Policymakers should focus on ways to encourage the gig economy to grow
WASHINGTON (June 22, 2016) – Contrary to claims both from critics and supporters of the so-called “sharing economy,” there is little to no evidence the United States is actually seeing a significant uptick in part-time or “gig” work, according to a new paper by R Street President Eli Lehrer.
Moreover, Lehrer argues in the summer edition of the journal National Affairs, this very lack of a growing, surging gig economy is a problem for an economy badly in need of new dynamism, and it’s one that lawmakers and regulators should begin to take seriously.
“We need more gig-providing enterprises on the model of the high-profile internet-based businesses that have garnered so much attention in recent years, and we should have a legal structure to support them,” Lehrer writes. “America needs assertive public policies that will provide more opportunity and flexibility for workers and work providers alike.”
Among the policy prescriptions he offers to encourage more flexible workplace arrangements is to offer legal safe harbor to those platforms that agree to finance benefits for independent workers that mirror some of the basic safety net traditionally enjoyed through full-time employment, such as new forms of unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, health coverage and other benefits. In exchange for funding these new “worker-controlled benefits exchanges,” firms that offer flexible work arrangements would no longer face a burden of proof to demonstrate that their contractors are not, in fact, employees.
“Platforms willing to accept the flexible-worker designation could still be compelled by courts or regulators to treat workers like employees if they provide minute-by-minute instructions, impose non-compete clauses, or mandate specific hours of work, but the burden of proof would lie with the workers to prove these things,” Lehrer writes.
Lehrer outlines a number of different forms the WCBEs might take, pointing to the examples of the nonprofit Peers.org, which currently serves largely as an online benefits broker for gig-economy workers, as well as Independent Drivers Guild, a new entity affiliated with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers that represents Uber drivers in New York but which will not engage in collective bargaining as a labor union.
“Enabling a gig economy with more opportunities for part-time work is far easier than figuring out how to shrink the growing ranks of those who subsist on disability-insurance payments, or teaching adults with bad work habits to establish good ones,” Lehrer writes. “In many cases, the most effective way to improve the work behavior of marginalized populations is simply to encourage them to work.”
