Social security for self-employed workers – Between Universalism and Selectivity

Digitalization and technological development are rapidly transforming our society and economies worldwide. Due to their impact, new forms of work are emerging in various sectors, bringing to a marked shift away from traditional employment relationships to non-standard forms of employment and self-employment. As for the labour law, where self-employed workers are traditionally less covered, this situation appears similar in the field of social security. In this field, self-employed workers are normally excluded by social security systems or the effective coverage is far from the reality. European institutions, aware of this issue, are dealing with possible measures capable to cope with this phenomenon. The intervention of European Union (EU) will be analyzed under the light of welfare-state studies, opposing two different approaches: Universalism (granting coverage to every worker) vs Selectivism (tailormade programs and benefit). In the conclusions, a mid-spectrum proposal, according to article (art.) 153, comma 2 Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) will be presented with the idea of mixing both welfare state approaches creating a minimum level playing field in social security system for self-employed workers in the EU.