Key Takeaways

With the rapid pace of change, it is critical that labor laws keep up with the times.

The Employee Rights Act also recognizes that there are many ways to start and grow a business, and it protect alternative pathways to entrepreneurship.

The Employee Rights Act would require unions to receive workers’ consent before deducting dues money from their paychecks and using it for political purposes.

The way we work has always been evolving, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated change. Progress that might otherwise have taken over a decade to achieve was crammed into a single year. With the rapid pace of change, it is critical that labor laws keep up with the times.

Fortunately, a group of lawmakers have introduced the Employee Rights Act of 2022—a much needed update to our nation’s labor laws. Consider all the game-changing factors that have occurred since the onset of the pandemic, which have made an update all the more necessary:

• Forced closures required businesses to adapt technology and ways of work that kept operations going in the short-term and created more efficient and flexible platforms for the future.
• Job losses and an increased need for autonomy and flexibility (given school and childcare closures) contributed to 12% of the workforce beginning independent work in 2020.
• Safety precautions caused an uptick in the demand for contract-based services offered on gig-economy platforms, expanding opportunities for individuals across all ages, stages,...

Read Full Story: https://www.heritage.org/jobs-and-labor/commentary/the-pandemic-changed-how-w...