The Other Side of the Storm
The Other Side of the Storm
What do Black immigrant domestic workers in the time of COVID-19 teach us about building a resilient care infrastructure?
Kim Freeman Brown, Marc Bayard
Presented by The Institute for Policy Studies in partnership with
National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) We Dream In Black Program
If we hope to build protections that support all workers, we need to understand the challenges faced by those most excluded from our current systems of support.
We’ve been closely following the work of the National Domestic Workers Alliance’s We Dream in Black initiative. Their most recent research and report highlights the experiences and priorities of domestic workers who are Black, immigrant women. The findings highlight how important an intersectional lens is to designing and delivering benefits and protections for all.
If we hope to build protections that support all workers, regardless of their job, identity, or ability, then we need to understand the challenges faced by those excluded from our current systems of support, and most importantly, the solutions they say they want.
Benefits for Freelancers
Benefits for Freelancers
Freelancers Union insurance
Freelancers Union
Freelancers Union is the largest and fast-growing organization representing the 56.7 million independent workers across the country. They provide their 500,000+ members a powerful support system and voice through policy advocacy, benefits, resources and community.
Freelancers Union is demonstrating new ways of building collective power and protections for independent workers.
Freelancers Union offers health, vision, and dental insurance, as well as life, disability and liability insurance (at competitive rates), alongside important advocacy, education and community for those who work independently.
As a membership organization and 501 c(4), they are demonstrating new ways of building collective power and protections for independent workers.
W.A.G.E. - Working Artists and the Greater Economy
W.A.G.E. - Working Artists and the Greater Economy
Minimum payment standards for artists' labor
W.A.G.E. - Working Artists and the Greater Economy
Since its founding in 2008, W.A.G.E.’s work has developed in service of a single achievable goal—regulating the payment of artist fees in the nonprofit sector—but they emerge from a long tradition of artists organizing around the issue of remuneration for cultural work in the United States that dates back to the 1930s. W.A.G.E.’s mission is to establish sustainable economic relationships between artists and the institutions that contract artists' labor, and to introduce mechanisms for self-regulation into the art field that collectively bring about a more equitable distribution of its economy.
We are so inspired by W.A.G.E.’s work to fight unpaid labor in the arts, and build new models of collective bargaining and power for the field.
WAGENCY - WAGENCY is an artists' solidarity union and a platform for negotiating the fair remuneration of artistic labor in the nonprofit sector. Supplying artists with digital tools and the collective agency to negotiate W.A.G.E. fees or withhold labor when not paid them, WAGENCY is a new model for organizing contingent workers. W.A.G.E. understands that artists ARE workers and deserve fair pay for their labor – WAGENCY empowers them to negotiate it.
We are so inspired by W.A.G.E.’s work to fight unpaid labor in the arts, and build new models of collective bargaining and power for the field.
A Guaranteed Income for the 20th Century
A Guaranteed Income for the 20th Century
A report from The New School Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy
Naomi Zewde, Kyle Strickland, Kelly Capatosto, Ari Glogower, Darrick Hamilton
The Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy conducts research to shed light on the structures of inequality and develop knowledge about the pivotal roles of race, power, and social stratification. Building relationships beyond the academy, institute researchers work to identify, implement, and scale transformative ideas to promote economic inclusion, civic empowerment, and social equity. The institute also works to foster the next generation of scholars bringing diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and new thinking to society’s biggest challenges.
Over the past several years, the idea of establishing a minimum income floor via a Guaranteed Income has gained traction, with several pilots offering opportunities to see the benefits of these policies in action.
We support establishing a minimum income floor for all, and believe widespread adoption of the policy would make meaningful progress towards our broader vision of protections for all. However, we are not convinced by the idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) that would deliver the same amount of support to everyone, regardless of their income level. Instead, we believe any guaranteed income program should seek to bring all individuals up to a minimum standard, providing more support to those in greater need, and narrowing wage and opportunity gaps across the economy.
For these reasons, we find the New School’s guaranteed income proposal particularly compelling. The authors suggest updating the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in a way that makes it function more like a true guaranteed income, removing the various income requirements and benefit differences that define the EITC today. This seems like good sense to us!
Guilded - A Freelancer-Owned Cooperative
Guilded - A Freelancer-Owned Cooperative
Protecting freelancers against wage theft
Guilded Freelancer Cooperative
Guilded is a cooperative committed to empowering freelance workers. They are incubated and informed by the work of the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives. Guilded provides contract management, invoicing, guaranteed payments, tax preparation, and health care.
Guilded offers an exciting new model to build collective power through shared ownership, shared governance, and shared protection.
Guilded is a freelancer-owned cooperative that provides 1099 workers with access to timely guaranteed payment, backend invoicing and tax services, and a range of worker benefits like licensing, insurance, and direct primary care. Guilded creates financial stability while providing freelancers with opportunities to build relationships with other gig workers, collective agency and power, and financial assets as cooperative owners.
Incubated by the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC), the national grassroots membership organization for worker cooperatives, Guilded offers an exciting new model to build collective power through shared ownership, shared governance, and shared protection.
More Than Enough
More Than Enough
Guaranteed Income as a tool to transform people's lives.
Mia Birdsong, Next River
Mia is a pathfinder, writer, and facilitator who steadily engages the leadership and wisdom of people experiencing injustice to chart new visions of American life. She has a gift for making visible and leveraging the brilliance of everyday people so that our collective gifts reach larger spheres of influence, cultural and political change, and create wellbeing for everyone.
Mia is the founding Executive Director of Next River, an institute for practicing the future. Next River moves conversations, culture, and resources to nourish the people and communities whose ways of being, doing, and relating can move us toward a liberated future.
Mia Birdsong's four-part podcast from The Nation explores how a Guaranteed Income might actually transform people's lives.
Mia Birdsong’s work inspires us everyday. From this amazing podcast series with the Nation on why a Guaranteed Income matters, to her current work at Next River: An Institute for Practicing the Future, Mia’s efforts to center human dignity, connectedness, and joy grounds us in the purpose of this work - not just what we hope to achieve, but why it matters.
The More Than Enough podcast series explores not just the idea of guaranteed income, but more importantly, uplifts the voices of those who would benefit most from the policy, with a particular focus on the experiences of Black women. There are so many pearls of wisdom in this series - it is definitely worth your time!
