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:
- The policy must be universal and apply to all workers.
- The benefits must be portable and no longer tied to an employer-based program.
- 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.
- The policy and benefits must be innovative enough to respond to the continued evolution in the modern workplace.