Jonathan Wolfson is a visiting fellow at the Institute for the American Worker. He headed the Labor Department’s policy office in the first Trump administration.
Millions of American workers are on the verge of winning a massive — but largely unheralded — victory: More and more states are letting the self-employed access health insurance and retirement accounts throughout their careers — something many independent workers don’t have but urgently need.
Any day now, Georgia will become the fifth state this year to expand access to benefits for self-employed independent contractors. As many as a dozen more states could still take action before 2026 is out.
Welcome to the “portable benefits” revolution, which deserves the attention of Congress, too.
Georgia is set to join Idaho, Kansas, West Virginia and Wyoming, along with several other states that stepped up earlier this decade, in solving a problem that has long faced the nation’s 72 million independent contractors. These self-employed writers, musicians, programmers, delivery drivers and others typically work for multiple companies. This gives them maximum flexibility over their schedules, which is especially appealing to working parents and younger people. It can also be financially lucrative, and many Americans use independent contracting to supplement their traditional 9-to-5 jobs.
But this flexibility comes at a cost. While workers have always been free to pursue independent contracting, the companies that hire them aren’t free to offer them benefits such as contributions to retirement plans or health savings accounts. Both federal and state law make it likely that doing so would force companies to classify independent contractors as traditional employees. But independent workers don’t want to be employees. As for businesses, hiring employees imposes extra paperwork and management costs that benefit only lawyers and accountants.
That’s a lose-lose for businesses and workers alike. Companies lose access to an entire group of eager workers, while the workers lose the flexible job opportunities they prize.
The lack of benefits hasn’t stopped huge numbers of people from pursuing the independent path. And many companies are ready and willing to pay into benefits accounts that workers could keep and use throughout their careers, including after they leave to work for someone else. But companies can’t offer these portable benefits without a change in the law.
This is where states are starting to lead. In 2023, Utah passed the nation’s first law giving companies an employment law safe harbor for offering portable benefits. Doing this will no longer affect an independent contractor’s employment status. Companies such as retailer Target and ride-hailing provider Lyft quickly responded with new benefits programs. Lyft contributes 7 percent of a driver’s quarterly earnings into the flexible benefit account.
Alabama and Tennessee followed suit in 2025. In Alabama, the delivery service Shipt quickly began providing portable benefits contributions, supplementing its shoppers’ earnings by 4 percent so workers could purchase health care and other benefits.
Also last year, Georgia gave food-delivery service DoorDash permission to launch a portable benefits pilot program, paving the way for the statewide reform the governor just signed into law. Within four months, more than 5,500 people had signed up; the company contributed 4 percent of participants’ gross income into a separate fund. Workers used the interest-bearing accounts to cover anything from everyday health expenses to retirement savings. Some 77 percent of DoorDash drivers reported feeling greater financial security, and if a worker leaves DoorDash, the account is still theirs and grows over time.
More states are clamoring to pass similar reforms, from Louisiana to New Hampshire and Connecticut. Showing the bipartisan appeal of these changes, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) green-lit a portable benefits pilot program in 2024. As more states pass permanent reforms, millions of independent contractors could gain access to benefits they’ve never enjoyed.
But states aren’t the only ones that can act. Congress could also amend federal law so that companies may offer benefits without facing liability. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-California) have introduced bills to that effect in their respective chambers. They deserve the support of the full Congress and the White House in giving millions more workers long-term financial security along with the flexibility that self-employment provides.
The portable benefits revolution can’t sweep the nation fast enough.
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