It's funny how governments accuse the gig economy of robbing people of various worker benefits, when it's the government's own rules that rob them, and freelancers too, of those benefits.

As a freelancer, I'd love to have financial security, but my government won't let me have that. I think it's possible to voluntarily pay a tax to cover paid sick leave, but I don't think it's possible for me to pay a voluntary employer tax to get unemployment pay unless I run a limited company and hire myself.

@thor In Germany you ca¦ pay into an unemployment insurance if you are self-employed and HAVE to if you are employed.

Health insurance is always mandatory, but if you want to make sure you still get money after 43 days of "sick leave" you can insure yourself against it. It isn't that much more expensive than the regular health insurance.

@inAktion I said nothing about arrangements for the employed, because there's only one thing to say about them: Every fee is mandatory and everything is covered. You have to pay a fee for government health and disability insurance (trygdeavgift) and your employer has to pay a fee (arbeidsgiveravgift) to cover unemployment benefits (dagpenger).

@thor I was only trying to explain how it is handled for freelancers in Germany. Sorry for having missed your point.

@inAktion Oops... I replied to Mastodon posts in the morning before I'm fully human. Sorry about that. I'm not normally this cranky.