WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Patty Murray (D-WA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Al Franken (D-MN), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) today asked the Labor Department to collect more information on workers who have been denied benefits and protections because they are not permanently employed. These workers – independent contractors, part-time workers with irregular hours, on-call workers, and freelancers – are known as “contingent workers.” Because they are not permanently employed, they often lack access to benefits, minimum wage protections, health and safety protections, and retirement savings. 

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez announced that he would resume the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Contingent Work Supplement (CWS) in its Current Population Survey in May 2017. In a letter to the Secretary, Brown and his colleagues applauded this news and asked that the Department update the survey to capture new details on the needs of these workers including how their contingent work impacts long-term employment, their ability to transition to new employment, their ability to obtain a second job, and satisfaction among the workers.

“Contingent work is not a new concept, but the non-traditional employment arrangement has become more visible as high-profile companies have adopted it in recent years,” said the Senators in the letter. “Understanding the scope and impact of contingent employment is central to our efforts to craft employment and economic policies, and we look forward to reviewing the updated CWS results.  As you resume the survey, however, we ask you to update it in several key ways to ensure the Department of Labor captures needed details about contingent workers, their families, and their employers.”

Last March, the Senators requested that the appropriations bill include increased funding for BLS in order to reinstate the CWS. The year-end bill passed in December included a $17 million increase for BLS.

Full text of the letter to Perez is below.

 

Dear Secretary Perez:

We applaud your announcement that the Bureau of Labor Statistics will resume the Contingent Work Supplement (CWS) as part of the Current Population Survey in May 2017.  Contingent work is not a new concept, but the non-traditional employment arrangement has become more visible as high-profile companies have adopted it in recent years.  Understanding the scope and impact of contingent employment is central to our efforts to craft employment and economic policies, and we look forward to reviewing the updated CWS results.  As you resume the survey, however, we ask you to update it in several key ways to ensure the Department of Labor captures needed details about contingent workers, their families, and their employers.

First, the 2005 CWS created three estimates of workers, all of which did not expect their jobs to be permanent and two of which involved workers who had been in their jobs for less than a year. We ask that you estimate the prevalence of long-term contingent workers in this next iteration of the survey.  Are there contingent workers who expect their employment to last more than a year or have worked in their contingent jobs for more than a year?  Do contingent workers tend to transition to traditional employment or are an increasing number of them staying in contingent work for longer periods of time?  These questions will ensure the survey captures the extent to which contingent work has become a longer-lasting arrangement.

Second, we ask you to consider including survey questions that ask individuals how their contingent status has affected their need for and ability to obtain additional employment.  For example, does the contingent nature of their work make them more likely to need a second job?  Does their contingent arrangement make it easier or harder to get a second job?  These questions will complement the wages and benefits data obtained by previous CWS iterations and will create a fuller picture of the economic impact of contingent work. 

Next, we urge you to consider ways in which the new CWS might strengthen your existing and ongoing efforts to link data from employees to information about their employers.  Gathering data on the types of businesses whose workforces are contingent, alongside information about their employees, would allow us to better comprehend the business motivations for pursuing this type of employer-employee relationship. 

We also ask that you consider fielding questions about the extent to which employees are satisfied with their contingent work.  Do they believe it affords them more or less flexibility? Would they work more hours if given the option?  Do they have an opportunity to advance and grow professionally in their contingent work?  Do they perceive their employment as providing economic stability in the long-term?  Gathering this type of data will help us to understand where contingent work is working well, and where it is not.

We would also like to know how frequently you plan to conduct the survey and how data collected through the new CWS will relate to the complementary Work Schedules Supplement that BLS proposed for FY16.  In order to discuss these issues further, we ask that you provide our staffs with a briefing on your plans for the survey changes you may be making to the 2005 survey.

We share your commitment to better understanding the contingent workforce, and we ask that you incorporate these suggestions into the CWS so that it provides a comprehensive look into this segment of working Americans.  In addition, we hope you will work with us to ensure the CWS is continued at regular intervals beyond the 2017 update. 

Thank you for your consideration of this letter, and we look forward to working with you as we consider and craft employment policies this year. 

 

Sincerely,

 

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