Measuring Alternative Work Arrangements for Research and Policy

Measuring Alternative Work Arrangements for Research and Policy Synopsis

Business structures, employment relationships, job characteristics, and worker outcomes have changed in the United States over the last few decades--in some ways unpredictably. A high level of interest exists among policy makers and researchers in addressing concerns about the future of work in the United States. These concerns are heightened by the perceived fracturing of relationships between workers and employers, the loss of safety net protections and benefits to workers, the growing importance of access to skills and education as the impacts of new technologies and automation are felt, and the market-based pressure that companies face to produce short-term profits, sometimes at the expense of long-term value. These issues, as well as related ones such as wage stagnation and job quality, are often associated with alternative work arrangements (AWAs)--which include independent-contractor and other nonemployee jobs, work through inter