It seems like everywhere you go in Washington these days, you find some aspiring politician, bureaucrat, or wonk lamenting the supposed plight of today’s American worker and—of course—promising to fix it. President Trump, for example, had a 2020 “Pledge to America’s Workers” that heralded past executive actions supposedly helping American workers, and President Biden has embraced similar rhetoric and policies (e.g., his “worker centric” trade policy and recent infrastructure, energy, and semiconductor laws that, he says, create jobs for American workers).

Unfortunately, and as the Trump and Biden examples demonstrate, most of the “pro-worker” stuff being proposed – tariffs, wage subsidies, restrictions on independent contracting, mandated paid leave, and so on – all demand more and bigger government, usually on the assumption that the “free market” has failed today’s American workers. Yet these proposals almost uniformly ignore all the current laws and regulations – on occupational licensing, housing, childcare, healthcare, welfare, and many other issues – that depress most Americans’ real wages, labor force participation, new business formation, or mobility. They similarly ignore the numerous market‐​based solutions that boost workers’ independence, mobility, wealth, resilience, or quality of life—all without the inevitable economic and political problems that come with more spending and bureaucracy. And, perhaps most importantly, they target an “American worker” that often bears little resemblance to the U.S. workforce’s complex and ever‐​changing reality, especially in the wake of the pandemic.

To correct those failings, the Cato Institute is releasing a new book, Empowering the New American Worker: Market-based Solutions for Today’s Workforce, which covers what my colleagues and I believe to be the most important issues facing workers today and offers pro-market reforms that can help workers meet these challenges. Among the 17 subject chapters, each deeply researched and data-rich, are the obvious issues like education and remote work, but also ones that greatly affect many of today’s workers but get less attention, like home‐​based business, criminal justice, transportation, and basic necessities (food, clothing, etc.).

The chapters generally fall into four categories: (1) foundational macroeconomic principles that broadly improve workers’ living standards and the long-term health of the U.S. economy; (2) policies to facilitate workers’ professional improvement or advancement; (3) policies to promote worker mobility and independence; and (4) policies to improve workers’ access to, and lower the cost of, essential goods and services.

Today, we’re releasing online the book’s Introduction (by me), as well as Section 1 (Ensuring a Sound Macroeconomic Foundation by Jeff Miron and Pedro Braga Soares) and Section 2, which includes the following chapters:

Each chapter identifies current problems and their causes and then suggests pro‐​market ways for federal, state, and local policymakers to fix them—in the process empowering all American workers, not just those favored by our political class.

The full book will be out later this year. In the meantime, enjoy the sneak peek and be sure to check out my new Cato podcast on the project.

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