Posts tagged flexibility
Backgrounder: Modern Worker Security Act
March 7, 2025 // Rep. Kiley’s legislation would ensure that the offer of portable benefits by companies would not be a factor in any calculation regarding the classification of a worker under “any federal law”—including the FLSA. The legislation defines portable benefits as a work-related benefit that stays with the worker regardless of whether they continue to perform work for that individual. Such work-related benefits can include “workers’ compensation, skills training, professional development, paid leave, disability coverage, health insurance coverage, retirement savings, income security, and short-term saving” or financial contributions toward such coverage—or a combination thereof.
‘We Are Hopeful’ Q&A with Patrice Onwuka and Kim Kavin
January 24, 2025 // Congress should consider enshrining the Trump-era definition for independent contractors, and/or consider ways to get ahead of the opposition to flexible work. The Employee Rights Act was a federal bill that, among many pro-worker provisions, sought to protect independent contractors as a counter to a national ABC Test in the now-defunct Protecting the Right to Organize Act. Portable benefits also provide a pathway for companies to provide independent contractors with workplace benefits without triggering a reclassification.
Nebraska state employees union reaches tentative agreement
January 14, 2025 // Leaders did not, however, discuss any progress or negotiations on the future of remote work for state employees, a decision Pillen has said he would like the administration to retain. The union and state are in the middle of a court fight over whether it can force the state to bargain with the union over his decision to force state employees back to the office. Hubly said the state was unwilling to negotiate remote work conditions while litigation continues.
Harris Pushes Gig Workers, Contractors into Corporate Jobs with New Rule
September 25, 2024 // America already has too few people working. If the employment rate were the same as it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, 2.9 million more people would be working today. The last thing Americans need is another regulation that makes it harder to make a living and to afford the rising cost of living. Although the Biden-Harris regulation has only been in effect since March, and it’s too early to fully study its effects, the employment-to-population ratio dropped by 0.3 percentage points between March and July. This decline represents a loss of 700,000 workers.
Commentary Is Big Labor Reducing Worker Wages, Opportunities for Growth?
September 3, 2024 // But the Biden-Harris administration’s embrace of Big Labor—as in big national labor organizations, as opposed to small, local unions—actually hasn’t helped workers as unionized workers’ wages have fallen behind the wages of nonunion workers over the past four years. Unlike small local unions that are in better positions to represent the unique needs of their members and that may even have productive relationships with management, the Big Labor movement is increasingly putting politics, power, and one-size-fits-all policies above the personal well-being of many workers.
Labor Day: Workers on Their Jobs
August 28, 2024 // *Satisfaction with pay and benefits always trail satisfaction with workplace environments. Today, negative assessments of the economy as a whole may be depressing attitudes on some job characteristics. Still, in Gallup’s latest, only 13 percent were very dissatisfied with what they earned. *Employed Americans are reasonably confident of their own job security. Those numbers dipped to a low point in the Great Recession but have been more positive since.
Opinion: Congress Doesn’t Care About Freelancers — and It May Cost Them at the Polls
August 11, 2024 // Supporters of reclassification do not understand how essential independent contracting is to our livelihoods. This was evident in 2020 in the fight against California’s AB5—a law implementing a restrictive ABC test that reclassified many independent contractors as employees and inspired the DOL’s new rule. One elected state official claimed the independent status being stripped from us was just “taking away our lollipops.” Instead, AB5 hollowed out self-employment, pushed up unemployment, and destroyed many livelihoods in the process. While California is not in play in this election, Virginia is. Independent professionals are aware of what they will lose if similar policies are nationalized.
Side Hustles in Focus as Gig Worker Laws Stir Uncertainty
May 1, 2024 // In the debate over the classification of gig workers, Massachusetts finds itself at the center of a legislative whirlwind, echoing a lengthy battle around California’s AB5 Gig-worker law. Proposals to reclassify Uber and Lyft drivers as employees rather than independent contractors have sparked heated discussions about labor rights and the unintended consequences of regulatory measures.
Opinion: PRO Act Just Gives Unions More Power
April 24, 2024 // Big Labor bosses who desire more resources and power (often in order to steal them or direct them to radical political agendas) hope the PRO Act will complete an 80-year campaign to make America more like Europe, with the strikes, economic sclerosis, and socialist planning for which that continent is known. With the PRO Act having powerful allies in the White House and Congress, it’s time for opponents of Big Labor to take note.
Commentary: JOHN STOSSEL: Unions Wanted To Help Freelance Workers. Now They Lost Their Jobs
April 17, 2024 // Vox called the law “a big win for workers everywhere.” Ha! A few months later, Vox media layed off hundreds of freelancers. “They expected that all these companies were going to reclassify independent contractors as employees,” freelance musician Ari Herstand told me. “In reality, they’re just letting them go!” Herstand was dismayed to learn that when he wants other musicians to join him, he could no longer just write them a check. “I have to put that drummer on payroll, W2 him, get workers’ comp insurance, unemployment insurance, payroll taxes!” he complains. “I have to hire a payroll company.”