Businesses in general have reduced their workforces to the smallest size possible to get the job done. Sometimes there's more work to be done, sometimes less. Salaries and benefits constitute a constant expense, and they must be matched to a reasonably expected level of income. Most businesses cannot afford to provide benefits for any but full-time employees. Benefits are a scarce commodity for the majority of contingent workers.
Many contingent workers obtain work through staffing services.
A significant portion of the contingent workforce is working on a temporary basis only long enough to try out potential permanent employers then transition to full-time employment with the staffing service's client, where they will be eligible for full benefits. Nevertheless, many staffing services cover part of the benefits cost for workers who work more than a certain number of hours over a period of time, allowing those workers both flexibility and benefits coverage while they decide on their future job plans. A non-profit organization in New Jersey called Working Today is piloting a program to permit temporary employees to take their benefits with them when they move from one organization to another. The staffing industry will be watching to see whether such a program can be made to work for temporary workers. The U.S. Department of Labor's Working Group on the Benefits Implications of the Growth of the Contingent Workforce, which spent months last year looking at the issue of health and retirement benefits for contingent workers, held its final meeting of 1999 in early November and presented its findings and final recommendations to U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman.