[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 152 (Tuesday, August 31, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E942]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      INTRODUCTION OF THE PROTECTING INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS FROM 
                           DISCRIMINATION ACT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 31, 2021

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the Protecting 
Independent Contractors from Discrimination Act, which would extend to 
independent contractors the same federal antidiscrimination protections 
enjoyed by employees. My bill would extend the following 
antidiscrimination statutes, which apply to employees, to independent 
contractors: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age 
Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, Title I of the Americans with 
Disabilities Act, Section 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and 
Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008.
  In a Bureau of Labor Statistics 2005 analysis of the American 
workforce, approximately seven percent of workers were considered 
independent contractors. That number has surely only grown in the 16 
years since that analysis with the growth of the so-called gig economy. 
A more recent poll estimates the number at 14 percent. Independent 
contractors, who often do the same work as employees, have almost none 
of the same protections, including health insurance, collective 
bargaining, retirement security, and even antidiscrimination. My bill 
focuses only on discrimination, such as discrimination based on race, 
age, and gender, from which every worker is entitled to be free.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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