Slashdot Mirror
The Gig Economy Keeps Growing, But Worker Benefits Aren't (technologyreview.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: According to a new report out from Brookings, the number of non-employer firms -- primarily incorporated freelancers and gig-economy workers -- has grown 2.6 percent every year since 1997. By contrast, payroll employment has grown by only 0.8 percent annually in that time. That means a growing number of people lack employer-sponsored benefits like paid leave, health care, and retirement assistance. The Aspen Institute has proposed a system of portable benefits that are not tied to one job. Companies would make contributions to a worker's benefits on the basis of how much the employee works for them. To date, the U.S. government has not been helpful. House and Senate bills supporting gig-worker benefits have died in committee. But state and local governments are taking action. Washington, California, New York, and New Jersey are exploring avenues to provide benefits to their gig workers.
Is that the dewy eyed crap they teach in school now? I think you should read a real history of labor unions instead of the pablum you just spewed.
Legal chain immigration brings about 1M legal immigrants into the country per year. That's on top of the illegals, most of whom compete with workers on the low end.
It doesn't matter what you feel about immigration. The fact is that our immigration policies are nothing more than a safety valve on capital to ensure that the supply side is always high enough that the demand side never has to negotiate.
Here's a simple plan that would cause real growth in average wages very quickly:
1. Build the wall with the military's budget like Trump is threatening.
2. Abolish chain immigration.
3. Shred the green cards of all immigrants who arrived on chain migration in the last 20 years and order them to self-deport or face prison time.
4. Tie corporate taxes to how much business and how many American citizens are employed by the business.
5. Impose steep FICA excise taxes on outsourced labor. Make that offshore team in India so damn expensive in FICA costs that its not competitive.
6. Shred NAFTA and impose a minimum 25% tariff on all goods made by American companies in Mexico for the American market.
7. Pass a federal law that allows state and federal law enforcement to declare any business that relies on illegals to be a criminal enterprise as a whole entity and make its entire asset sheet liable for liquidation upon conviction.
National insurance works pretty well. Just ask those damn socialist countries like the UK, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, etc.. They keep productivity up by keeping their workers well cared for and out of bankruptcy and poverty traps, which are far more expensive to corporations and governments.
minimum wage laws stop the race to the bottom. They buoy up wages leading to consumers who can purchase your goods and services. Without them a handful of robber barons monopolize everything. Great if you end up one of the barons, but that's highly unlikely.
tl;dr. No man is an island.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
around minimum wage and overtime laws. There's no other purpose. If you're a worker then you should be deeply opposed to this. Unless you're in a strong union they _will_ eventually come for you too. And the only strong union left I know of is the AMA. Lord knows us tech workers don't have anything of the sort.
The only potential good that might come out of all this is America might wise up and vote single payer healthcare in. But right now the party in charge is completely opposed to it and I don't see them getting kicked out anytime soon. We're still arguing over assault rifles and abortion for Pete's sake (hurray for wedge issues!).
It is more than this. Businesses LOVE temp work!
They can fire them. Replace them. Use them as needed and throw them out to make room for coffee in the budget ( my brother's words who is a senior director in a fortune 100 company which I will not mention here).
I know. I was just laid off yesterday. I am 41 and screwed in the contract trap. I was doing ok until I lost my job in February 2017. I took a contact job which I was promised was long term but asked around found out only 2/3rs are still employed after metrics within 6 months. I had bills to pay. So I took it. I was let go when my metrics didn't match.
5 months later employers decided I was "unhirable". I took a temp job which I was promised was only 6 weeks. I took it as my savings were near empty. Now that is done and I had another only contract job but I was told I would always be hired and htis was a contract until December. I took it. ... 2nd day I was reprimanded when for giving advice to my boss when he asked for suggestions. I was told I was a contactor and a nobody to him! Do what I what I say and keep your mouth shut until you are hired. I immediately called the company I wanted to work for to see if the job was sitll open as I didn't trust my new employer. I do not want to hear about you etc. 4 weeks later the Gartner Group came in and mentioned a company called TATA India and how we waste money on I.T. when competitiors outsource to cut costs etc.
Funny I was let go again due to organization structural changes. The permanent employees had to be protected but the share price was down and the CIO wanted to justify his job.
The other employer I wanted is now hesitant as the client is wondering why I fucking can't hold onto a job!!
This is BS! I never had such job hopping or bad experiences until I started contracting. Once you are in and your resume lists so many employers over years you are stuck as HR assumes you are incompetent. Once contracting things end all the damn time for any reason which reconfirms you are unhirable and this is not the true me by a long shot.
I am telling you from experience it is because companies want to fire all their employees after each project ends. It has nothing to do with healthcare and I have been lied to so many times and another commenter mentioning being let go 1 day before benefits kick in is just the kicker.
I saved projects twice and got let go for being too good at what I do as I am no longer needed.
http://saveie6.com/
You don't think that's a good deal? Your life isn't worth the little bit of taxes you pay?
I'd say you're getting off cheap.
See, here's the thing: There are a hell of a lot more people who are poor than those who are rich. In fact, our very economic system depends on there being a lot more poor people than rich people. It's by design. If there were no poor people, then how would rich people know they were rich?
When economic inequality and systemic inequity reach a certain boundary condition, there is most certainly a danger to those at the very top. For centuries, the threat alone was enough to get the elite to periodically behave a little better and make things a little more equitable. The New Deal was the last time that happened. But now, the mechanisms of control are much more powerful and by dividing poor people by race, ethnicity, etc, the elite have been able to avoid danger.
So history tells us it's now time to make our elite afraid again. That doesn't mean mass executions, but general strikes, worker organization, and social gospel did the job last time. A few well-placed high-profile executions could also do the trick, but it's worth trying the peaceful approach first.
You are welcome on my lawn.