They tried it first. Here’s what worked.
A reader asked whether the US has anything like the Small Business Protections Bill.
The answer is yes, and no.
The US got there first. But only in patches. And those patches tell us exactly what the UK version needs to get right.
Joi’s question after last week’s piece stopped me. Not because I didn’t know the answer, but because the answer is more interesting than a simple yes.
One caveat before we start: US freelancer laws are local. They do not apply just because the client is American. They apply because the work, the freelancer, the client, or the contract has the right connection to that city or state.
The UK bill is not law yet either. It still needs to pass through Parliament, and the detail may change before it comes into force.
How it started: New York City, 2017
The Freelance Isn’t Free Act came out of New York City in 2017 and it was, at the time, one of the most aggressive freelancer payment protections in the US.
Three things made it different:
A written contract is required for any freelance engagement worth $800 or more. Not recommended. Required.
Payment within 30 days of completion, unless the contract specifies otherwise.
Double damages if the client doesn’t pay. Not statutory interest at a modest percentage. Double what they owe you. In practice, that means a client who owes you £2,000 is looking at £4,000 plus your solicitor. That maths changes minds.
It also created a dedicated complaints route through New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, so freelancers had somewhere to go that wasn’t a courtroom.
The result was that it worked. Not perfectly. Not for everyone. But the combination of teeth and a clear route to enforcement changed behaviour in a way that voluntary codes never had.
Seattle, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Columbus followed with their own versions over the following years. The shape was similar, though the thresholds and enforcement routes differ: written contract, defined payment window, penalties with bite.
Action: if you freelance across US clients, know where your client is, where the work is performed, where you are based, and what law the contract points to. It changes what you can ask for.
Then the states moved
City-level protection is better than nothing. It is also limited. You usually need the right connection to that city to benefit. The patchwork problem was real.
Then three states moved in quick succession.
Illinois was the first US state to pass freelancer payment protection, effective 1 July 2024. New York State followed later that summer, extending the city law statewide with some modifications. California went live in January 2025, with enforcement sitting with the Labor Commissioner’s office rather than a new body.
The shape in each case is recognisable: a written contract requirement, a default 30-day payment term, penalties for late payment, and, critically a body with actual enforcement power rather than just the right to write strongly-worded letters.
There is still no federal law. It remains a patchwork. If you are a freelancer in Texas, Florida, or most of the Midwest, you may not have a local freelancer-payment statute unless your work or client has a sufficient connection to a covered jurisdiction. The federal picture has not moved.
What the comparison tells us about the UK bill
When I read the Freelance Isn’t Free Act alongside the UK’s Small Business Protections Bill (formally the Commercial Payments Bill), the structural similarity is striking.
Documented payment dates. Backstop payment windows. Penalties that actually hurt. An enforcement body with defined powers.
But there is one place the US got it right that the UK needs to watch carefully.
The enforcement route.
In New York City, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection handles complaints. In California, it is the Labor Commissioner, a body with a long-standing enforcement culture, now extended to freelance work. These are not new bodies being stood up from scratch and hoping to find their footing.
The Small Business Commissioner has existed since 2017 and most freelancers I speak to have never heard of it. The UK bill would give it new powers if enacted: investigation, enforcement directions, financial penalties, publication of payment data. That is the right architecture.
But powers on paper are not the same as a body that actually uses them. The SBC would need budget, teeth in practice not just in statute, and a visible track record of enforcement before it becomes the thing freelancers and SMEs actually reach for when a client doesn’t pay.
The US experience suggests that when you give freelancers a clear route, that does not require a lawyer and does not feel like a fight they cannot afford, they use it. The deterrent works not because enforcement is constant but because it is credible.
That credibility takes time to build. The UK starts from a lower baseline of awareness than New York City did in 2017, because at least in NYC the campaign to pass the law had already made freelancers aware it existed.
Action: when you next read commentary on the UK bill, watch for one thing above all, whether the Small Business Commissioner is being resourced to enforce, or just to exist.
What this means if you are signing contracts now
The US states that have moved have one thing in common with what the UK bill is trying to do: they make payment terms harder to hide.
The US laws often require written contracts. The UK bill does not do the same thing. It would not make every freelance engagement illegal unless it is written down. But it would make written payment terms, acceptance triggers and dispute processes much more important, because those are the facts the regime needs to work with.
If you are a freelancer or SME and you are still doing work on the basis of an email exchange, a verbal agreement, or a purchase order with no accompanying terms, that is the single highest-risk position you can be in under any payment protection regime. The law can only protect a payment obligation that is clearly documented.
The practical steps from my earlier Small Print piece apply regardless of what the bill does or when it comes into force: written contract, defined payment term, clear acceptance clause, explicit interest provision.
You do not have to wait for Parliament to put teeth into your own contracts. Try language like this and if the amount or the client relationship is significant, get it reviewed:
Payment terms are thirty (30) days from invoice date. Interest on late payment shall accrue at 8% above the Bank of England base rate under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. In the event of non-payment beyond sixty (60) days, the Client shall additionally be liable, on an indemnity basis, for all reasonable costs of recovery, including legal fees.
None of that requires an Act of Parliament. It requires you to ask for it.
Those are not legal niceties. They are the difference between a payment dispute the law can help you with and one it cannot.
Action: use that clause as a starting point for the next contract you send. Watch what happens.
And to Joi directly
Your instinct to document everything before renegotiating, and send new clients the rules alongside your updated contract, is exactly right. It signals that you understand your position before the conversation starts. That changes the dynamic.
The fact that you asked whether the US has anything similar underscores that the problem is not a UK quirk. It is a structural feature of how larger buyers treat smaller suppliers, and it is universal enough that legislators on both sides of the Atlantic have reached similar conclusions about what needs to change.
The US got there first, in places. The UK is trying to move faster at scale. Whether either gets it fully right depends almost entirely on enforcement.
Watch the Small Business Commissioner. That is where the bill will be won or lost in practice.
Credit and thanks to The Joi of Courage for the question that prompted this piece.
Louise
Writer, Small Print · Founder, BeforeYouSign
Hey Joi. Not at all. I'm glad it resonated. "Protection starts before the problem" is exactly it.
The fact that you are taking this into a breakfast this week is the whole reason the piece exists. I hope they get value from it. My inbox is open if any of them want to follow up.
Enjoy your day, Louise
Louise, thank you for this and for the generous mention.
This piece opened my eyes because it shows how easily freelancers and small businesses can assume “the law protects me” when the truth depends on where they are, where the client is, where the work happens, and what the contract says.
The biggest takeaway for me is that protection starts before the problem. Written terms. Clear payment dates. Defined consequences. Documentation. Not after someone has already tried it.
I’ll be bringing this conversation into a local business breakfast this week because small businesses here need to understand this too. Whether we are in the UK or the U.S., the issue is the same: people deserve to be paid clearly, fairly, and on time.
Thank you for making this plain enough to use.