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While some in Silicon Valley indulge in free meals, laundry service and egg freezing, an estimated<\/a> fifty percent of the workforce won\u2019t even have basic benefits by 2020 \u2014 and Virginia Senator Mark Warner wants to do something about that.<\/p>\n While legislators in Washington state have proposed<\/a> a bill requiring a benefits\u00a0program for gig workers, Warner has just proposed the\u00a0first ever piece of national legislation\u00a0aimed at\u00a0helping on-demand and other non-traditional workers without traditional benefits like paid sick days or a retirement plan to have some sort of a safety net. The bill\u00a0asks\u00a0the\u00a0federal government to\u00a0set aside\u00a0$20 million in funding for\u00a0organizations to use to look at the types of benefits programs individual workers could take with them from job to job.<\/p>\n Set aside the current talk up on the Hill of taking away health care from millions of people for now. Thanks to mobile technology 1099 workers have become a large (and growing<\/a>) piece of the economy, set to reach half of everyone in our nation in just a few years \u2014 a staggering number to go without any sort of a plan for anything. However, these portable benefits plans would give the nice lady who just brought you a burrito for lunch,\u00a0the kid who cleaned your house or the guy who dropped you off at work this morning options in helping them continue paying bills and take care of themselves should something happen.<\/p>\n \u201c[Portable benefits is] that emergency fund,\u201d Warner told BuzzFeed<\/a>, which first reported news of the bill. \u201cIt might be a fund to take care of a disability if you get hurt. It might work with some existing retirement programs. Part of it would be, depending on what happens with Obamacare, an ability to help deal with health care expenses. I think there will be a variety of models.\u201d<\/p>\n The funding wouldn\u2019t be enough to cover everyone, of course, but if it gets the green light a draft of the bill indicates it would earmark $5 million toward grants doled out by Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta\u00a0for organizations already looking into portable benefits and $15 million for new programs.<\/p>\n The bill already seems to have broad support, including from the former labor secretary Robert Reich as well as such organizations as the Independent Drivers Guild (IDG), which represents about 50,000 ride-hailing drivers for startups like Uber and Lyft. \u201cGig economy workers and their families need benefits and protections just like traditional employees. Unions and government officials must not let these workers fall through the cracks,\u201d an IDG spokesperson told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n Uber and other startups using the on-demand working class for labor also seem to support the idea of providing gig workers with some sort of a safety net, at least. Uber, for instance, just raised its rates in eight states by five cents per mile\u00a0to cover the cost of injury insurance<\/a> for its drivers, though that could be more to cover itself from lawsuits. We\u2019ve reached out to hear how Uber, Handy and others feel about the newly proposed nationwide portable benefits legislation as well.<\/p>\n Many of these same startups have tried in the past to separate gig workers into a new class<\/a> separate from 1099 workers who might also employ others but that, so far, hasn\u2019t gone anywhere. Senator Warner has also been thinking of the gig worker and the major shifts we\u2019ve seen in employment over the last few years, thanks to technological advances. His bill doesn\u2019t classify them as something new but would at least be the first step into research on how to go about providing for these working Americans in what is already an enormous shift in the way many of them now make a paycheck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/05\/gettyimages-626738486.jpg?w=680\")
While some in Silicon Valley indulge in free meals, laundry service and egg freezing, an estimated fifty percent of the workforce won’t even have basic benefits by 2020 — and Virginia Senator Mark Warner wants to do something about that. While legislators in Washington state have proposed a bill requiring a benefits\u00a0program for gig workers, Warner has just proposed the\u00a0first… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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