This op-ed, originally published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, discusses how philanthropy can help support job quality as the federal government invests in clean energy and infrastructure.

This piece reflects on the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program’s event “ESOPs, Job Quality, and Wealth Inequality: The Potential of Employee Stock Ownership Plans,” which discusses the potential for ESOPs to improve job quality and build meaningful wealth for workers.

This article discusses EOP’s research and lessons learned on how philanthropy, employers, practitioners and policymakers can support good jobs for young adults.

State centers of employee ownership work to promote employee ownership and educate business owners and workers about the different avenues of employee ownership available. In this brief, the Aspen Institute Economic Program discusses the strategies and practices implemented by Colorado’s Employee Ownership Office to better understand how employee ownership can be supported and grown at the state level. This profile is a useful resource to inform other state centers’ practices and the government’s role in supporting state centers, particularly as more centers emerge through funding provided by the recently passed Worker Ownership, Readiness, and Knowledge (WORK) Act.

This piece reflects on the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program’s event “Economics Reimagined: A Discussion on Building a Human Rights Economy,” which discussed how to build an economic system that values and centers the well being of people.

This piece reflects on the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program’s event “The Promise of Guaranteed Income: A New Tool to Improve Jobs and Empower Workers,” which introduced the Institute’s recent work on the subject and highlighted how guaranteed income can play a vital role in helping people gain economic security and stability.

HCAP Partners – a fund providing debt and equity growth capital to lower-middle market companies – has developed this operational impact approach to assess job quality standards and improvements in portfolio companies through a quantitative measurement system. HCAP has identified five key attributes of job quality that fall within the categories of economic opportunity and health and wellness. HCAP engages with businesses to collect data, develop a baseline assessment, and build a strategic roadmap to implement and improve workplace initiatives for creating and maintaining high quality jobs. While this bespoke measurement system is designed to meet HCAP’s needs, other investors, lenders, and practitioners who work with businesses to improve job quality may find HCAP’s job quality definition and measurement framework useful in developing their own tools.

At the inaugural Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, leading policymakers, practitioners, experts, and the media convened for a robust discussion on how we can grow employee ownership for the shared benefit of American workers and businesses.

In this event, Zeynep Ton, author of “The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone’s Work,” discusses the components of a “good jobs” system, which ensures a living wage, dignity, and opportunities for growth to employees, and helps to foster shared success for both workers and organizations. Ton — a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and president and co-founder of the Good Jobs Institute — explores the benefits of this approach; the disadvantages of low-paying and high-turnover jobs; how labor investments can pay for themselves; the obstacles to creating a good jobs system; and how leaders can break free and overcome these challenges to create good jobs.

In this event, panelist discuss how employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) can improve job quality, reduce wealth inequality, and strengthen our economy. They highlight how the coming “silver tsunami” of retiring business owners represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to grow the number the ESOPs. And they explore the policies, supports, and assistance that businesses — including publicly traded companies — need for ESOP conversion.