U.S. workers weigh‐in on the issue of portable benefits

• Published date: 01 February 2021
• Author: Floyd F. Quinn,Erik S. Thorsteinsson,Nicolina L. Weaver
• Date: 01 February 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2140

ACADEMIC PAPER

U.S. workers weigh-in on the issue of portable benefits

Floyd F. Quinn

1

|Erik S. Thorsteinsson

1

|Nicolina L. Weaver

2

1

Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas

2

Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

Correspondence

Floyd F. Quinn, Department of Management,

Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666.

Email: floydquinn@txstate.edu

As the sharing economy continues to grow and diversify, various institutes and mem-

bers of government are contemplating the need for new employment regulations,

including those related to portable benefits. However, there has been no known

inquiry into this issue with those U.S. workers in the sharing economy. This paper

presents exploratory research on the subject of portable benefits for workers

engaged in the sharing economy and is intended to inform the development of future

research questions and to determine the best research design and data collection

method for a more extensive study. Arguably, rideshare drivers represent a large con-

stituency of sharing economy workers in the United States and were utilized as the

study population. Through authorized access to closed social media sites, this study

explored the desire among rideshare drivers for portable benefits, how these benefits

should be funded, and how such programs would be administered. The findings indi-

cate that the majority of respondents were interested in the availability of portable

benefits, although the preference for specific benefits varied widely among respon-

dents. More than half believe companies, along with workers, should fund these ben-

efits, and slightly less than half believe private sector third parties like insurance

companies should administer these programs. However, given the transient nature of

this workforce, administering such programs could prove to be quite challenging for

organizations and plan administrators alike.

1|INTRODUCTION

The sharing economy is a term used to describe the fee-based shar-

ing or leasing of goods or services between people (Etter,

Fieseler, & Whelan, 2019). Often, this sharing or leasing is arranged

online using a mobile application. The development and growth of

opportunity in the sharing economy has prompted questions

regarding traditional business practices, assumptions, and opera-

tions (Dell, Doby, Tillipman, & Zhuplev, 2017; Freeman & Par-

mar, 2018; Gobble, 2015; Posen, 2015). Along with the growth in

nontraditional work stemming from fee-based services, the broader

availability and widespread use of the internet in the conduct of

business means work can be performed from quite literally any

location on the planet. This spatial freeing of work has led to the

substantial growth of the sharing economy and presents both bene-

fits and costs to the workers engaged in it (Graham, Hjorth, &

Lehdonvirta, 2017).

While advancing the availability of work opportunities in places

where traditional job growth has stagnated, it has also created con-

cerns for these workers related to, among other things, intermediation

and bargaining power. For sharing economy workers associated with

intermediaries, those companies who create and manage the mobile

applications which connect these service providers to prospective

customers, this concern relates to their work relationship with the

intermediary. These companies routinely classify sharing economy

workers as independent contractors. This is problematic given many

of these workers put in the hours of full-time employees, yet their

classification as independent contractors leave them ineligible for

benefits and protections to which full-time employees would ordinar-

ily be entitled. For example, rideshare companies such as Uber or Lyft

operate like taxi services arranging shared rides between independent

contractor drivers and riders. These companies serve as online inter-

mediaries arranging customer pick-ups and drop-offs over the internet

using their online platforms to connect with both drivers and

Received: 23 July 2019Revised: 18 December 2019Accepted: 12 March 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2140

J Public Affairs. 2021;21:e2140.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd1of10

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2140