Posts tagged Independent work
RESEARCH: AI and Independent Work in 7 Charts
July 28, 2026 // Most debates about AI and work still focus on whether jobs will disappear. But these charts point to another possibility: AI may also be making it easier for more people to work outside traditional firms. This is still early, descriptive evidence—not proof of causation. Even so, both datasets point in the same direction: solo-type business applications and solo self-employment are growing faster in sectors and occupations with greater AI exposure.
New Mercatus Liya Palagashvilli Report: Artificial Intelligence and the Rise of Independent Work
July 20, 2026 // A freelancer or solo business owner may earn income from multiple clients without any one client serving as the institutional provider of benefits. If AI expands this kind of independent knowledge work, then benefits should increasingly attach to the worker rather than to a single firm. Portable benefits would allow workers to maintain access to health benefits, retirement accounts, paid leave, and other forms of security across different work arrangements.17Contributions could come from multiple sources: the worker, firms, clients, platforms, customers, or government matches for lower-income workers. The goal is not to make independent work look exactly like traditional employment. It is to make sure that workers do not lose financial security simply because their income comes from contracts, clients, or a one-person business rather than from a firm. The second implication concerns unemployment insurance and income disruption. Traditional unemployment insurance is built around a clean layoff from an employer. But AI-related disruption may not always appear that way. A consultant may lose clients. A software contractor may face fewer projects. A designer may see rates fall. A worker may move from a salaried job into solo self-employment, not because work disappeared entirely, but because the organization of work changed. In these cases, the relevant question is not only whether an employer laid someone off. It is whether the worker experienced a meaningful earnings shock or transition.
Commentary: Maryland Portable Benefits Success Shows a Model For States to Follow
April 10, 2026 // Maryland has become the third state in the nation to complete a portable benefits pilot – highlighting how independent workers can maintain the freedom they value while accessing the benefits they want. Following successful pilots in Pennsylvania and Georgia, DoorDash launched and funded a four-month portable benefits pilot in Maryland, bringing more than 4,000 Dashers into the program. DoorDash and Dashers contributed more than $800,000 to their portable benefits accounts, setting aside money to be used for healthcare, paid time off, retirement, and more, an independent analysis from BW Research showed. Crucially, an overwhelming majority (96%) of participants support legislation requiring companies to contribute to flexible benefit accounts while preserving independent contractor status.
PODCAST: Empowering Workers with a Prosperous Future with Austen Bannan | Let People Prosper
January 15, 2026 // America’s labor policies are stuck in the past—designed for a 1930s economy that no longer exists. Meanwhile, workers have moved on. They want flexibility. They want choice. They want opportunity. And increasingly, government is standing in the way. My guest is Austen Bannan, Workforce Policy Fellow at Americans for Prosperity and one of the sharpest voices making the case for worker freedom over bureaucratic control. Austen works at the intersection of labor policy, occupational licensing, and education reform—where outdated rules quietly crush opportunity for millions of Americans.
Testimony by Rachel Greszler on the Positive Impact of Seniors in Today’s Economy
December 11, 2025 // Demographic Shifts Mean That Older Americans Are Increasingly Vital Contributors to the American Economy The combination of declining fertility rates, the aging of the baby boomer population, and increased life expectancies means that older Americans are a rapidly growing share of the population. Beginning in 2034, there will be more seniors than children in America for the first time in U.S. history
Americans for Prosperity Leads Employee Rights Act Coalition
September 8, 2025 // Protect workers’ right to a secret ballot in union elections. Preserve flexible self-employment career-paths across American industries. Protect small businesses that operate as franchises and vendors for other businesses. Give workers control over their personal information during union campaigns. Allow workers in Right-to-Work states to opt out of union representation. Require opt-in consent for union political spending. Prohibit mandatory DEI mandates in union contracts. Ensure only citizens or authorized workers vote in union elections.
California Tries Another Tack to Crush Ridesharing
August 4, 2025 // The latest legislative effort is Assembly Bill 1340, which passed the full Assembly in June and was approved by the Senate Transportation Committee in early July. It would allow drivers to unionize and “promote collective bargaining rights for transportation network drivers and state intent that the state action antitrust exemption apply to … drivers and their representatives.” Democrats couldn’t kill the industry quickly, so they’ll try to destroy it slowly via collective bargaining.
Op-Ed: Rep. Kevin Kiley and Isabel Soto: The future of work is flexible
May 5, 2025 // At its core, the issue of independent work centers on the freedom for individuals to work as they choose, to support their families on their own terms, and to participate in the economy without being held back by outdated, stifling regulations. The Modern Worker Empowerment Act and The Modern Worker Security Act offer a commonsense alternative that safeguards this freedom. Congress must embrace policies that remove barriers to the modern labor market, not stifle the individual who wants to work. As the economy evolves, labor laws should support worker choice, economic participation, and innovation. These bills are a critical step forward and deserve broad bipartisan support.
How This Labor Department Nominee Threatens 59 Million Workers
January 13, 2022 // Weil’s efforts to attack independent workers, would not only dampen their bright outlooks, but could put their entire livelihoods and ways of living on the line. One of the Biden administration’s and Weil’s primary goals it to implement the PRO Act—a Big Labor wish list that includes upending independent contracting.