How is the rise of the Gig Economy impacting your VB sales?  It is just another factor in the decline of the traditional payroll deduction model and the gaining popularity of the Piedmont model.

As more companies cut back on W2 workers in favor of contractors, your sales opportunities decrease over time.  A recent BenefitsPro article highlighted the growing ability to offer voluntary benefits to this expanding workforce.

Here are some of the findings highlighted from the article as well as a survey conducted by Edison Research:

One-quarter of Americans now participate in the gig economy; with 44% of those making it their primary source of income.

Because of this, almost half of employers are wanting to add additional benefits to their gig workers in the near future.

They are doing it because they understand where the employment growth is going to come from.  One-quarter of all businesses expect to hire more gig workers in the future.

And most importantly, 80% of gig employees who use it as their primary income say that an unexpected expense of $1,000 would be difficult to pay.

This is a huge opportunity for you as a VB agent or broker!

So why can’t these gig workers be accommodated through the traditional payroll deduction model?  One primary reason is that 28% of employers surveyed don’t do it for fear of re-classifying these workers as employees. They view offering benefits via payroll deduction, whereby the employer is actively involved in the benefit administration and billing processes, as a tripwire to making them W2 status.

And that is where Piedmont’s model steps in to solve the issue.  We take the employer out of the billing and premium collection process, so as long as the benefits are 100% employee-paid (which most VB plans are), employers can meet the needs of their gig workforce while preserving their contractor status.

What is in your toolkit when an employer says they want to provide benefits to their gig workers, but not be involved in the administration side for fear of crossing them over into a W2 arena?  The answer is Piedmont.  Through our split direct deposit and bank draft models, these gig workers can access these benefits from their place of work, but pay for the benefits themselves through a process unhinged from the employer.

And you can successfully expand this model to associations and unions as well where no payroll deduction scenario exists anyway.

So with the increasing employment market shifting to the gig economy, what are you doing to make sure you can offer benefits to this workforce within a workforce?  With 24% of Americans now earning income from the gig economy, you must have a solution for your brokers and clients.  And with Piedmont, we can provide that solution to you.