Progressives have spent decades trying to change US labor laws. The coronavirus did it for them in one month.

• Congress rolled out a new law that guarantees paid sick leave for workers affected by the coronavirus. It was the first time the US federal government has enacted any form of paid sick leave.
• But the law didn't cover independent contractors, which companies don't classify as permanent employees.
• James Parrott, the director of economic and fiscal policies at The New School's Center for New York City Affairs, said workers forced out of their jobs for public health reasons should be a priority in Congress' newest stimulus package.
• Click here for more BI Prime content.

Until this week, 32 million Americans didn't have access to paid sick leave. As a global health crisis unfurled across Asia, this was a bleak statistic.

Within weeks, the number of coronavirus cases has grown to more than 18,000 across all 50 states and Washington, DC. And the speed of the pandemic has brought the kind of progressive legislation that the American labor movement has long advocated, from paid sick leave to healthcare reform to insurance assistance. But the pandemic is only worsening and tipping the US economy into recession, begging the question not only of how much more progressive emergency legislation will get, but will any of it become permanent after the emergency subsides?

President Trump on Wednesday signed a law that guarantees paid sick leave for employees and benefits for families affected by the coronavirus. The bill guarantees free coronavirus testing and covers the cost of emergency-room visits and doctor fees. It also supplements food assistance, paid sick leave, and unemployment insurance, among other provisions.

James Parrott, the director of economic and fiscal policies at The New School's Center for New York City Affairs, is following job displacement throughout the crisis, particularly in the state of New York. He told Business Insider that the magnitude of worker displacement will be greater than in the 1930s or during the Great Recession. "It exposes the weaknesses in our labor protections for most workers, so it would be appropriate for legislation at the national and state levels to fix that."

One giant leap for progressives

This is the first time the US federal government has enacted any form of paid sick leave. US labor laws around unpaid leave haven't changed much since the 1990s, when The Family and Medical Leave Act granted workers unpaid job-protected leave to take care of themselves, their children, and immediate family.

The new law is temporary, though, only effective through the end of the calendar year. It still represents a major step forward for worker's rights, and stands as an example that Congress is perfectly capable of enacting this kind of legislation, and President Donald Trump will sign it, when they want to. And it may not be the last progressive step forward to come from this crisis.

Part of Congress' $1 trillion stimulus package would include "direct payments" to every American as financial assistance to get through the crisis, also called "helicopter money" since Milton Friedman coined the term in the 1960s. Basically, the government will send you a check to help you pay your bills.

This plan bears a close resemblance to universal basic income (UBI), which entrepreneur Andrew Yang made the basis of his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Yang had argued that UBI would be necessary as automation replaced a large percentage of jobs in the workforce, not that it would be needed when a pandemic made going to work unsafe. His version of UBI foresaw sending every American $1,000 per month, every month, which does not appear to be what current legislators intend.

Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah became the first Republican to endorse a variation of UBI as helicopter money to fight the economic results of the pandemic earlier this week, an indication of how fast events are moving, and how quickly political winds are shifting.

But a small step for the gig economy

Though the new law elevates paid sick leave to the federal level for the first time in national history, it has one glaring flaw: it doesn't change anything for individual contractors or self-employed workers, like Uber drivers and freelancers. Parrott said that's a major loophole, adding that many workers are "forced to be self-employed because the businesses that hire them aren't hiring them as employees." It also didn't come in time for the millions of workers who had already been laid off as a result of nationwide closures and social distancing measures.

Parrott estimates that 20% to 30% of the national total of unemployed workers will be individual contractors. And as Business Insider previously reported, the unemployment rate could conceivably hit 20% in the recession brought on by the pandemic, so 20% to 30% of that would be millions of people. US initial unemployment claims could spike to a record 2.25 million this week, according to Goldman Sachs, a new record.

Even under the new law, these workers don't benefit from company leave policies, unemployment insurance, worker's compensation, or the FMLA. "There should be national requirements for things like paid sick days, which would apply to employees as well as independent contractors," Parrott said.

That conversation is heading to Congress as Senate Republicans rolled out a $1 trillion stimulus package to aid businesses and citizens hit by the economic fallout. Robert Reffkin, CEO of real estate company Compass, has urged Congress to include individual contractors such as real estate agents, according to the Real Deal.

Parrott said the government is misguided if it believes handing out checks will be an adequate response to the coronavirus fallout. "Workers were forced out of their jobs for public health reasons. That should be the focus of any massive stimulus," he said.