Washington, DC, Sept. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Global Inclusive Growth Partnership (GIGP), an Aspen Institute collaboration with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, today announced Benefits21 – a new initiative focused on creating and implementing a modernized benefits system that ensures financial security for all workers. Experts from public and private sector organizations aim to create an inclusive, portable, people-centric, and interoperable system of benefits that is grounded in what workers need to be financially secure.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it plain that everybody needs access to benefits and social insurance to weather crises, and emergency measures such as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and CARES Act have only partially addressed people’s immediate needs. These policy responses have not addressed the trend that a growing percentage of the U.S. workforce is disproportionately excluded from workplace benefits– or that one in four workers relies on the public