Labor Department’s New Regulations Aim To Rescue Gig Workers From Themselves

Most workers in the gig economy say they like their jobs and value the flexibility that comes with being an independent contractor.

The federal government, however, is coming to rescue them from their own choices.

The Department of Labor announced new rules this week that will limit the circumstances in which workers can be classified as independent contractors. Once implemented, those rules will force some workers currently operating as independent contractors to become full-fledged employees—thus triggering other federal mandates regarding pay and benefits.

…A 2021 Pew survey of gig economy workers found that 78 percent were satisfied with their jobs and that most valued the flexibility to set their own schedules or earn small amounts of extra cash on the side. Another 2021 study conducted by Jabra found that only about 10 percent of independent contractors desired a more traditional job while nearly 80 percent intended to keep freelancing, National Affairs reported…

“In reality, what workers want most in today’s economy is flexibility,” Jarrett Dieterle, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute and author of that National Affairs essay, tells Reason.

Rather than pushing contractors towards being full-time employees, Dieterle says the government should seek ways for those workers to carry benefits from one job to another—allowing health care coverage or retirement savings accounts that belong to individual workers rather than being tied to specific employers. “Doing so would maintain worker flexibility while also providing more benefit options, all while avoiding the harmful effects of reclassifying broad swaths of the American workforce,” he says.