Dive Brief:
- After some recent developments, the situation is improving for the nation’s growing and often underappreciated contingent workforce, according to USA Today. Those workers, typically part-time and contract-based employees, are increasingly asking for better pay and benefits and union membership—and succeeding.
- Around 20% of the U.S. workforce is made up of contingent workers, up from 12% in 2010, according to research firm Staffing Industry Analysts. USA Today reports businesses of late have leaned on contingent workers to "cut costs, meet fluctuating demand and tap specialized skills for short-term projects."
- An Ohio axle supplier to Ford recently allowed its entire workforce of 58 temporary workers to join the United Auto Workers, but only after they threatened to strike, USA Today reports. Recently, Washington University in St. Louis agreed to a four-year contract over adjunct professor pay. The article also cites warehouse workers and Uber drivers as examples of contingent workforce victories.
Dive Insight:
“These workers are standing up and claiming a greater share of the profits their labor has generated," Sarah Leberstein, senior staff attorney for the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group, told USA Today.
Leberstein says inspirational movements—including walkouts by fast-food workers, many of whom are part-time, and their demand for $15-an-hour pay—are driving the trend. In the case of fast food workers, legislation setting that minimum wage in California and New York resulted. And with unemployment at 5%, supply and demand continue to be an issue. Labor shortages in certain areas are forcing employers to pay attention to how they treat contingent workers.
Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University, told USA Today that the rise of the contingent worker, especially in higher-skill occupations (technology and academia), is also having an impact, especially on unionization efforts.
