Institute For The Future

IFTF and the U.S. Department of Labor: Imagining a Bright Future of Work for All

As a part of our new Workable Futures Initiative, Devin Fidler, 2015 Future for Good Fellow Natalie Foster, and I shared our Future of Work research during a workshop hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor for its staff and invited guests from the White House, various federal agencies, foundations, and NGOs. The event launched our call-to-action for policy makers, platform developers, corporate strategists, and change advocates in Washington and around the country to blueprint positive platforms for people who work—and indeed to rethink the future of work itself. Read more about the event from the Department of Labor below, and contact Sean Ness ([email protected]) for more information about the Workable Futures Initiative.

The following is reposted from the U.S. Department of Labor Blog, by Mary Beth Maxwell, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor and a senior advisor to Secretary Perez.

The “gig economy,” the “on-demand economy,” the “sharing economy,” the “coordination economy,” the “digital matching economy”—whatever term we use, there’s a lot of talk about rapid technology-enabled changes in the nature of work. Spoiler alert: Will all of our jobs be replaced by apps? Unlikely. But we are living in an increasingly connected world, with incredible new tools and opportunities, commerce transacted on digital platforms and many of us dependent on the labor of a fragmented and transitory workforce. To be sure, the growth of new-model companies presents both challenges and opportunities for many American workers that we need to take seriously.

Last week, as part of our series of policy forums spotlighting innovators who inform our work, we hosted several speakers for a provocative, inspiring discussion about how to make new technology platforms work better for everyone. The Institute for the Future is a nonprofit research organization that has been playing a leading role in exploring how to shape emerging technologies to serve social goals and the common good. We were joined at our forum last week by Marina Gorbis, IFTF’s Executive Director; Devin Fidler, IFTF’s Research Director who also directs the Workable Futures Initiative; and Natalie Foster, an IFTF Fellow who has founded and directed both Peers and Rebuild the Dream.

Natalie Foster, IFTF Future4Good Fellow, Founder of Peers & Rebuild the Dream, addresses the forum

IFTF challenged us with its belief that the media and the policy community are having the wrong conversation about technology platforms and the future of work — a binary conversation that asks whether innovations are right or wrong, good or bad (as if we could put this genie back in the bottle!). Instead, they believe we need to focus on shaping these platforms now, to design alternatives that will better align platform owners’ incentives with workers’ interests.

As Secretary Tom Perez often says, we need to avoid false choices. Examples abound of businesses that are doing well by doing good. Innovation and technology are creating incredible value and new possibilities. We can of course have both innovation and creativity and standards that protect workers and consumers. This is about choices to be made now; we absolutely can shape win-win solutions if we gather the right people at the table and together design our future based on shared values and goals.

Natalie Foster also spoke about her experience as co-founder and Executive Director of Peers, an online community for gig economy workers. She brings the invaluable perspective of the 250,000 Peers members who drive for Uber and Lyft, host for AirBnB, deliver for Munchery, and do project work through Elance-oDesk. This is no traditional labor organization by any stretch, but these folks have found both community and a vehicle to raise the issues they care about and express their collective voice.

One of the most promising examples of how to make a new-model platform work better for workers is the Fair Care Pledge, an exciting collaboration between Sheila Marcelo of Care.com and Ai-Jen Poo of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. At the forum, Sheila and Ai-Jen moved the conversation from theory to practice.

By signing the Fair Care Pledge, individual domestic employers — those who hire people to work in their homes cleaning, cooking and caring for loved ones — agree to pay a living wage, provide paid time off and commit to basic standards. As part of their partnership with NDWA, Care.com is encouraging its 6 million-plus employer users to become fair and responsible domestic employers. Care.com also provides families with tools and resources to help them meet their obligations under the pledge.

As Ai-Jen Poo noted, in this sector, technology is helping to make visible a huge segment of “gig” workers who have worked for decades in relative obscurity, without the protections of most of our labor laws. Technology empowers consumers both to find the services they need and to make more responsible choices. Technology empowers workers to have greater connection and voice.

As our speakers this spring have underscored, new-model companies are springing up in industry after industry, and these platforms providing on-demand services or matching workers with consumers are taking different shapes in all sorts of new markets. Our challenges are many: How do we make it possible to do the right thing? How do we help new companies build positive design elements into the platforms and networks that will become standard in the future? How can we ensure workers previously excluded have access to new opportunities? We at the Labor Department are excited to be learning from and collaborating with these innovative thinkers. By engaging with forward-thinking business leaders, tech developers and worker advocates, we can imagine a bright future of work.

Mary Beth Maxwell is the principal deputy assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Labor and a senior adviser to Secretary Perez.

POSTSCRIPT:

DOL’s Office of Policy has hosted a series of forums spotlighting innovative thinkers and doers who inform our work. Earlier forums in the series have featured Harvard’s Cass Sunstein, addressing how behavioral economics can inform more effective public policy; MIT’s Zeynep Ton, on employers investing in a “good jobs” strategy that boosts bottom lines; the Roosevelt Institute’s Dorian Warren, on labor-management partnerships that connect young people of color to construction careers; Sara Horowitz, Founder and Executive Director of the Freelancers Union who has been giving voice to “gig” economy workers for many years; and the Workers Lab, a new Silicon Valley style incubator of new organizing models to unite workers who otherwise go it alone.