Benefits Archives - Page 6 of 15 - Job Quality Center of Excellence

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.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the important role that benefits play in workers’ lives. Paid leave, health insurance, workers’ compensation, and retirement plans cushion life events and equip workers to live safe and dignified lives. Our current system of benefits, though, leaves millions of workers behind. In this event, panelists discuss how to make work-related benefits accessible to more people, including public and private sector approaches to portable and universal benefits. We hear from leaders who have worked on innovative benefits programs for workers, covering a range of sectors and benefits. Each speaks about their efforts to expand benefits to more workers, shares lessons learned, and offers insights for others interested in developing new approaches.

Universal benefits are accessible by everyone who works, regardless of work arrangement or sector. A universal, portable safety net could better deliver benefits to individual workers, encourage a dynamic labor market, and promote economic security for all. This report explains how universal, portable benefits can contribute to a more accessible, equitable safety net and more dynamic economy; summarizes the current conversation around portable benefits; and offers actionable steps toward more portable, universal benefits.

Millions of workers in the U.S. rely on social policy to sustain them during challenging times—from unemployment to food insecurity, social safety net programs allow people to participate more fully in their lives and the economy despite financial uncertainty. As one of the foundational programs of the social safety net, Social Security ensures a basic level of financial support for people as they age. Shifting demographics combined with little policy change has pushed this program into crisis, with reserves predicted to be depleted as early as 2035 without intervention. Yet, Social Security presents a model of exactly the type of benefit workers need in the 21st century—portable across jobs and available to all workers. In order to offer actionable solutions and to illustrate the magnitude of the current crisis, the following proposal 1) mandates increased employer contributions to Social Security from medium and large employers, 2) requires companies relying heavily on independent contractors to contribute to Social Security on their behalf, and 3) allows and incentivizes additional contributions from small employers and self-employed workers.

Promoting Equity and Inclusion and Connection to Good Fit Jobs for Young Adults describes three categories of practice for employer engagement including leveraging political and financial incentives to influence employer practice change; acltivating connections between employers and young adults to influence employer practices; and working with employers to change practices from the inside. We hope this new publication will be helpful for workforce practitioners looking to engage with employers around supporting equity and inclusion in the workplace and to expand good-fit jobs in their communities.

Improving job quality not only transforms workers’ lives, but it also benefits businesses’ performance and bottom lines. Highlighted in this brief is Sunrise Treatment Center, a leader in the addiction treatment sector that provides stable, sustainable jobs. Founder Dr. Jeffrey Bill, Chief Operating Officer Steven Smith, and Chief Human Resources Officer Brett Burns developed strategies to simultaneously meet the needs of their patients and their commitment to employees. Sunrise Treatment Center saw sustained growth and improvement in both capacity and caregiving by ensuring that the focus of the organization was explicitly two-fold: to provide the highest quality treatment for patients with substance abuse issues and mental illness, and to offer a great place to work for employees.

In “To Build Back Better, Job Quality is the Key,” Maureen Conway (The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program), Jeannine LaPrad (Corporation for a Skilled Workforce), Amanda Cage (National Fund for Workforce Solutions), and Sarah Miller (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta) make the case that improving job quality should be a central goal of economic recovery and rebuilding efforts, and they lay out practical policy ideas toward that end. The report includes a framework illustrating the multiple dimensions of job quality and outlines the variety of institutions and organizations that can play a role in improving job quality. Particular attention is given to the role of federal policy and to the practices of local governments, economic development, and workforce development organizations.

Drawing on recent research, this issue brief – co-authored by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, and the Democracy at Work Institute – makes a case for why policymakers, funders, and investors who care about racial and gender wealth equity should support employee share ownership. Informed by a roundtable discussion which brought together researchers, philanthropic leaders, investors, policy experts, and advocates, the paper provides a set of concrete policy and practice ideas to expand employee ownership and advance equity and economic justice. We hope this paper contributes to a broader collaborative effort to spread employee share ownership policies and practices that support economic recovery and lay the foundation for a more equitable and resilient economy.