Fiscal strategies for new forms of work

• Fiscal strategies, social protection and labour market policies should consider support the increasing independent, solo-preneurship, and flexible work systems to address the root-causes of the emerging work crises, rather than the symptoms.
• While self-employment and other forms of work outside of traditional employment are expanding, social safety net regimes for these workers have yet to be established.
• More than 50% of independent workers in Europe are not covered by unemployment benefits.   
• Shared economy platforms (e.g. Uber, AirBnB, Helping, Upwork, etc.) proliferate outside the existing labour laws and regulations; therefore, new employment and self-regulation system frameworks should be considered. Taxation and fiscal policies should be adapted to the expanding shared economy, digitalization and globalization.
• Discussions about basic income guarantee for every (adult) person of the society are increasing, in the wake of automation, advanced robotics and AI.
  • A Basic (or Universal) Income Guarantee (BIG/UIG or Universal Basic Income - UBI) would unleash creativity and encourage new forms of work that could reduce unemployment, underemployment, and work-related health risks.
  • The cost of a UBI for adults could ranges from 9.6% of GDP in low-income countries to 3.5% of GDP in upper-middle-income countries, found a 2019 World Bank study. 
  • Previous pilot programs showed clear benefits and more pilots are being currently conducted and planned. In New Zealand, a BI is being actively debated and an NGO group is promoting the idea and keeps track of developments around the world.
  • A 2016 survey found that 68% of people across all 28 EU member states would "definitely or probably" support some form of universal basic income. The results of a basic income experiment carried out in Finland are not relevant after the first year of the experiment.

| Related Megatrends: Inequalities; Health