Why Work Supports Prosperity | This Week's Economy Ep. 169
How policy shapes opportunity, work, human dignity, and prosperity.
Hello Friends!
The surest path to prosperity is a job. Work provides more than a paycheck—it offers dignity, purpose, and the chance to build crucial skills and relationships. Unfortunately, government policies too often make it harder for people to work, hire, and adapt to changing economic realities. From occupational licensing and other labor regulations to outdated rules that fail to reflect today’s workforce, barriers to work can limit opportunity and economic mobility.
In today’s episode of This Week’s Economy, we’ll explore how policy shapes labor markets, why the nature of work is changing, and what policymakers can do to remove barriers so more Americans can work, earn, and prosper.
Catch the full episode on YouTube, Apple Podcast, or Spotify, and visit my website for more information about Ginn Economic Consulting.
WHY LABOR POLICIES MATTER
If you listen closely to current labor debates, you’ll hear a familiar refrain: workers need more protection from Washington. But below the surface, many politicians are really looking for more power for unions, more mandates for employers, and fewer choices for workers.
America’s labor policies are stuck in the past — designed for a 1930s economy that no longer exists. Outdated labor rules, bloated licensing regimes, and rigid education pipelines are holding people back in an economy that demands flexibility and innovation.
Modern workers want flexibility, choice, and opportunity. However, increasingly, the government is standing in the way.
Empowering workers means trusting them with choices, opening markets to competition, and removing barriers that no longer serve a purpose. But worker empowerment does not come from force — it comes from freedom.
Let’s examine policies that affect American workers and businesses, and ways to let people prosper!
1. Labor Unions and Right to Work
The Principles:
Too many labor policies today assume workers need less choice and more centralized representation. But the evidence suggests that workers are best served when they have the freedom to decide how they work, who represents them, and how they negotiate with employers.
Labor policy should prioritize workers as individuals, not institutions. A dynamic labor market requires flexibility, innovation, and worker empowerment. That means embracing policies that expand opportunity and choice rather than forcing workers into one-size-fits-all arrangements designed for a different era.
Why it Matters:
The Economy Has Changed:
Many labor laws were created during a time when manufacturing and factory work dominated the economy. Workers often spent decades with a single employer, and collective bargaining was viewed as the primary means of improving workplace conditions.
Today’s labor market looks very different. Workers change jobs more frequently, pursue entrepreneurial opportunities, engage in independent contracting, and increasingly value flexibility alongside compensation. Policies built for the industrial economy should be updated to reflect the realities of the modern workforce.
Right to Work Laws:
A pro-worker labor market empowers individuals to make their own decisions about representation and employment. Right-to-work laws ensure that workers cannot be compelled to join or financially support a union as a condition of employment. These policies place the choice in the hands of workers rather than in the hands of the government or labor organizations.
States with right-to-work laws have generally experienced stronger population growth, job creation, and economic dynamism as workers and businesses seek environments with greater flexibility and opportunity. The principle is simple: workers should have the freedom to decide whether union representation provides value for them.
A Voluntary Union Model:
Unions need to update with the times. Rather than relying on compulsory membership or government-granted privileges, unions can thrive by operating as voluntary organizations that provide valuable services to workers. Professional development, training, networking, certification, legal assistance, and benefits administration are all areas where unions can create value in a competitive labor market. The future of labor policy should focus on allowing organizations — including unions — to earn participation through value rather than mandates.
Related Viewing: Vinnie Vernuccio joined me on the Let People Prosper Show to discuss what it truly means to be pro-worker in a 21st-century economy and why worker choice should remain at the center of labor policy.
2. Policies Impacting Wages
The Principle:
Some policies, such as minimum wage laws, attempt to directly increase wages by government decree. Other policies affect wages indirectly by influencing the business environment in which workers and employers operate. Taxes, regulations, inflation, trade policy, energy costs, and monetary policy all shape businesses' ability to invest, expand, and hire.
Small businesses are particularly important because they have historically been responsible for most net new job creation. Yet in today’s K-shaped economy, business size increasingly determines outcomes. Many small businesses face higher borrowing costs, rising input prices, weaker demand, and growing uncertainty. These pressures affect hiring decisions, employee compensation, and opportunities for workers seeking to move up the economic ladder.
Why it Matters:
Recent Wage Trends:
Recent reports show that average hourly earnings have increased, but workers do not live on nominal wage growth alone. What matters is real purchasing power. When inflation remains elevated, families may see larger paychecks while still struggling to afford housing, groceries, energy, and other essentials. Rising wages are beneficial only when they outpace the cost of living.
The goal should not simply be higher wages on paper, but greater prosperity through stronger purchasing power and rising living standards.
Wage Laws Hurt Entry-Level Workers:
Minimum wage laws are often intended to help workers, but they can create unintended consequences, particularly for lower-skilled and entry-level employees. When labor costs are artificially increased, businesses frequently respond by reducing hiring, cutting hours, accelerating automation, or shifting work elsewhere. These adjustments can disproportionately affect younger workers, those with less experience, and individuals seeking their first opportunity in the workforce.
How the Policy Environment Shapes Wages:
Wages do not exist in a vacuum. They are influenced by the overall health of the economy and the policies that affect business investment and growth. Tariffs increase costs and discourage investment. Excessive regulations reduce flexibility and raise operating expenses. Government overspending contributes to inflation that erodes purchasing power. Unstable energy policy raises costs throughout the economy. And policy uncertainty causes businesses to delay hiring and expansion.
When policymakers create an environment that encourages investment, entrepreneurship, and productivity, businesses can grow, workers become more productive, and wages rise naturally. Sustainable wage growth comes from economic growth, not government mandates.
Related Viewing: Austin Bannan and I recently discussed the policies that support stronger labor markets and rising prosperity on the Let People Prosper Show.
3. Employment Regulations
The Principle:
One of the greatest barriers to work comes from government regulations that make it harder for people to enter professions, start businesses, or pursue new opportunities. Occupational licensing is among the most burdensome of these regulations. Licensing laws require individuals to obtain government permission before working in certain occupations, often mandating specific education, training, fees, and examinations. While these requirements are typically intended to protect public health and safety, they frequently go far beyond what is necessary and create unnecessary barriers to work.
Other regulations can similarly shield existing businesses from competition by making it more difficult for new workers and entrepreneurs to enter the market. The result is less innovation, fewer opportunities, and slower economic growth.
Why it Matters:
A System Based on Government Permission:
Occupational licenses are essentially government-issued permission slips to work. Although these laws are often enacted with good intentions, research shows that licensing requirements frequently reduce competition, raise consumer costs, and limit workers' opportunities without meaningfully improving service quality.
For aspiring entrepreneurs and workers, these barriers can be especially costly. People should not be prevented from pursuing a career, starting a business, or offering their skills simply because they cannot navigate unnecessary regulatory hurdles. Economic opportunity should be determined by a person’s ability to serve customers, not by excessive government restrictions.
Regulations Impact on the Greater Economy:
Occupational licensing affects far more than individual workers. It also slows economic growth, reduces labor mobility, and discourages entrepreneurship. Research estimates that occupational licensing reduces economic growth by roughly 2% per year. Yet even that figure does not capture the full cost. We cannot measure the businesses that were never launched, the jobs that were never created, or the innovations that never emerged because regulations prevented people from entering a profession or pursuing an idea.
State Reforms that Work:
Arizona pioneered the “universal recognition” model, which allows licensed professionals from other states to more easily transfer their credentials and begin working after relocating. These reforms reduce barriers to mobility, help workers pursue new opportunities, and support economic growth. These reforms reduce barriers to mobility, help workers pursue new opportunities, and support economic growth.
Other reforms require frequent reviews, requiring policymakers to demonstrate a clear and convincing public need before creating a new occupational license and to periodically review existing licenses to determine whether they remain necessary. The burden should be on the government to justify restrictions on work—not on workers to justify their right to earn a living.
Related Viewing: One of the best experts on this issue, Dr. Ed Timmons, joined me to discuss licensing issues on the Let People Prosper Show.
4. Portable Benefits are the Future
The Principle:
The labor market has changed, but many of our laws have not. Today, millions of Americans earn income as freelancers, independent contractors, entrepreneurs, consultants, or gig workers. Traditional employment is no longer the only path to work, and many workers are choosing arrangements that offer greater flexibility and independence.
Yet our benefits system remains tied to a model built around long-term employment with a single employer. Portable benefits offer a better approach. Instead of being tied to a specific job, benefits such as health insurance, retirement savings, paid leave, or training accounts would belong to the worker and follow them from job to job, client to client, or contract to contract.
Why it Matters:
Independent Workers Value Flexibility
Flexibility grants independent workers more control over their schedules to build businesses, care for family members, pursue education, and more. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 80% of independent workers prefer their current arrangement, while fewer than 9% would rather have a traditional job.
The challenge is that our benefits system was designed for a different era. Surveys show that 81% of self-employed workers want access to portable benefits solutions that allow them to maintain independence while gaining greater financial security.
Roadblocks to Benefits for Flexible Work:
Unfortunately, current labor laws discourage innovation. Even when companies want to help independent workers access benefits, doing so can pose legal risks. Offering health coverage, retirement contributions, or other assistance may be used as evidence that a worker should be classified as an employee rather than an independent contractor. As a result, businesses frequently avoid providing any support at all. A system designed to protect workers often prevents workers from receiving benefits they actually want.
Momentum for Portable Benefits:
Workers aren't asking for handouts or government mandates; they're simply asking for a way to participate in modern systems while keeping their independence. Portable benefits would allow workers to keep their independence while building financial security over time. Benefits could follow workers throughout their careers instead of disappearing whenever they change jobs or clients.
Momentum is growing across the country. Some states have explored reforms that would allow businesses to voluntarily contribute to portable benefit accounts without triggering employment classification concerns. Meanwhile, members of Congress have introduced legislation to create legal safe harbors for these arrangements.
Related Reading: Angela Erickson and I wrote about this movement at the Bluegrass Institute.
Bottom Line
Work remains the foundation of prosperity. It provides more than income; it offers dignity, purpose, skill development, and a pathway to upward mobility.
Whether it’s outdated labor laws, occupational licensing barriers, wage mandates, or benefit systems designed for a different era, government often creates obstacles that limit opportunity rather than expand it.
The good news is that there is a better way. Policymakers should focus on solutions to the challenges facing our modern labor markets: removing barriers to work, increasing labor market flexibility, and allowing workers and businesses to adapt to a rapidly changing economy. A truly pro-worker agenda is one that empowers people to choose how they work, pursue new opportunities, and keep more of the rewards from their efforts.
When we trust people more than bureaucracies and markets more than mandates, we create the conditions for greater prosperity, innovation, and opportunity for everyone.
Thanks for joining me in this episode of "This Week's Economy." For more insights, visit vanceginn.com and get even greater value with a paid subscription to my Substack newsletter at vanceginn.substack.com.
God bless you, and let people prosper!
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Don’t miss these short videos from the entire episode above.
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Hidden Cost of Minimum Wage Laws
Labor Laws Aren’t Keeping Pace with Modern Economy
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Latest Commentary at Kansas Policy Institute below…
Rural Hospitals Need Prosperity
Kansas now has more rural hospitals at immediate risk of closure than any other state, according to KAKE News. That is serious. Rural healthcare access matters. Families should not have to drive for hours to access emergency care.
But if Kansas treats this only as a hospital funding problem, it will miss the real issue.
Rural hospitals are not failing in isolation. They are struggling because too many rural communities face the harsh reality of shrinking and aging populations. Both of these trends are results of and contributors to lost economic momentum.
Healthcare follows people.
A hospital needs patients, workers, and a local economy strong enough to support private insurance, payrolls, housing, and tax revenue. When young adults leave, the payer mix is harder to overcome. When employers or workers disappear, private coverage falls. As the remaining population ages, demand for care rises while the economic base shrinks.
That is not a messaging problem. It is math.
KPI’s 2026 Kansas Green Book shows Kansas is lagging many competitor states in private-sector job growth, wage growth, and domestic migration. People are voting with their feet for places with better opportunities. Rural Kansas feels that first and hardest.
The predictable political response is another subsidy, another program, another temporary patch. Sometimes emergency help may be needed to prevent immediate harm. And “critical access” facilities remain important across the Great Plains, but bailouts cannot make towns grow. They cannot replace missing workers. They cannot rebuild a private-sector economy.
Kansas should not confuse compassion with kicking the can down the road.
A better approach starts by admitting that strong communities foster strong hospitals. That means Kansas must become a better place to live, work, build, and invest.
The Green Book points to one major barrier: too much government for too few people. Kansas ranks near the bottom nationally in residents per government unit, meaning Kansans support far more layers of government than most Americans. That drives overhead, duplication, and higher property taxes.
Those costs matter. A farmer feels them. A small manufacturer feels them. A young family feels them as they decide whether to stay or leave. A hospital feels them when the surrounding community gets older, smaller, and incomes shrink.
Economic growth is healthcare policy.
If Kansas wants stronger rural hospitals, lawmakers should focus on the conditions that help rural communities grow. Spend less. Tax less. Regulate less. Make it easier to start a business, hire workers, expand telemedicine, and attract families back to small towns.
The current path asks taxpayers to subsidize decline while ignoring why the decline is happening. That may buy time, but it will not restore rural Kansas.
Hospitals are mirrors of the communities they serve. If the community weakens, the hospital eventually will, too. Rural hospitals need more than another patch. They need rural Kansas to grow again.