,” said Fred Jones, Legal Counsel and registered Lobbyist for PBF. “This legislative breakthrough will restore fairness to a vital segment of the beauty industry that has long been marginalized. But we know our work isn’t done—true justice means permanent protections, which we will continue to advocate for notwithstanding this temporary victory.”
In 2019, PBF successfully lobbied for an industry-wide exemption from AB5, a controversial law that effectively banned most independent contractor arrangements, and all forms of booth rental, in particular. However, a last-minute amendment added a sunset clause specifically targeting the nail segment. As a result, nail salons and their technicians’ exemption expired this past January—leaving thousands of nail professionals without the freedom to operate independently within a salon and putting nail establishment owners at risk of severe fines and even significant private litigation costs.
The release goes on to share that thanks to sustained advocacy and strategic coalition-building, PBF has forged an alliance with key Sacramento stakeholders to restore manicurists' rights to work as independent contractors in nail salons. The result of that alliance will soon be seen in Assembly Bill 1514, which will extend that sunset to give nail techs the same legal rights to operate as independent booth renters as all other barbering and beauty segments currently enjoy under the AB 5 exemption — an exemption that the PBF had successfully lobbied for 6 years ago.
But the bill will require state regulators to study the extent of any labor code violations in nail salons as a condition for any further sunset extensions or the possibility of a permanent removal of such ongoing sunsets, altogether (the latter being the PBF’s strong preference). While this legislative compromise deal will have to be passed through the California Legislature and be signed into law by Governor Newsom, thanks to the coalition established by the PBF, the press release states: "that looks likely. In fact, the actual author of this new legislative measure is the Assembly Labor Committee, all but assuring its passage. AB 1514 passed with unanimous, bipartisan support from that Committee on April 23, 2025 and is now headed to the full Assembly."
The PBF is a nonprofit trade association that was formed in 1999 to give voice to the over 600,000-licensed barbering/beauty professionals in California to raise the professionalism of the beauty and barbering industry. Visit www.beautyfederation.org
Originally posted on Nails Magazine
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