Two US senators called on the US Securities and Exchange Commission to require publicly traded companies to disclose how many of their workers are not classified as full-time employees. This would include reporting on the number of independent contractors and subcontracted workers.

US Senators Mark Warner, D-Virginia, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, sent a letter to the SEC calling for the change.

“In recent decades, companies have replaced in-house operations with contracting, on-demand work, or other forms of independent and contracted work that lower short-term costs for the business but come at the expense of workers, who receive fewer benefits, lower wages, and have less upward mobility within the organization,” according to the letter.

It noted investors are looking for consistent, comparable information when deciding on investing and the picture would be incomplete without information on number of independent contractors used on a regular basis and the entire workforce if it is material to business strategy.

Examples of subcontracted workers cited by the letter include security personnel, janitors, food service workers, housekeepers for hotels and custodial workers.

The letter was sent to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.

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