Affordability is the biggest problem facing Kentuckians today. Household costs are out of reach in part because pay has stagnated and worker benefits have eroded. The playing field is tilted against employees because of policies that undermine worker power and a failure to enforce laws that protec t them. House Bill 732 will worsen that trend. Under the veil of providing benefits to independent contractors, the bill greenlights the separation of workers from over a century of hard-won rights, from Social Security and unemployment insurance to the minimum wage and collective bargaining.  It’s another step toward a bleak future for hardworking men and women in Kentucky. And it’s being pushed by the billionaire Koch brothers and their lobbying arm Americans for Prosperity in states across the country. HB 732 is presented under the premise of making possible “portable benefits” for individuals who work for a variety of different companies. But portable benefits are not a new idea. In fact, it’s a notion we already have proven solutions for that the bill would in fact weaken.  Existing universal programs like unemployment insurance and Social Security are in place no matter where an employee works, including for those who work more than one job. Similarly, protections from discrimination and sexual harassment, rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act, and minimum wage and overtime protections are portable for every worker in every job they do.  And long before the term “gig worker” existed, employees working short-term assignments for a variety of employers secured union-negotiated portable benefits. Union construction workers, for example, go from project to project across a variety of construction firms while retaining employment rights and benefits that travel with them. The definition of an independent contractor, however, is a person who is not an employee but in business for themselves. In Kentucky, based on a recent state Supreme Court ruling, employment status depends on the permanency of the relationship between the parties, degree of skill required, the individual’s own investment in equipment and materials, their opportunity for profit or loss, the degree to which a business controls the manner in which the work is performed, and whether the service is an integral part of the business. Independent contractors book clients; employees are hired by employers. The distinction is critical because individual workers lack the bargaining power that different businesses have with each other, and workers have had to fight for and win laws that make their jobs more tolerable.  Those gains are lost when businesses misclassify their workers as independent contractors. The problem is rampant, with an estimated 10% to 30% of employers misclassifying employees as independent contractors. A decade ago, the Kentucky Labor Cabinet reported the amount collected in restitution for wage theft and misclassification is more than double the amount stolen in robberies each year.   Workers misclassified as independent contractors lose 17% to 34% of their compensation. And the problem exists in all kinds of occupations, with landscapers, truck drivers, home health aides, janitors and nail salon workers among those most at risk. HB 732 widens this problem by creating a new category of “self-employed worker.” It sounds like an oxymoron because it is. If HB 732 were to become law, a so-called self-employed worker could be an independent contractor under law while functioning as an employee in reality. Specifically, this bill makes possible the provision of benefits to “self-employed workers” while excluding those benefits from the determination of whether an individual is a worker. In essence, HB 732 gives total leeway for employers to offer selective employee benefits (at whatever level they would like, or not at all) without requiring them to provide the rights and benefits otherwise secured for employment. It’s a welcome mat to worker misclassification.  Public services also lose tax dollars due to misclassification. By not paying into programs like unemployment insurance, scofflaw employers make costs higher for everyone else. And by allowing compensation to contractors in the form of untaxed benefits, HB 732 would reduce the tax revenue that funds public schools, infrastructure and other vital services.  Nothing is stopping businesses from just awarding bigger contracts to their legitimate independent contractors today. But this bill is not about helping small businesses. It comes from billionaires seeking to weaken Kentucky workers further and grow their already unimaginable wealth and power. The post Billionaire-inspired bill would separate KY workers from their rights appeared first on The Lexington Times. ...read more read less