New Jersey proposal requires gig economy firms provide worker benefits

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The New Jersey Senate Labor Committee on Thursday advanced a bill that would require gig economy companies to provide benefits for their New Jersey-based workers.

Under the bill, “contracting agents” like Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER) that have more than 50 workers in the state would be required to help pay into a worker’s benefits package, Politico reported. The companies would be required to pay benefits for each worker, based on the number of hours worked or a percentage of money that was made.

New Jersey State Sen. Troy Singleton (D-Burlington) authored the proposal, Senate Bill 943, which establishes a system for portable benefits for certain workers. In an opinion piece in the Star-Ledger, Singleton said the initiative is guided by four principles:

  1. The policy must be universal and apply to all workers.
  2. The benefits must be portable and no longer tied to an employer-based program.
  3. The benefits must be reflective of the idea that many workers today are piecing together multiple independent opportunities from different companies or clients in order to make ends meet.
  4. The policy and benefits must be innovative enough to respond to the continued evolution in the modern workplace.