Self-employed Workers Need Paid Leave, Too

Modern life depends on self-employed workers:

Your Lyft driver? Self-employed.
The accountant who does your taxes every year from a home office? Self-employed.
Your hair stylist who rents a chair at your favorite salon? Yep, self-employed.

In fact, about 15% of working Americans are self-employed, a number that is predicted to grow. Not all people working for themselves are doing it by choice. Many have been forced into self-employment by downsizing, automation, and the rapid shifts in the global economy.

I’m self-employed, too. For over two decades, I’ve provided grant writing and editing support to clients all over the country. I choose to work this way because I love the work and the variety and flexibility it offers me, but it does have its drawbacks: When it comes time to pay my income taxes, I pay both the employee and the employer share, and of course there’s no boss providing benefits like health insurance or a retirement plan.

Those aren’t the only ways self-employed people get left out. In two of the six state paid family and medical leave laws passed to date—New Jersey and Rhode Island—self-employed workers aren’t included. In the other four (CA, DC, NY, WA), we’re not automatically covered but we do have the opportunity to opt into the program.

Family Values @ Work’s state coalitions are organizing to ensure no worker is left out. In New Jersey and Rhode Island, advocates are working to expand those states’ existing paid leave laws to include opt-in mechanisms so that self-employed people have a choice to participate in the program. And all of the FV@W coalitions in states with paid leave laws work diligently to get the word out so workers know their rights.

FV@W is organizing for state and national paid family and medical leave policies that include all types of workers—traditional workers, freelancers like me and other contingent workers, farmworkers and other seasonal help, temp workers, and people employed in the gig economy, like your housecleaner and the Fivver guy you paid to design your garage band’s logo. In a word: everybody.

As a self-employed person, there are things I really like about being on my own. I mean, there’s nothing like deciding to work the whole day in your pajamas if you feel like it.

But just like more traditionally employed workers, I need access to paid leave, too. That’s why I’m proud to be part of the movement for comprehensive paid leave programs that support all kinds of workers and all kinds of families.

Jennifer Morales is a Grants Consultant at Family Values @ Work