Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) suggested several steps to protect gig workers during a speech Thursday at the New America Foundation’s annual conference in Washington, DC. These changes include improving the social safety net, making employee benefits portable, and adding more legal and regulatory certainty to the labor market.

“A hundred years ago, nobody grappling with the rapid changes in technology and work seriously entertained the idea of banning manufacturing advances,” Warren said. “And today, nobody seriously entertains the idea of pulling the plug on the Internet. Massive technological change is a gift — a byproduct of human ingenuity that creates extraordinary opportunities to improve the lives of billions.”

“But history shows that to harness those opportunities to create and sustain a strong middle class, policy also matters,” she said. “To fully realize the potential of this new economy, laws must be adapted to make sure that the basic bargain for workers remains intact, and that workers have the chance to share in the growth they help produce.”

Sen. Warren suggested three immediate changes:

• Ensure every worker pays into social security: Make electronic, automatic and mandatory withholding of payroll taxes apply to everyone including gig workers, 1099 workers and hourly employees.
• Catastrophic insurance coverage: Provide coverage for all workers, including those who haven’t built up enough credits for disability insurance or who don’t have traditional worker’s compensation. “This type of insurance could be relatively cheap if it’s pooled across the entire workforce through regular, small, automatically-deducted contributions,” Warren said.
• Paid leave: Each worker should be able to accrue proportional credits toward a certain number of days a year for any purpose, and workers should have some paid family and medical leave to insure against longer absences.

The full speech is available online.