Letter from the Editor

摘要

Allow me to paraphrase the important lead article by Eileen Appelbaum, Arne Kalleberg, and Hye Jin Rho. The conventional wisdom that independent contractors, including gig workers, will one day dominate the work Americans do is wrong. These are the workers who don't have permanent jobs, are not protected by basic labor laws, and typically neither have an employee health insurance plan or a retirement program. A transformed economy supposedly makes the need for them inevitable. They can't count on protection from labor laws, often have no health care paid by employers, and are not covered by a retirement program.