Posts tagged gig workers
Independent Women’s Forum Survey: 82% of Women Say Government Should Not Force Them into 9-to-5 Jobs
May 6, 2025 // New Poll: 82% of Women Say Government Should Not Force Them into 9-to-5 Jobs Women, seniors, and overall voters almost universally say flexibility is important to them. The vast majority of Americans do not want the government to force people to work 9-to-5 jobs. Women, seniors, and overall voters almost universally say flexibility is important to them. Women and seniors support reforms that could expand benefits to independent contractors without risking their independent status.
Liya Palagashvili: The Portable Benefits Revolution: How Did We Get Here?
May 1, 2025 // Senator Bill Cassidy just put flexible benefits on the map. This is the story of how a niche policy idea climbed to the top of the Congressional agenda.
Op-ed: California Legislature should drop latest attack on gig workers
April 21, 2025 // “The bill’s utter lack of detail is a problem,” William Messenger told us; he’s vice president and legal director of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which defends workers’ right not to be controlled by unions. “It’s almost like they’re giving that department the authority to just sort of make up its own labor law.” He contrasted that with Massachusetts, whose voters last November passed Question 3, which enacts gig driver rules, but runs to 33 pages and, among other things, details a hearing and appeals process.
California: The Lost Report
April 1, 2025 // On December 3, 2020, almost a year after California’s freelance-busting law, Assembly Bill 5, went into effect, the California Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was created to study AB5’s civil rights implications. The committee’s officially designated term ended December 4, 2024. There were hours and hours of testimony, much of it recorded on video. But the committee never issued a report based on all this testimony its members heard. Members of the committee say they were told that if they issued individual statements in the absence of any committee report, they would be failing to comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the rules of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
The Next Wave Commentary: Kim Kavin
March 4, 2025 // In the wave of freelance busting that started with California’s Assembly Bill 5, the method of attack was the reclassification of independent contractors as employees. That method created massive backlash everywhere it was tried, so now, a new method is being tried. That new method is called sectoral organizing. This strategy of freelance busting in multiple states is usually a setup for a nationwide attack against us all. Independent contractors nationwide just learned this the hard way, with California’s Assembly Bill 5 ultimately leading to the introduction of the federal Protecting the Right to Organize Act. The freelance-busting brigade is, once again, doing a test run of its idea in the states, with bigger ambitions on the horizon.
Commentary: Why does the US have it in for gig workers?
February 9, 2025 // There’s no argument that the gig economy has surged dramatically, particularly since the pandemic. More than 20m new businesses have launched since 2020, the great majority of those representing side hustlers, independent contractors and freelancers. According to data reported in Forbes, an estimated 64 million Americans, representing 38% of the US workforce, did freelance work in 2023, which is up by 4 million people over the previous year, and contributed almost $1.3tn in annual earnings to the US economy. Is the IRS that fearful over the loss of tax revenues? As a business owner, I don’t pay employer taxes when I hire freelancers. But the freelancer is responsible for paying a “self-employment” tax when they file their tax returns, so if they’re doing what they’re supposed to do, there shouldn’t be much difference. Most states have similar tax arrangements. If a taxpayer fails to report those earnings, then that’s on them. They’re breaking the law and risk penalties or even prison.
Independent Contracting in 2025
January 8, 2025 // Independent contractors forgo workplace benefits that employees receive. Portable benefits are a way to give them access to benefits untethered from employment with one employer.
Democrats make last stand for unions ahead of Trump administration
November 15, 2024 // In a final push to bolster union rights ahead of a Trump presidency, the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday banned employers nationwide from forcing workers to attend antiunion meetings. Separately, Democrats are also deploying a last-ditch effort to try to get the Senate to reconfirm NLRB Chair Lauren McFerran in the last December session, allowing the agency to maintain a Democratic majority and continue its labor-friendly rulings into the next Trump administration.
Freelancers Aim to Overcome Legal Setback Against Biden-Harris IC Rule
October 28, 2024 // Four additional federal lawsuits against the DOL’s rule are pending, including cases in Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Tennessee. In several of these cases, the plaintiffs are companies suing from the position of hiring entities, which legal experts believe might better position them to overcome the standing hurdle.
Feeding the Kitty
September 30, 2024 // Unions have pursued shareholder resolutions asking for a “free and fair election process,” meaning card check and neutrality. They have also sought to pass resolutions demanding audits of a company’s labor practices. It’s not hard to see how a future resolution could explicitly try to prohibit companies from using independent contractors.