Investing and Lending Archives - Page 10 of 25 - Job Quality Center of Excellence

This tool provides information about ALICE households, an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, and Employed. These are households that earn above the Federal Poverty Level but not enough to afford their most basic needs, including housing, food, transportation, and health care. The tool provides a national overview and state- and county-level information about the percentage of ALICE households. Users can explore data by household factors including age, family composition, and race/ethnicity. United for ALICE has also published research focused on financial hardship in Black households. This tool has relevance for policymakers and employers focused on policies and practices related to wages. Organizations who support workers or employers may also find this tool useful.

This article investigates the impact of employee ownership on business and worker outcomes, including links to improved productivity, pay, job stability, and firm survival. The article dives further into the effects and causation relationship, as well as the challenges presented by employee ownership.

An interview with Kevin Oxley, owner of Carpet One Floor and Home and a regional business coordinator with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE). Carpet One Floor and Home was part of a pilot, a collaboration between the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, Pacific Community Ventures (PCV), and the CDLE, focused on advancing job quality among small businesses. A part of EOP’s Reimagine Retail Initiative, with the support of Walmart, the pilot deepened relationships between small businesses and workforce organizations in the pursuit of improving jobs and boosting businesses’ bottom lines. The pilot paired small businesses recruited by CDLE’s business services team with good jobs advisors from PCV’s business advising network to implement strategies from their new Good Jobs Good Businesses Toolkit. Businesses also received specialized state and regional support and resources from the CDLE business services team. Kevin and Carolyn share experiences with this pilot, the impact of the pandemic on businesses like Carpet One, and how collaborative and creative partnerships that improve job quality can benefit workers and businesses across the country.

This shared definition of job quality was created collaboratively by leaders in business, labor, workforce development, and policy as part of the Good Jobs Champions Group, an initiative of the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and the Families and Workers Fund. The definition provides a framework for understanding job quality, dividing the components of a good job into three categories: economic stability, economic mobility, and equity, respect & voice.

This resource guide from the DOL’s Good Jobs Initiative explains key agreements used to organize construction projects, promote good jobs, and include community needs in federal—and other—projects. The guide covers Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), Community Workforce Agreements (CWAs), and Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs).

A PLA is a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement that standardizes the terms of employment, binding all contractors and subcontractors to provisions that include no-strike, no-lockout clauses and grievance procedures, as well as any other agreements the parties make, such as pay standards or preferential local hiring.

A CWA is a specific type of PLA that adds community-oriented commitments related to topics such as equitable workforce development, social justice, and support for small businesses.

A CBA is a contract between employers/developers and community organizations, often including unions, that focuses on broader community priorities such as affordable housing or pollution reduction.

This is part of a collection of resources created by the Department of Labor and other federal agencies, relating to job quality and implementing good jobs priorities through federal investments and beyond. Many of these resources are no longer publicly available on government websites, though they were all at one point public and shared with the intent of preserving these resources for public use.

Please note that we cannot guarantee that information contained in these resources related to specific programs, policies, and processes remains accurate, though many best practices and examples remain useful. In addition, many of these resources link out to government websites that do not exist anymore. You may be able to find these linked resources in the archive itself by searching the Overview document. For more resources, please visit the Data Rescue Project website, at https://www.datarescueproject.org/

The Good Jobs Principles, developed by the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Labor, establish a comprehensive framework for defining and advancing job quality. The framework is built on eight principles: recruitment and hiring of qualified applicants, especially from underserved communities; providing benefits that promote economic security; ensuring diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA); supporting empowerment and representation through unions and worker input; guaranteeing job security and working conditions that are safe, healthy, and fair; cultivating a positive organizational culture; offering pay that is a stable, predictable living wage; and providing skills and career advancement opportunities.

Despite laws like the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH), there remain significant challenges to protecting workers in traditionally dangerous occupations, such as construction and agriculture, as well as in industries like retail and health care. The COVID-19 pandemic not only underscored the need for worker protections across sectors; it also demonstrated the need for the government to play a role in setting standards, monitoring workplaces, enforcing regulations, and educating and training employers and employees on risks and risk prevention. The rise in temporary work, the expansion of the gig economy, and the use and misclassification of independent contractors who are excluded from OSH have all created additional challenges in protecting workers. In this event, panelists discuss what we can learn from the history and implementation of OSH, and how we can address these inequities to build a safer workplace for all workers.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act made it illegal to discriminate in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, or religion. Despite this, however, racial and gender wage gaps persist, discrimination still limits opportunity for many, and harassment continues to make many workplaces unproductive and unsafe. In this event, panelists discuss ongoing progress to realize equal opportunity at work, given the ever increasing diversity of the workforce. As we look to address the issues of today, and build toward a better future, what can we learn from the history and legacy of Title VII?

In this event, Erica Smiley and Sarita Gupta, the authors of “The Future We Need: Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century,” argue that collective bargaining can be used to help improve work, address discrimination, and improve the health of our democracy. They explore the struggles of work today and explain how new forms of collective bargaining and worker organizing and power can help build a healthy, multiracial democracy with an economy that works for all.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 established the federal minimum wage and overtime pay, created a standard work week, and prohibited children’s employment in dangerous conditions. But the FLSA doesn’t cover everyone — the legacy of biases against professions largely occupied by women and people of color — and it has suffered setbacks over the years. In this event, panelists discuss what what lessons we can learn from the FLSA, innovations to create a more just economy that rewards work fairly, and how we can restore the commitment to a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.