The Missing Safety Net

Traditional employment bundles work with health insurance, retirement contributions, paid leave, and unemployment protection. Gig workers get none of these by default. Surveys suggest tens of millions of Americans now do freelance or gig work, and that share has climbed year after year.

This gap creates a two-tier workforce: employees with protections and gig workers without them. A driver working full-time hours through a platform often earns less per hour, after expenses and self-employment taxes, than a salaried employee doing comparable work — and carries far more of the risk.