Congressional lawmakers try again to secure some benefits for gig workers

 

Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Todd Young (R-IN), together with Rep. Susan DelBene (D-WA) introduced a bill today that will create a $20 million pilot program with the Department of Labor to incentivize states and cities to check out portable benefits. the thought that benefits like insurance and vacation should be universal, instead of tied to your job, has gained steam in recent years. Such welfare programs, normally backed by Democrats, have sparked interest from some Republicans motivated by the rapidly changing workforce and economic climate following the pandemic.

“More Americans than ever are engaging in part-time, contract or other alternative work arrangements. because the workforce changes, it's increasingly important that we offer workers with a capability to access more flexible benefits that may be carried to multiple jobs across each day, a year, and even a career,” said Sen. Warner in a very statement.

Under the bill, the Department of Labor would create a $20 million grant fund to incentivize states, cities and nonprofits to experiment with portable benefits for independent workers. It’s not the primary time Warner and DelBene have introduced such legislation. The duo has been regularly pushing to pass portable benefits bills since 2017 — none of which have gotten very far. one in every of their measures, to produce states with emergency unemployment benefits for gig workers, was folded into the CARES Act.

The bill gives states and cities plenty of room to work out what their portable benefits program will seem like. this might include unemployment benefits, life and social insurance, sick leave, worker training and insurance.

A number of states like California, Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey and Colorado have checked out implementing portable benefits programs of their own. But critics of portable benefits warn that such a system would mean that gig economy companies like Uber, Lyft, Doordash et al. would be largely off the hook. Indeed, Uber and other gig companies have backed portable benefits legislation in their fight to still classify their workers as independent contractors.