This brief outlines some key metrics to consider when designing paid family and medical leave programs. These insights are drawn from the National partnership for Women and Families’ research, consultations with organizations that work with low wage workers, and experiences providing technical assistance to advocates and policymakers. The brief focuses on seven main aspects: setting the benefit amount and duration, eligibility requirements to access paid leave, definitions of “employee” and “employer”, definition of “family member”, waiting period before accessing paid leave, job and benefits protection while receiving family and medical leave insurance benefits, and public education and outreach. This resource can be particularly helpful for policymakers, advocates, researchers, and practitioners.

Headlines warn that changes in retail will lead to disruptive job loss for frontline workers such as cashiers, salespersons, stock clerks, and order fillers. But there may be more to the story. New technologies, the rise of ecommerce, and shifting business strategies, marketing approaches, and customer expectations are altering the way businesses sell, customers shop, and employees work. How will these changes influence retail businesses’ employment practices and the shape of retail jobs? Will the response to these changes vary across segments of the retail industry, whether companies are publicly traded or privately held, small or large, brick-and-mortar or online, or local or multinational? What are the opportunities to create new jobs with potentially more productive, meaningful, and rewarding work?

We invite you to watch What’s in Store: The Future of Work in Retail, a panel discussion on these questions as part of the Economic Opportunities Program‘s Working in America event series.

We like to think that the US labor market is a meritocracy — that people who work hard will attain good jobs, climb the career ladder, or start and grow businesses. The experience of Black Americans, however, raises questions about whether the reality lines up with the ideal. The unemployment rate among Black Americans is roughly double that of White Americans, and Black college graduates are roughly twice as likely to be unemployed as White college graduates. Over the past three decades, Black workers have attained higher levels of education and experience, but have not seen a commensurate increases in earnings, benefits, and economic standing. In this event, panelists discuss how we understand the experience of Black workers in the US, and what it tells us about working in America today.

The American population is getting older. The US Census estimates that, in 2050, the population aged 65 and over will be 83.7 million, almost double its estimated population in 2012, and the surviving baby boomers will be over the age of 85. As the United States ages, direct care workers, such as home care aides and certified nursing assistants, will become essential to many more families. Yet these workers tend to be low-paid and poorly trained and receive little respect for the critical work that they do.

During this event, the panel discusses if such a workforce is capable of addressing the needs of our aging population, and how can we improve the quality of work and healthcare services in an industry of growing national importance.

This is a profile of Charm City Run, a Baltimore-area running and walking specialty store, as part of the Good Companies/Good Jobs initaitive research.

This report highlights examples from businesses that are driving innovation and growth by advancing racial equity. These examples are particularly helpful to articulate the business value that advancing job quality and racial equity can provide to corporations and push back on narratives that racial equity work is a distraction from core business values, instead of an integral part of creating good jobs.

This playbook from UpSkill America, an initiative of the Economic Opportunities Program, is designed to highlight examples of employers investing in upskilling strategies to support worker advancement and business competitiveness. This playbook has relevance for employers interested in adopting training and education strategies or for practitioners advising businesses to invest in their workers.

This guide outlines steps to create and implement an employee financial health strategy. When paired with adequate compensation, these services can support workers to save. We recommend turning to page 21 for an actionable, 7-step approach to developing a strategy. This resource also explains the need and business case for supporting worker’ financial stability, with helpful data indicating the impact of financial instability on worker productivity, morale, attendance, turnover, and health, as well as guidance on available financial products to consider. This tool has application for businesses and for practitioners that engage employers to support workers.

This toolkit includes a primer to workplace financial wellness services, questions to consider when exploring these services, and employer experiences with provision of these services. These supports can contribute to job quality when paired with adequate compensation by helping employees manage finances and build assets. This resource includes descriptions of common services, such as financial counseling and coaching, debt management, savings products, and online financial management tools. This tool is most useful for businesses interested in adding or expanding financial wellness benefits. Partners could also share this tool with businesses or could use it to strengthen their own organizations’ financial wellness supports.

This Harvard Business Review article, written by a professor of operations at MIT Sloan School of Management, explains research findings about why good jobs—those with livable wages, predictable hours, training, and opportunities for promotion and growth—can also make retail businesses more stable and competitive. This article can be used to understand the business case for the “Good Jobs Strategy,” which involves investing in labor while strengthening operational effectiveness.