Today, A Better Balance released the second policy brief in our series, Constructing 21st Century Rights For A Changing Workforce, a series of policy briefs analyzing key issues in covering non-standard and precarious workers under paid leave laws. The second brief, out now, focuses on how paid family and medical leave laws can effectively cover non-standard employees, including part-time workers, seasonal workers, temporary workers, and domestic workers. This paper joins our first brief, released in July, which considered how paid family and medical leave laws can cover self-employed workers like freelancers and independent contractors. Future briefs, to be released later this year, will explore related topics as part of our ongoing research and advocacy on paid leave and the future of work.
Millions of people are working in ways that do not fit neatly within the traditional employer/employee framework. Regardless of their job classification, more and more people are in insecure employment situations, constantly moving in and out of increasingly tenuous positions. Against this backdrop, innovative policies like paid family and medical leave and paid sick time laws offer exciting opportunities to develop workplace standards that truly work for a changing workforce. In charting this exciting path forward, some key questions remain. This series of policy briefs identifies and analyzes these issues in order to lay the groundwork for a more robust discussion and better-informed policymaking.
