Independent work: choice, necessity, and the gig economy

ACTIONS BY ALL STAKEHOLDERS CAN HELP CAPTURE THE BENEFITS AND 
MITIGATE THE CHALLENGES OF INDEPENDENT WORK 
The growth of independent work poses broad questions in labor markets where the 
employer-employee relationship has been the dominant mode of working for decades. At 
the top of the list is whether it is possible to address some of the hurdles and enable more 
people to pursue their desire for more autonomy and flexibility in their working life—and 
whether it is possible to improve the prospects for workers in precarious situations today. 
This is a moment to think expansively about what the shift to independent work might mean 
and how frameworks could be modernized to respond to it.