On Thursday, Rep. Susanne DelBene (D-WA), U.S. Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced the Portable Benefits for Independent Workers Pilot Program Act, a bipartisan bill to establish a $20 million grant fund for states and municipalities to experiment with offering portable benefits to workers. As the workforce changes, the new legislation invests in new, portable models for offering health care, retirement benefits, sick leave, workers compensation, and more to independent workers.

“Everyone deserves to be protected by our nation’s social safety net, not just traditional employees,” said Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich. “We need to update our laws for the modern workforce. More than a third of our workforce today participates in independent work, something lawmakers never could have imagined when they passed the UI and workers comp laws we have on the books now.”

Read Chamber of Progress’s op-ed, The Digital Age Reimagined Work. It’s Time to Reimagine Benefits.

Participants in the independent workforce rose to a record 51 million in 2021, just under a third of the U.S. workforce. An estimated 16% of Americans have earned money from an online gig platform. And a fifth of the U.S. workforce is expected to stay remote after the pandemic.

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Chamber of Progress (progresschamber.org) is a new center-left tech industry policy coalition promoting technology’s progressive future.  We work to ensure that all Americans benefit from technological leaps, and that the tech industry operates responsibly and fairly.  

Our corporate partners do not have a vote on or veto over our positions. We do not speak for individual partner companies and remain true to our stated principles even when our partners disagree.