Job quality is vital not only for workers, but also for small businesses and communities. Yet too many jobs today miss the mark on one of the key characteristics of a good job: providing enough pay to live on. Only 56% of full-time workers in the United States make enough money to cover their families basic needs. This problem is particularly acute at small businesses. Nearly 60% of low-wage workers work at businesses with fewer than 100 employees, and 35% of low-wage workers work at micro-businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Small businesses also struggle to address other characteristics of a good job, like providing adequate benefits, stable scheduling, and a positive work culture.

Recognizing this context, in 2022, the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP) launched the Shared Success project, funded by the Gates Foundation. The project supports 11 community development financial institutions (CDFIs) across the country to integrate job quality support into their small business services with the goal of improving job quality for small business employees and building business resilience. Three years later, EOP has seen how grantees have used innovative approaches to recruit, advise, and incentivize small businesses to improve job quality.

In this event recording, leaders of CDFIs, their small business clients, philanthropic supporters, and other experts discuss the lessons learned from Shared Success, ranging from practical tips about strategies for engaging small businesses in discussions of job quality to the range of job quality improvements CDFI clients helped their businesses make.

The US faces a national crisis of homelessness and housing affordability like few other times in our history. Increasing rents and housing shortages have had devastating effects on nearly every major metropolitan area in the US and many rural communities as well. This crisis has affected everyone including children, seniors, military veterans, people with disabilities, and people working full-time. In his new book, “There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America,” journalist Brian Goldstone exposes how the decline of work and pay in the US has left many full-time workers homeless. People who clock in at hospitals, drive for delivery apps, and care for others cannot afford stable housing as increases in rent continue to outpace wage growth.

Goldstone follows five families in Atlanta as they navigate the impossible demands of low wages, skyrocketing rents, and an inadequate social safety net. Through his reporting, Goldstone lived alongside families in extended-stay motels, witnessing the cycles of eviction and rejection, and capturing the resilience of those caught in a system designed to exclude them and in one that often doesn’t count them in official statistics. “There Is No Place for Us” not only brings these unseen lives into focus but also forces us to confront a pressing question: If hard work is no longer enough to keep a roof over one’s head, what does that say about the promise of economic opportunity in the US? Watching the recording of this book talk with Brian Goldstone.

This report presents six easy-to-read charts about differences in the average dollar value of employee ownership by the annual earnings, gender, and race of employees. As averages, this gives a snapshot from random samples from employee surveys from the US General Social Survey across the entire US population. It answers the question: How broadly has employee share ownership’s financial benefits spread among working people?

The focus is on employee equity ownership plans and Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), separately. Employee equity ownership plans involve grants of restricted stock, performance shares, Employee Stock Purchase Plans, and company stock ownership in 401(k) plans, etc. and do not include ESOPs. The results specifically on ESOPs are broken out and presented separately. Data are from the 2022 General Social Survey using previous surveys from 2018 and 2014 for a larger national sample.

In an economy where the interests and successes of workers and businesses too often seem in opposition, employee ownership offers a solution. Clegg Auto, an auto repair company with locations in and around Provo, Utah, is leading by example. By converting to an employee ownership trust, Clegg Auto lets its workers share in the profits, gives them a say in the workplace, and protects the company’s place in the community.

This profile of Clegg Auto illustrates the company’s experience becoming employee-owned, the innovative holding company model it pursued, and its employees’ perspective on the transition and what ownership means to them.

Employee share ownership has a long and important tradition in the US. As of 2022, approximately 18% of employees or about 25 million workers across our nation have some form of ownership stake in the company where they work and 8% of employees have employee stock options. Employees participating in ownership in the US do so through a variety of means, including employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), equity compensation programs, worker-owned cooperatives, and employee-owned trusts. About 11 million active employees participate in ESOPs, while another 4.2 million additional retired ESOP employees are still receiving ESOP benefits from their ownership. An estimated 14 million employees participate in different other combinations of equity compensation plans, including grants of restricted stock, employee stock options, and employee stock purchase plans. Estimates show that approximately 10,000 workers are employed in between 900 and 1,000 worker-owned cooperatives, with a growing number of employees in Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs).

In this short brief, we provide some updated statistics and analysis regarding workers’ involvement in employee share ownership plans and the wealth and job quality benefits those workers realize from their participation. ESOPs are the most common form of broad-based employee share ownership in the US, and, likely for that reason, there are more robust data related to ESOPs. For these reasons, this brief focuses primarily on workers who participate in ESOPs.

Developed as part of the Shared Success Demonstration, this tool offers guidance for business advisors at CDFIs on how to have conversations with small business owners on job quality improvements. It centers business value and includes a variety of information and resources to assist business owners in addressing poor job quality.

For a guide of resources that complement this tool, see our topic guide on Small Business Job Quality Advising.

These toolkits are designed to eliminate bias across different areas of the workplace, using specific “bias interrupters” that change existing norms and practices to create more equitable workplaces. Toolkits include: Compensation, Hiring and Recruitment, Family Leave, and more. Employers may find this tool useful for developing successful, equitable workplace practices. Additionally, workforce development and worker advocacy professionals may find this toolkit helpful to share with their employer-partners.

This toolkit is a collection of over 60 workplace policies that can help support, stabilize, and retain employees in low-wage work. The toolkit also contains sections on gender-based violence workers may be experiencing in their home lives and second-chance employment for formerly incarcerated individuals After a quick registration for a free account, the Employer Toolkit search feature can help you identify specific policy recommendations, many of which include sample HR policy language that companies can draw from. Topics include wages, benefits, child care, paid time off, scheduling, recruitment, training and education, and transportation.

Today’s politicized environment poses unique challenges for worker rights advocates. With Congress often divided, and many state and local governments as well, the path to improving worker rights through legislation is narrow. Nonetheless, we have seen some remarkable progress on worker rights over the last few years through executive action. Leveraging executive action, however, is not a straightforward and easily discernible path for grassroots activists and organizations interested in advancing worker rights and job quality.

In the “Toolkit: An Organizer’s Guide to Executive Action,” Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of Workshop, demystifies and democratizes the policy-making process by sharing lessons learned during her time in federal government. Toolkit offers a blueprint for advocates inside and outside on how they can collaborate to build an economy that works for all and, in the process, rebuild a healthy democracy.

This webinar, co-hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and Workshop, featured a panel of experienced public servants and organizers. Speakers will dive into the lessons and stories from Toolkit and provide guidance to advocates and organizers striving to advance worker rights.

This six-step guide can help employers assess their employees’ financial stability and make an actionable plan to strengthen financial wellness. The foundational step includes assessing employee wages and benefits to ensure workers are earning a livable wage. The following steps guide employers through various financial wellness solutions, including how to implement and evaluate strategies and solicit feedback. This guide is written for employers, but it could also be used by workforce development professionals or worker advocates who work closely with employers.