In recent decades, a variety of forces have contributed to changes in the nature of work. To analyze these trends and the implications for access to worker protections, the authors developed a taxonomy for the nature of worker protections, assessed the size and trends in the key groups of workers excluded from important protections, and considered alternative approaches to ensuring that workers have access to protections.

Just Work

Access to Worker Protections in the Changing World of Work

Lynn A. Karoly, Samantha Cherney

ResearchPublished Feb 10, 2026

In recent decades, a variety of forces have contributed to changes in the nature of work in the United States and most other advanced economies. The transformation is marked by the perception that an increasing share of the workforce is in nonstandard employment relationships.

Despite the changing nature of the employer-employee relationship, workers in nonstandard employment may still confront a variety of issues that lead to workplace disputes. Yet, it is not clear whether the laws, regulations, and case law established in the industrial era are sufficient in this new and continually evolving world of work. Thus, it is important for policymakers to have objective information about how the changing nature of employment is affecting workers' access to needed protections, appropriate remedies when those protections fail, and forms of insurance linked to traditional jobs.

To address these issues, the authors developed a taxonomy for the nature of worker protections associated with traditional employment and identified which groups of workers are covered by these protections and which are excluded; considered how the concept of an employee has been defined over time in legislation, regulation, and case law; assessed the size and trends in the key groups of workers who are excluded from important worker protections; and considered alternative approaches to ensuring that workers have access to the protections they need, especially in light of the changing nature of work.

Key Findings

  • There is a perception that an increasing percentage of the workforce is in nonstandard employment relationships that do not provide protections afforded to those in more traditional employer-employee relationships.
  • Key protections that have evolved over time cover three types of risk faced by workers: unfair practices on the part of their employers, their fellow employees, or other companies doing business with their employers; financial harm from work-related injuries and job loss; and life risks associated with health care costs, short-term illness, temporary or permanent disability, premature death, and inadequate savings for retirement.
  • Certain workers have traditionally been excluded from these protections based on specific characteristics of the job or the worker, most notably the self-employed. Some of these exclusions were based on rationales that are no longer justifiable.
  • Given that laws, regulations, and case law have evolved at the federal and state levels, there is a patchwork of worker protections across the country.
  • The number of workers excluded from protections has been increasing in absolute terms as the economy has grown. It is likely that the share has increased — but not by the magnitude implied by some estimates. Labor force data from 2023 suggest that about 7.4 percent of workers are independent contractors, a share that has barely increased since 1995 (6.7 percent).
  • Aside from the self-employed, the current approach for determining which workers are covered by these protections is based on workers' classification as employees or independent contractors. An alternative is to focus on each type or category of protection and determine which workers should be covered, the benefits and costs of expanding protections, and which stakeholders lose or gain from a given change.

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Karoly, Lynn A. and Samantha Cherney, Just Work: Access to Worker Protections in the Changing World of Work. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2026. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA2881-1.html.
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