{{Short description|American executive and author (born 1963)}} {{for|people with similar names|Sara Horowitz (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox person | name = Sara Horowitz | image = Sara Horowitz.jpg | caption = Horowitz Freelancers Union 2010 Annual Benefit | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1963|1|13}} | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | education = Cornell University (BA)<br>University at Buffalo Law School<br>John F. Kennedy School of Government (MPA) | occupation = Entrepreneur | years_active = | boards = | children = 1 | spouse = Peter DeChiara }}
'''Sara Horowitz''' (born January 13, 1963)<ref name="mediabistro2012">{{cite web|url=http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/details.asp?aID=11711& |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121214015701/http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/details.asp?aID=11711& |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 14, 2012 |title=So What Do You Do, Sara Horowitz, Founder and Executive Director of the Freelancer's Union? |publisher=Mediabistro |date=December 12, 2012 |first=Janelle |last=Harris |access-date=October 17, 2014 }}</ref> is a founder of the Freelancers Union and a proponent of mutualism. She has been working for unions since age 18, when she held a summer internship at the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. She has worked for the UAW, CSEA, and SEIU, and she currently serves on the board of the Albert Shanker Institute. Under her direction, the Freelancers Union built a first-of-its-kind Portable Benefits Network in 2004 and launched the Freelancers Insurance Company in 2009, which provided health insurance to more than 25,000 New York freelancers before it was closed in 2014.<ref name="danmunro/2014/10/02/">{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2014/10/02/how-sara-horowitz-is-disrupting-healthcare-for-the-gig-economy/?sh=559a68d4f3d1 |title=How Sara Horowitz Is Disrupting Healthcare For The 'Gig' Economy |work=Forbes|date=October 2, 2014 |first=Dan |last=Munro|access-date=February 7, 2021 }}</ref> In her work, Horowitz advocates for the role of mutualist organizations, including unions, cooperatives, mutual aid groups, and faith-based groups, as the foundation for the next labor economy and social safety net in the United States.
Earlier in her career, Horowitz worked as a union organizer with 1199, SEIU, a public defender with the Legal Aid Society, and as a union-side labor lawyer. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1999 and has served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, serving as Chair from 201x-201x.<ref name="Fed Reserve Bank of New York chair">{{cite web|url=https://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/news/aboutthefed/2016/oa161220 |title=Sara Horowitz Designated Chair of New York Fed Board of Directors; Denise Scott Designated Deputy Chair|publisher=Federal Reserve Bank of New York|date=December 20, 2016 |first=Andrea |last=Priest |access-date=February 7, 2021 }}</ref> In addition, she served on the board of the Nathan Cummings Foundation and currently sits on the Board of Directors of Ashoka.
== Early life and education == Horowitz is Jewish<ref name="jwa2012">{{cite web|url=http://jwa.org/blog/building-new-social-safety-net-sara-horowitz-and-freelancers-union|title=Building a new social safety net: Sara Horowitz and the Freelancers Union|last=Rosenbaum|first=Judith|date=October 30, 2012|publisher=Jewish Women's Archive|access-date=October 17, 2014}}</ref> and grew up in Brooklyn Heights in Brooklyn, New York<ref name="mediabistro2012" /><ref name="nyt2012">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/nyregion/sara-horowitz-striking-a-work-life-balance-on-sundays.html?_r=0 |title=Striking a Work-Life Balance |newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 31, 2012 |first=Sarah |last=Harrison Smith |access-date=October 17, 2014 }}</ref> in a labor family. Her father was a union lawyer<ref name="jwa2012" /> and her mother a lifelong member of the United Federation of Teachers. <ref name="villagevoice2013">{{cite news|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2013/02/13/a-decade-on-freelancers-union-founder-sara-horowitz-takes-her-fight-mainstream/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170927052759/https://www.villagevoice.com/2013/02/13/a-decade-on-freelancers-union-founder-sara-horowitz-takes-her-fight-mainstream/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 27, 2017 |title=A Decade On, Freelancers Union Founder Sara Horowitz Takes Her Fight Mainstream |newspaper=The Village Voice |date=February 13, 2013|first=Tejal |last=Rao |access-date=February 7, 2021 }}</ref> She attended Brooklyn Friends School, a Quaker school in Brooklyn.
Horowitz graduated from Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations with a B.A. degree in 1984 and was awarded its labor prize.<ref name="mediabistro2012" /> She graduated ''cum laude'' from the University at Buffalo Law School.<ref name="mediabistro2012" /> She later attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and received her MPA in 1995.<ref name="harvard2010">{{cite magazine|url=http://harvardmagazine.com/2010/07/sticking-to-the-union |title=Sticking to the Union |magazine=Harvard Magazine |date=July 2010 |first=Neil Porter |last=Brown |access-date=October 17, 2014 }}</ref>
==Career== Horowitz has built her life’s work on the philosophy that mutualist organizing will be the foundation of the next social safety net. She began her career in 1984 when she worked with 1199 SEIU to organize nursing home workers. An early career misclassification as an independent contractor, rather than a full-time employee, led her to realize the effects of the benefits gap that many freelance workers face in today’s labor economy.<ref name="nyt2013">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/business/freelancers-union-tackles-concerns-of-independent-workers.html|title=Tackling Concerns of Independent Workers |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 23, 2013 |first=Steven |last=Greenhouse |access-date=February 7, 2021 }}</ref> Seeking to address this issue, in 1993 Horowitz founded Working Today, an organization that advocates on behalf of freelancer workers and provides its freelancer members with a range of benefits, including legal services, retirement plans, and insurance.<ref name="wsj2003">{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB105457819695164600 |title=Free-Lancers of the World 'Unite' for Work and Benefits |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |date=June 3, 2003 |first=Kemba |last=Dunham |access-date=February 7, 2021 }}</ref>
After she was awarded a MacArthur “genius” award for her organizing efforts at Working Today, Horowitz founded the Freelancers Union.<ref name="macfound1999">{{cite news|url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-1999/sara-horowitz |title=Sara Horowitz |date=July 1, 1999 |access-date=February 7, 2021 }}</ref> Basing the Union’s financial model on past models like the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, which built a bank, insurance company and cooperative housing for its members, Horowitz drew on her organizing experience to build a sustainable economic model that supported the Union’s work and the particular needs of freelance workers.<ref name="harvardmag2010">{{cite news|url=https://harvardmagazine.com/2010/07/sticking-to-the-union |title=Sticking to the Union |date=July 1, 2010 |first=Nell |last=Porter Brown |access-date=February 7, 2021 }}</ref> With Horowitz as executive director, the Freelancers Union went on to develop the first Freelancers Portable Benefit Model and the Freelancers Insurance Company, a fully insured Article 42 Insurance Company in the State of New York with an annual revenue of $100 Million.<ref name="lilith2010">{{cite news|url=https://www.lilith.org/articles/union-made/ |title=Union Made |date=December 16, 2010 |first=Sarah |last=Blustain |access-date=February 7, 2021 }}</ref> Horowitz and the Freelancers Union led a successful campaign with a coalition of labor and community groups to pass the Freelance Isn’t Free Act in 2016, which created a new series of legal provisions to protect freelance workers against client non-payment and other exploitative labor practices.<ref name="nytimes2016">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/nyregion/freelancers-city-council-wage-theft.html |title=As Freelancers' Ranks Grow, New York Moves to See They Get What They're Due |date=October 28, 2016 |first=Noam |last=Scheiber |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=February 7, 2021 }}</ref>
From 2018-2020, Horowitz was the CEO and co-founder of a Sequoia backed startup developing insurtech infrastructure for portable benefits for freelancers. Trupo developed proprietary short term disability (income replacement) insurance products in Georgia, New York, New Jersey to demonstrate the needed features of the new social safety net.<ref name="trupo2021">{{cite news |url=https://www.trupo.com/about |title=About |access-date=February 7, 2021 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
==Personal life and family== Horowitz is married to Peter DeChiara, a partner in a union side labor law firm. They have a daughter, Rachel.
Her grandfather Israel Horowitz was vice-president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in New York.<ref name="jwa2012" /> Her grandmother lived in ILGWU housing on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
==Publications== ===Books=== * (2012) ''The Freelancers Bible''<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.workman.com/products/the-freelancers-bible | title=The Freelancer's Bible | date=16 January 2023 }}</ref> * (2015) ''The Freelancers Union Guide to Taxes<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Freelancers Union Guide to Taxes |url=https://www.workman.com/ |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=Workman Publishing |language=en-US}}</ref>'' * (2021) ''Mutualism: Building the Next Economy from the Ground Up''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mutualism by Sara Horowitz: 9780593133521 {{!}} PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/621946/mutualism-by-sara-horowitz/ |access-date=2023-05-17 |website=PenguinRandomhouse.com |language=en-US}}</ref>
===Articles=== * (1997) "A New Labor Structure for a Transient and Mobile Workforce" ''Perspectives on Work'', 1(1), 50–52.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23272284 | jstor=23272284 | title=A NEW LABOR STRUCTURE for a Transient and Mobile Workforce | last1=Horowitz | first1=Sara | journal=Perspectives on Work | year=1997 | volume=1 | issue=1 | pages=50–52 }}</ref> * (December 1, 2004) "Ensure They’re Insured: Sara Horowitz on the Independent Workforce" ''Harvard Business Review''<ref>{{Cite news |date=2004-12-01 |title=Ensure They're Insured: Sara Horowitz on the Independent Workforce |work=Harvard Business Review |url=https://hbr.org/2004/12/ensure-theyre-insured-sara-horowitz-on-the-independent-workforce |access-date=2023-03-02 |issn=0017-8012}}</ref> * (2006) "Freelancers of the World, Unite!" ''The Economist''<ref>{{Cite news |title=Freelancers of the world, unite! |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/business/2006/11/09/freelancers-of-the-world-unite |access-date=2023-03-02 |issn=0013-0613}}</ref> * (September 24, 2010) "Why Is Washington Ignoring the Freelance Economy?" ''The Atlantic''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Horowitz |first=Sara |date=2010-09-24 |title=Why Is Washington Ignoring the Freelance Economy? |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/09/why-is-washington-ignoring-the-freelance-economy/63510/ |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref> * (September 1, 2011) "The Freelance Surge Is the Industrial Revolution of Our Time" ''The Atlantic''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Horowitz |first=Sara |date=2011-09-01 |title=The Freelance Surge Is the Industrial Revolution of Our Time |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/09/the-freelance-surge-is-the-industrial-revolution-of-our-time/244229/ |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref> * (March 13, 2012) "The Dream of the 1890s: Why Old Mutualism Is Making a New Comeback" ''The Atlantic''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Horowitz |first=Sara |date=2012-03-13 |title=The Dream of the 1890s: Why Old Mutualism Is Making a New Comeback |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/the-dream-of-the-1890s-why-old-mutualism-is-making-a-new-comeback/254175/ |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref> * (September 3, 2012) "How Do You Build a Union for the 21st Century? (Step 1: Learn From History)" ''The Atlantic''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Horowitz |first=Sara |date=2012-09-03 |title=How Do You Build a Union for the 21st Century? (Step 1: Learn From History) |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/how-do-you-build-a-union-for-the-21st-century-step-1-learn-from-history/261884/ |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref> * (November 19, 2013) "What is New Mutualism?" ''Huffington Post''<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-11-19 |title=What is New Mutualism? |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-is-new-mutualism_b_4303316 |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=HuffPost |language=en}}</ref> * (May 1, 2014) "The Impact of Client Nonpayment on the Income of Contingent Workers: Evidence from the Freelancers Union Independent Worker Survey" ''ILR Review'', 67, 702–733.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Iii |first1=William M. Rodgers |last2=Horowitz |first2=Sara |last3=Wuolo |first3=Gabrielle |date=2014 |title=The Impact of Client Nonpayment on the Income of Contingent Workers: Evidence from the Freelancers Union Independent Worker Survey |url=https://ideas.repec.org//a/sae/ilrrev/v67y2014i3_supplp702-733.html |journal=ILR Review |language=en |volume=67 |issue=3_suppl |pages=702–733|doi=10.1177/00197939140670S310 |s2cid=152614062 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> * (August 25, 2014) "America, say Goodbye to the Era of Big Work" ''The Los Angeles Times''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Horowitz |first=Sara |date=2014-08-25 |title=Op-Ed: America, say goodbye to the Era of Big Work |url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-horowitz-work-freelancers-20140826-story.html |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> * (September 7, 2015) "Help for the Way We Work Now" ''The New York Times''<ref>{{Cite news |last=Horowitz |first=Sara |date=2015-09-07 |title=Opinion {{!}} Help for the Way We Work Now |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/opinion/help-for-the-way-we-work-now.html |access-date=2023-03-02 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> * (2015) "Freelancers in the U.S. Workforce" ''Monthly Labor Review'', U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<ref>{{Cite web |last=Horowitz, Sara |title=Freelancers in the U.S. workforce : Monthly Labor Review: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics |url=https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2015/article/freelancers-in-the-us-workforce.htm |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=www.bls.gov |language=en-us}}</ref> * (October 27, 2016) "Putting Government on Freelancers’ Side: Why the City Needs to Help Independent Workers Collect the Pay They’re Owed" ''New York Daily News''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Putting government on freelancers' side: Why the city needs to help independent workers collect the pay they're owed |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/sara-horowitz-putting-government-freelancers-side-article-1.2846380 |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=New York Daily News|date=27 October 2016 }}</ref> * (April 18, 2017) "Why Tax Day is a Nightmare for Freelancers" ''Los Angeles Times''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Horowitz |first=Sara |date=2017-04-18 |title=Op-Ed: Why tax day is a nightmare for freelancers |url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-horowitz-taxes-tax-day-freelancers-gig-economy-20170418-story.html |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Awards and honors== * 1995 Echoing Green Fellowship * 2003 Manhattan Institute Social Entrepreneurship Award<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-04-16 |title=2003 Social Entrepreneurship Award |url=https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/2003-social-entrepreneurship-award-12001.html |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=Manhattan Institute |language=en}}</ref> * 2011 Forbes Impact 30 Social Entrepreneurs<ref>https://www.forbes.com/impact-30/sara-horowitz.htmlForbes%20Impact%2030%20Social%20Entrepreneurs{{Dead link | date=February 2026 | fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> * 2013 New York State Senate Woman of Distinction Award<ref>https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/articles/velmanette-montgomery/sara-horowitzNew%20York%20State%20Senate%20Woman%20of%20Distinction%20Award{{Dead link|date=December 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
In recognition of her efforts to create a self-sustaining organization of flexible workers, Sara Horowitz was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship ("genius" grant) in 1999.<ref name="Slate2012">{{cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/business/doers/2013/01/sara_horowitz_s_freelancers_insurance_company_how_she_created_a_company.html|work=Slate.com|author=Stevenson, Seth|author-link=Seth Stevenson (journalist)|date=January 28, 2012|title=Don't Have Health Insurance? Start Your Own Insurance Company! How Sara Horowitz created affordable health care benefits for freelancers.}}</ref> In 2002, she was named as one of Esquire Magazine’s "Fifty Best & Brightest" and received a community development award from the New York Mayor’s Office.<ref name="Esquire2002">{{cite news|title=Best&Brightest 2002: The Big Idea, Insurance for Everyone|url=http://www.esquire.com/features/best-n-brightest-2002/ESQ1202-DEC_HOROWITZRODRIGUEZ_1|work=Esquire|accessdate=2011-11-21|archive-date=2012-10-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030041131/http://www.esquire.com/features/best-n-brightest-2002/ESQ1202-DEC_HOROWITZRODRIGUEZ_1|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Horowitz is also recognized as one of the World Economic Forum’s 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.weforum.org/pages/ygl-alumni-community|title=Young Global Leaders Alumni Community|website=World Economic Forum|access-date=2017-09-14}}</ref> and was selected as one of the 2015 “POLITICO 50", ''POLITICO'' magazine’s marquee annual list of thinkers, doers, and visionaries transforming American politics.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/politico50/2015/sara-horowitz/|title=The POLITICO 50 - 2015 - Sara Horowitz|work=POLITICO Magazine|access-date=2017-09-14}}</ref> She is also on the board of Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bigthink.com/experts/sarahorowitz|title=Sara Horowitz|website=Big Think|access-date=2017-09-14}}</ref> Emily K. Rafferty Designated Chair<ref name=NYFed>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newyorkfed.org/aboutthefed/org_nydirectors.html|title=Board of Directors - Federal Bank of New York|website=www.newyorkfed.org|access-date=2017-09-14}}</ref> and Kathryn S. Wylde Redesignated Deputy Chair, and the recipient of the Eugene V. Debs Award for her contribution in building the labor movement for gig workers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://debsfoundation.org/index.php/landing/eugene-v-debs-award/|title=Eugene V. Debs Award – The Eugene V. Debs Foundation|website=debsfoundation.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-09-14}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.politico.com/magazine/politico50/2015/sara-horowitz/| title = Sara Horowitz – The POLITICO 50: Ideas changing politics and the people behind them - POLITICO Magazine| website = Politico}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Horowitz, Sara}} Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:20th-century American women writers Category:21st-century American Jews Category:21st-century American lawyers Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:21st-century American women writers Category:Activists from New York (state) Category:American labor lawyers Category:American trade union leaders Category:American women lawyers Category:American women non-fiction writers Category:Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations alumni Category:Harvard Kennedy School alumni Category:Jewish American activists Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers Category:Jewish American women writers Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:Mutualists Category:New York (state) lawyers Category:People from Brooklyn Heights Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:Public defenders Category:University at Buffalo alumni Category:University at Buffalo Law School alumni Category:Women trade union leaders