As Amherst College professor Uktu Balaban writes about his course Discourses on Toil, “Sundays are not necessarily sunnier than Mondays. Nevertheless, most people prefer Sundays to Mondays.”
This sentiment speaks to a universal truth—our culture’s relationship to labor governs how we orient ourselves. And this relationship is changing. As our society interrogates the distinction between “work” and “life,” it challenges the possibilities of what labor can and should be.
Today, more than 70 million Americans work independently, nearly doubling since 2017. This shift, accelerated by the pandemic, introduced new modes of labor that normalized remote work and digitally-mediated interactions, which has reshaped how we work across space and time. Society’s relationship to labor has fundamentally changed as a result. Individuals now have more agency over their schedule, pay, and career paths, as they are no longer beholden to a single employer.
However, in exchange for increased agency, many workers give up access to employer-sponsored protections, like access to healthcare and insurance coverage. They are often forced to secure benefits on their own, typically resulting in high costs, inadequate coverage, and a poor overall experience. In an age where autonomy over time, labor, and income is more accessible than ever, we believe this empowerment should extend to the protections that safeguard workers’ lives and livelihoods.
At Maveron, we believe there’s a critical need for platforms that increase access to these protections for 1099 workers by providing fair, transparent, cost-effective insurance and benefits. This vision is best embodied in a next-generation union. Traditionally, unions have empowered workers by negotiating better wages, benefits, and working conditions; in the model we envision, platforms could go beyond collective bargaining by leveraging economies of scale, data, and risk-adjusted underwriting to offer health insurance, retirement savings, and opportunities for training and upskilling.
Simran Suri and I have spent the past 2 months ideating on this and have put together a thesis based on our learnings. For those who share our vision (or vehemently disagree!), we would love to hear from you.
