The Future of Work for Low-Income Workers and Families is a policy brief aimed at state policy advocates and policymakers seeking to help low-income workers and their families secure healthy economic livelihoods as the nature of work evolves in the United States. Published by the Working Poor Families Project in December 2015, the brief was written by Vickie Choitz and Maureen Conway. This brief reviews the major forces shaping the future of work, including changes in labor and employment practices, business models, access to income and benefits, worker rights and voice, education and training, and technology. Across these areas, we are seeing disruptive change in our economy and society resulting in increasing risk and challenges for low-income workers, in particular.

Also known as the “gig economy,” “consumer-to-consumer sharing,” and “peer-to-peer marketplaces,” the term “sharing economy” is used to describe a wide variety of exchanges between people, including property, skills, labor, or space.

Sharing economy companies include Airbnb (rent a room or your house), Uber (provide rides), TaskRabbit (do chores for others), and Instacart (be a personal grocery shopper), to name a few. There were an estimated 80 million sharers in the United States in 2013 – although that included 33 million “resharers,” those who buy and/or sell pre-owned goods online at sites like Craigslist (Vision Critical and Crowd Companies).

Revenue estimates vary from $3.5 billion in the U.S. in 2013 (Forbes) to $335 billion globally in 2025 (PricewaterhouseCoopers). Many have touted this system’s benefits for consumers, including convenient and affordable services and shared goods. But what are the benefits — and the downsides — of the sharing economy for the workers who provide the services? What is the influence of the sharing economy on the future of work? What are the implications for public policy and business practice?

Panelists explored these issues and more.

This foundational brief encourages the workforce development field to implement a broader range of workforce interventions to improve the lives of workers in low-wage work by focusing on both career mobility and basic economic stability. It provides a useful framework for job quality efforts, identifying approaches that not only build ladders, or help low-wage workers advance into better jobs, but also raise the floor, or help make workers’ current jobs more stable so that they can take advantage of upskilling and mobility opportunities.

In this brief, we provide an overview of work in the direct-care industry and profile PHI (Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute), an organization dedicated to improving job quality in the industry. Our goal is to offer information to those involved in workforce development about the challenges of work in the direct-care industry and the strategies PHI uses to promote job quality improvements.

On July 25th 2012, the Aspen Institute Workforce Strategies Initiative hosted a conversation titled, “Taking Inventory of Retail Jobs: A Discussion on Work in the Retail Industry.”

Featuring: Carrie Gleason, Executive Director, Retail Action Project; Kim Owen, Vice-President of Human Resources (retired), QuikTrip Corporation; Zeynep Ton, Adjunct Associate Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management. Moderated by Steven Greenhouse, Labor and Workplace Reporter for The New York Times.

This is the third conversation in a roundtable series in 2012 titled “Reinventing Low-Wage Work: Ideas That Can Work for Employees, Employers and the Economy.” Low-wage jobs are a growing part of the U.S. economy, and AspenWSI is excited to continue this conversation about the nature of low-wage work, the challenges it presents to workers, businesses and the economy, and the opportunities we have for addressing these challenges at the Aspen Institute at a time when jobs and the economy are such critical topics for our country.

This report illustrates the state of low-wage work in the retail industry and provides a profile of the Retail Action Project, an organization striving to improve job quality in retail.

In 2011, nearly 4 million workers were employed in direct-care positions, including nursing aides, home health aides, and personal care attendants. While direct-care workers play a critical role in supporting the lives of our elderly and disabled populations, direct-care jobs are often characterized by low-wages, few benefits or pathways for career advancement, as well as part-time hours.

On May 3rd 2012, the Aspen Institute Workforce Strategies Initiative hosted a conversation titled, “Better Care through Better Jobs: Improving Training and Employment for Direct Care Workers.” This is the second conversation in a roundtable series in 2012 titled “Reinventing Low Wage Work: Ideas That Can Work for Employees, Employers and the Economy.” Low wage jobs are a growing part of the U.S. economy, and AspenWSI is excited to continue this conversation about the nature of low-wage work, the challenges it presents to workers, businesses and the economy, and the opportunities we have for addressing these challenges at the Aspen Institute at a time when jobs and the economy are such critical topics for our country.

On March 7th 2012, the Aspen Institute Workforce Strategies Initiative hosted a conversation on “From Fast Food to Fine Cuisine: A Discussion on Work in the Restaurant Industry.” This is the first conversation in a roundtable series in 2012 titled “Reinventing Low-Wage Work: Ideas That Can Work for Employees, Employers and the Economy.”

Low-wage jobs are a growing part of the U.S. economy, and AspenWSI is excited to bring a conversation about the nature of this work, the challenges it presents to workers, businesses and the economy, and the opportunities we have for addressing these challenges to the Aspen Institute at a time when jobs and the economy are such critical topics for our country.