Self-Employment May Do What Card Check Won’t
Apr 13th, 2009 | By Dawn R. Rivers | Category: Politics & PolicyCongressional Democrats want to do something about the way wages have not kept pace with productivity increases over the last ten years or so, as part of their larger effort to “rebuild the middle class.” Evidently having concluded that the best answer to wage stagnation is labor unions, they have re-introduced the Employee Free Choice Act. This bill is unlikely to have much direct effect on most microbusinesses, because most micros are too small to fall under the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board. Larger small businesses are a different matter, however; it is possible that this legislation will drive a general migration away from full time employment and toward the use of independent contractors. And that might not necessarily be a bad thing.
The real danger, in that situation, would be that lawmakers might launch some sort of misguided legislative attempt to “protect” independent contractors from their own clients — whether they want to be protected or not. Given the trends, policy makers must learn to stop viewing the growth in self-employment as a labor market failure and to appreciate why, if they are concerned about issues like wage stagnation, self-employment deserves their support. In many cases, self-employment accomplishes precisely what card check legislation attempts — greater earning power for workers and a larger voice in their own working conditions — in ways that seem to work better for everyone involved.
