This partnership is bringing affordable healthcare and basic benefits to gig workers

As more workers than ever turn to gig-work opportunities, making sure they have access to health and wellness benefits can make this career path more viable for many.

Benefits provider Avibra recently partnered with software company Gridwise to provide affordable and accessible financial, insurance and wellness benefits to the app’s user base. Gridwise provides resources and support services like tax help, expense tracking and discounts to over 300,000 rideshare and delivery drivers. These workers are typically classified as contractors and are not eligible for traditional employee benefits.

To fill some of those benefit gaps, Avibra will provide access to no-cost life insurance and accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) coverage, as well as access to Avibra’s Dollar Benefits Store — which offers additional benefit options such as cell phone repair, roadside assistance, family vision and dental savings benefits, telemedicine and teletherapy for $1 a week.

The benefits can help provide this growing demographic of workers with stability amidst a fluctuating work landscape, says Yogesh Shetty, CEO of Avibra.

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“There is a growing trend of people joining the gig workforce who want to be their own boss,” Shetty says. “That comes with the challenge of not having any kind of benefits that are usually offered by employers.”

These offerings are more necessary than ever, as the gig economy has ballooned. In 2017, there were 55 million gig workers, and today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ estimates there are more than 57 million gig workers in the U.S. economy. This means that approximately 36% of all U.S. workers are without reliable employer-sponsored benefits.

While gig work is traditionally thought of for service industry workers, those numbers may be even higher when freelancers and part-time employees are factored in, says Avibra’s CRO, George Castinieras. With the increased popularity of side gigs and entrepreneurship in the wake of the pandemic, the number of workers without access to traditional employee benefits is expected to keep increasing steadily.

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“We grew up in a world where these benefits were deeply rooted with institutions and employers,” Castinieras says. “So now we’ve got this dynamic where a large percentage of the population has less and less when it comes to this basic coverage.”

Avibra hopes to expand access to benefits for any worker who is not eligible through their company’s offerings. For example, the platform offers any worker between 18 to 62-years-old $10,000 in accidental death insurance, $5,000 in life insurance and a well-being adviser at no additional cost.

“It's as simple as downloading the app,” Shetty says. “You don't have the complex enrollment process anymore. Simplicity is the key here — because the more simple it is, the more understandable [and accessible] it is for the people.”