This guide for employers provides guidance for the intentional inclusion of transgender workers, from recruitment and hiring to fostering a supportive culture. This resource can be used by organizations to learn about and evaluate their internal practices or practitioners looking to involve partners in working toward transgender inclusion.

This issue brief reviews the history and current state of job design, highlights the benefits workers and businesses receive when jobs are designed with worker well-being in mind, and notes emerging issues and practices in job design related to technology, work-based learning, and employee ownership. We hope this brief sparks new thinking and conversations about how we can all encourage and contribute to designing work and workplaces that promote quality jobs.

This piece draws a line between investment in climate infrastructure and the opportunity to invest in good jobs, achieving climate goals by investing in workers, families, and communities.

This piece draws attention to the rising safety risks for workers due to climate change, especially heat related risks and the policies that could help protect workers.

This piece features video excerpts from interviews with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment Northwest Workforce Area, as well as Carpet One Floor and Home, to hear about their partnership in a small business advising pilot aiming to improve job quality.

This publication compiles seven lessons for small business prospecting, recruitment, and ongoing engagement. The lessons outlined in this tool are based on our experience working with Pacific Community Ventures and workforce partners to conduct job quality-focused business advising pilots with small businesses across the country. Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to developing relationships with employers, we have found that asking lots of questions and tailoring engagement to the local context is key.

This guide is designed to help employers and managers identify signs of mental health distress and develop a plan of action to help support employees. This guide, with tools embedded throughout, presents the business case for supporting employee mental health and outlines steps to support employees and improve company culture. Employers may find this resource useful to use internally, and organizations that work with businesses may want to share it with their employer partners.

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.

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.

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.