Slashdot Mirror
US Senator Introduces the First Bill To Give Gig Workers Benefits (techcrunch.com)
Virginia Senator Mark Warner has introduced a bill that will give basic benefits to gig workers. "Warner has just proposed the first-ever piece of national legislation aimed at helping on-demand and other non-traditional workers without traditional benefits, like paid sick days or a retirement plan, have some sort of a safety net," reports TechCrunch. "The bill asks the federal government to set aside $20 million in funding for organizations to use to look at the types of benefits programs individual workers could take with them from job to job." From the report: "[Portable benefits is] that emergency fund," Warner told BuzzFeed, which first reported news of the bill. "It 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." The funding wouldn't 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 for organizations already looking into portable benefits and $15 million for new programs.
UBI will be good enough. I don't want anything to fuck up my weed supply.
Why not have both? Capitalistic Democratic Communists.... oh wait ... never mind...
..which specifically targets computer programmers from an era before the government allowed millions of Americans to lose their jobs to cheaper offshore labor and to foreign nationals imported to be trained as their replacements to work in America without even knowing how to use toilet paper, deodorant or having any loyalty to the country, intent to contribute in any way to the common good or even an ancestor who ever defended the world from tyranny.
For unions.
$20 million now. $20 billion in 10 years. $200 billion in 20. And it keeps going up.
This bill says "basic" but you know what that means. "Basic" now, but in five years it will be argued that these are entitlements that everyone should receive if anyone who says otherwise is racist, sexist, and greedy.
I don't want to get political and it shouldn't matter, but with the Republican party having the power to screw-over their favourite whipping-boys (employees and consumers), I doubt a Republican proposed this. The Republican's power is also the reason this bill will die a quick death.
Someone has to pay for these handouts the Democrats want to give out. I hope you're all okay with paying higher fees for the services these gig workers provide. I prefer paying less and giving the gig workers an opportunity to also have other employment if they want more benefits.
Is running a sole proprietor business a "gig"? Or is that too formal to count? It's the same exact thing with even more volatility.
... but would it have been too much to ask, to mention that he is of course a Democrat.
Isn't that like EU?
Because Putin Would Never OK These Communistic Politics And Them Negro Blues! Time To Run All OF You Fairies Clean Out Of This Town.
Not saying that his proposal is the right one, but the discussion needs to be started. What Uber and Lyft, in particular, are doing is replacing the taxicab industry, whose financial arrangements vis a vis the states and cities evolved over many decades, with this business of freelancers to whom Uber pays practically no benefits except for (the most limited possible) insurance. That's an unequal arrangement where Uber wins and their so-called contractors lose. A "contractor" is really an employee with far less benefits and rights than a regular employee.
Well the EU were more communist (in the ideological sense) than the communist states (which are mostly just dictatorships) were ever communist.
I see a bill introduced by a Democrat going exactly nowhere in a Republican controlled Senate. Mostly this is just fodder for the next election.
Marx never intended for his ideas to be implemented in feudal Russia or the carcass of Austria-Hungary. He more so had in mind developed countries like the UK or the US, where workers actually existed.
The more I look at the state of the so-called first world, maybe some of Marx's ideals should be reviewed without the stain of Stalinism applied to it. I know this is all nonsense to most Americans who hear the word Marx and automatically think SATAN.
With more and more of the US population somehow being reliant on government handouts anyways, we've got communism coming in through the backdoor. Maybe we should just be honest with ourselves and just dive in head first to the Marxist experiment the US has long been under and just not aware of it.
You have things backwards as usual, the "gig" economy is about exploiting the poor and giving the rich even more wealth that they themselves never labor to produce.
It's slavery for the new generation, a more cost-effective and superficially palatable form, but the same principle. Own someone else's production and use it for your gain.
Don't worry though, it is a system that cannot last, it eventually begins to falter as it is not self-sustaining and the supply of fools dries up.
Of course, you are one, so you have every interest in perpetuating the deception.
more on researching and administering this than all the benefits they will pay to end workers combined, guaranteed. Until companies don't receive the benefit of "contracting" employees, this won't change.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
This give them even more incentive to continue getting rid of full-time employees.
Well done, asshole.
Marx did not propose ideas — to be implemented or not. He thought of his theories as laws of nature — like gravity — take it from someone, who was forced to study Marxism in high school and college...
His claim was, the workers' revolution is inevitable when the means of production develop beyond a certain point. That it did not actually happen in the US, UK, and other countries is proof, the asshole was a fool and wasted years of his life on a big mistake — while his wife brought up their children.
Or maybe we should, now that the realization is kicking in, stop this creep up of Communism and go back to having a drastically lower involvement of government in the citizens' daily lives? Something like this, perhaps?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
How about giving benefits to workers scheduled exactly 29 hours per week, or who are 'contractors' in name only.
This sounds more like a plan to create a committee that will start to think about the issue, rather than a solution.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
Are we talking about gig fiber installers? Hey Beau, why don't you finish high school before you even think about becoming a "senior editor," NOOB?
The ACA gave gig workers access to healthcare, this is unnecessary as long as it's in place.
More half measures. Fix this problem, fix that problem, when what we really need is a sensible, universal, single payer system. American healthcare is increasingly looking like a tower of quick fixes and temporary patches, which of course are ineffectual, because we won't start the root problem in the face. We need a healthcare system, not a medical industry.
Virginia Senator Mark Warner has introduced a bill that will give basic benefits to gig workers. "Warner has just proposed the first-ever piece of national legislation aimed at helping on-demand and other non-traditional workers without traditional benefits, like paid sick days or a retirement plan, have some sort of a safety net," reports TechCrunch.
All gigworkers need to do is register as a corporation, pay both sides of FICA/SS (worker and employer), and by not offering himself healthcare coverage can qualify for subsidized Obamacare... that is the purpose of those two existing programs, no need to throw millions down the rat hole of 'analysis' and 'study'.
As for giving gig workers a 'safety net', that's their responsibility, folks outside the gig economy shouldn't be paying subidies, paid sick time, etc. for gig economy workers, being self-employed, essentially what a gig economy worker is, it is THEIR responsibility to provide paid sick leave, etc. to themselves.
Ken
Xenophobe. U dont belong hear
Government should simply enforce the contracts to which private individuals agree; hell, you don't even need a government to do that, anyway.
Zeroth amendment: Separation of Economics and State.
""The bill asks the federal government to set aside $20 million in funding for organizations to use to look at the types of benefits programs individual workers could take with them from job to job."
look at the types of benefits programs? For fucks sake, can we please just have Medicare for All already and a proper safety net? We don't need exploratory committees. We already know what works and what doesn't.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
what about enforcing the labor laws / adding an in between from 1099 to W2. or some like if you must where an uniform then you are W2.
I would love to one sign up for a 1099 job that forces an uniforms and not where it when they ask where is the uniform I can say where is the W2?
Right now we have sub contractors that are listed as 1099 but are controlled like w2 and when something goes wrong they get lumped with all of the costs even when it's not really there fault.
http://www.slate.com/articles/...
https://www.generalliabilitycl...
I thought the entire point of the "gig" economy was to provide people with flexibility to earn extra cash. Not as a full time job. The price for that flexibility of working how much and when you want is no benefits. Want a full time job with benefits, go get a real job.
They're talking about musicians here, right?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
How about rather than handing out money to the corporations to "do the right thing" we tax the fuck out of corps paying primarily 1099 and use that to fund real benefits for people.
This is crazy. What kind of benefits do they need? Let's break out the employee handbook of a fortune 100 company and take a look at all the benefits, and let's make a list of benefits govt already gives to people who are economically challenged. That should take someone less than a day to make the list. Any congressional aides around? One of them could do that. Then, we need someone smart to decide which of these should be extended specifically to gig workers at the expense of the rest of us. Plenty of democrats around , grab one of them. It shouldn't take $20 million dollars to figure this out. WTF.
Only Nixon could go to China. Only Trump can bring socialism to America.
In several jurisdiction on the European continent, contractors are already legally required to get their own insurance (in countries that don't provide it), save money for retirement, pay insurance for sick leave, factor in vacation time in their rates, etc.
This ends up working nicely there.
It helps bringing down the amount of working poors.
So yeah, we "Evil Euro-Communists" have actually manage to find a way to fuck it less than your "Land of the Free (markets) !"
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
How's the slumlord business going? Did you ever get rid of those huge rats?
contractors still need some of the min wage stuff so they can be changed for stuff like dine and dash / CC change backs / etc.
He's so awesome that he finds it hard to comprehend that some people aren't as awesome as he is.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Problem solved: You can pay a private organization to enforce your racist contract, as per the contract.
Government is NOT NECESSARY.
The reason benefits are tied to employers is because government regulations and tax incentives make it so. That's why we now need even more regulations to deal with gig workers, and preexisting conditions, etc. And don't be fooled: people like Mark Warner will use this kind of regulation as yet another opportunity to pay off supporters, lobbyists, and special interests, including the gig economy corporations themselves.
Health insurance, disability insurance, etc. should be like car insurance: tied to the individual, with all the tax breaks and support going to the individual, not his employers. And people who are destitute should get simple financial support, not get caught up in big government-run programs.
Nope. It is because he was wrong. Fundamentally...
According to him, for example, 8 hours of work by a ditch-digger is equally valuable as 8 hours of an engineer or a pastry-chef. Equally valuable and therefore to be equally rewarded. As I said, wrong .
The progressive movement of 1900 had little to do with what's known as "progressive" today. But if you are willing to defend, what those guys did, let's start with the Prohibition... :)
No. The reason was Capitalism's ability to produce wealth — more than any other regime — and enough of it to keep the workers and the farmers satisfied, to the dismay of the Marxists. It is this satisfaction they've been trying to erode with varying success ever since — with made-up "outrages" over non-issues like "gender equality"... See also Marxism 2.0.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
And according to Hitler, we needed to exterminate all the Jews. But just because he was wrong about that, doesn't mean he was wrong about everything.
According to him, for example, 8 hours of work by a ditch-digger is equally valuable as 8 hours of an engineer or a pastry-chef. Equally valuable and therefore to be equally rewarded. As I said, wrong .
But equally valuable to the workers.
The reason was Capitalism's ability to produce wealth — more than any other regime — and enough of it to keep the workers and the farmers satisfied, to the dismay of the Marxists. It is this satisfaction they've been trying to erode with varying success ever since — with made-up "outrages" over non-issues like "gender equality"... See also Marxism 2.0.
Actually. it's the capitalists who are eroding away the wealth of the workers and farmers. Haven't you noticed the disappearance of the middle class and increasing income inequality over the last few decades?
No, I don't think this is true — what ditch-digger would prefer a ditch he dug to a pastry? But even if he did value his ditch out of some sentimental attachment, what of it?
No, I haven't. And why is such inequality even a bad thing automatically and by itself? Is Michael Phelps' ability to swim so much better than that of the rest of us alarming? Should we impose a "windfall" tax on his Olympic medals? People have equal inalienable rights, but we aren't born equal. Unless you are also prepared to cripple the strong, lobotomize the smart, and disfigure the beautiful — for equality — why would you tax the successful?
But stipulating, the said disappearance of the middle class is both real and bad, why are you accusing the Capitalists of it — and not, for example, the ever increasing government "spreading" of everybody's wealth around? Or, for another example, not the trade policies favoring the truly oppressive (Marxist) China?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
What has eroded away the middle class are blue collar jobs going away. Between jobs going to Mexico, Indonesia and China and the taxes paid, the middle class has taken a hit. When the factories close, blue collar workers become waitresses and the like.
... is how this will help people get gigs.
And aren't there existing insurance policies that cover this stuff?
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
But if you are willing to defend, what those guys did, let's start with the Prohibition...
Sorry, that's on the rural, religious, conservative, nativists, not the progressives. Easy mistake to make, but still an error.
They'd been trying it since the 1600s to be honest, and still are, but really, their anti-abortion focus has become more of an issue.
The newly unemployed gig workers thank you for your help.
From your link ( https://www.bloomberg.com/poli... )...
Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said "We are no longer going to measure compassion by the number of programs and the amount spent on those programs."
Bloomberg fraudulently inserted a period to make it seem like that was the full quote. It was not. The full quote is:
"We are no longer going to measure compassion by the number of programs or the number of people on those programs, but the number of people we help get off of those programs."
Bloomberg's cut-off, altered version doesn't make sense. But the full quote demonstrates an understanding of what true compassion is all about.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
I get it. You really #HateTrump. But you still have to call him President... Suck it up, cupcake.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.