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.

Comments

This is so bad.

[SensitiveMale]

$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.

Re:This is so bad.

[cayenne8]

"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."

There already IS benefits 1099 contractors can take with them from job to job (gig to gig)...it's called learning to negotiate your bill rate so that you can pay (and be free to choose) your own health insurance, set up a nice HSA to sock away pre-tax money for routine medical needs, to pick and choose your own retirement, set up a SEP, sock away and invest your money as you wish...no, we can't have the vast majority of contractors be depended upon to put on their "big boy" pants and make their own choices in life, negotiate their gigs, have the freedom to move from job to job and be able to write of actual expenses of doing business (mileage, etc).

No...we throw the baby out with the bathwater, on something that has worked for a LONG time, now that there are some new twists on it out there.

No one holds a fucking gun to your head to work 1099. You have to either be a responsible (and talented enough to be in demand) adult, and know what jobs to take and how to negotiate, do paperwork and budget to be a contractor, OR...have it be something part time to add money to your regular "day job".

I"m sorry, but being an uber driver has never been about making a living at it full time, it is a part time job to make some side money.

But, here we go, likely ruining people that do "real" 1099 contracting, and balance the risks vs the rewards of this form of employment, and independence.

If you are a real 1099 contractor, you already budget your bill rate to pay you own benefits and vacation/sick time...and it is portable wherever you wish to work next....it already works without the Feds intruding even more into our work lives.

What's a "gig"?

[omnichad]

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.

Re: What about IRS 1706

[cayenne8]

Oh hell yeah between that and Obama and the IRS destroying 1099 workers it would have been great but not now. Fucking IRS wants to get paid today not each quarter.

This was my first thought too...

They're trying to drive the death knell into the 1099 contract circuit, and make everyone a fucking wage slave.....

So much for giving people like myself, a choice....and be independent.

Re: Marx was completely wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

You should read more carefully, that link clearly shows that Trump is going to get all up in your grill, whether it be through Jeff "Jail them all" Sessions or Rex "Bring me the Money" Tillerson or Betsy "All your students are belog to us" DeVos.

Or any of is other swarm of totalitarian wannabes whose vampiric desires are being given free reign.

The Kleptocracy of Cheney has returned, and you won't benefit from it.

Not in Michigan, Not in Florida, Not in Kansas, Not in Texas.

Re:Marx was completely wrong (trigger warning)

[mi]

it was because we began fixing things

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 .

aka the progressive movement of the early 1900s that sought to correct the excesses of the gilded age.

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... :)

*boat gets fixed* Mi: See? The boat didn't sink. Therefore, Marx was wrong.

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.