This report outlines the Biden-Harris Administration’s strategy to strengthening worker power, organizing, and collective bargaining, including a comprehensive list of the executive actions recommended as part of this strategy. The recommendations focus on three core areas: positioning the federal government as a model employer, enhancing transparency and worker education on their organizing rights, and utilizing purchasing power to favor employers with strong labor standards. Key initiatives include strengthening compliance with existing labor laws, improving reporting on anti-union activity, and facilitating first contracts for newly organized units. The report also addresses systemic issues like worker misclassification, advocates for legislative reform such as the PRO Act, and emphasizes the deep, unfulfilled demand for union representation, noting that nearly 60 million American workers would join a union if given the chance. While the report is now outdated in terms of federal policy, it continues to be a useful guide to strategies that could be taken by policymakers, employers, or advocates to overcome decades of declining union density and diminished worker voice, and may be especially relevant for policymakers and the state and local levels who aim to implement pro-worker policies.

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/

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, companies faced pressure to improve factors that contribute to job quality, including wages, benefits, workplace safety, racial and gender equity, and opportunities to learn and grow. But often overlooked is the content of the work — how does what we do align with who we think we are? In this event, Eyal Press, author of “Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America,” explores the toll of moral injuries at work, highlighting the working conditions of jobs that typically go unseen and raising disquieting questions about our society and its dependence on these jobs.

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.

This event serves as a capstone to a year-long study on how the events of 2020 and 2021 — including the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened attention to racial inequality — affected businesses, including their operations, skill needs, hiring, human resources, and education and training programs. Panelists discuss what they learned from employers and what can and should be done to help workers build the digital skills needed to advance in the workplace.

One year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, about half of non-retired adults said its lingering consequences would make it harder for them to meet their financial needs and goals. This event focuses on what companies can accomplish when they strive to improve the financial health and resilience of their workers. Senior executives from major companies discuss how they came to prioritize this issue, some of the surprises and challenges encountered, and lessons that others can build on. The companies represented on the panel are part of the Worker Financial Wellness Initiative, which was launched in October 2020 by PayPal and JUST Capital, in collaboration with the Financial Health Network and Good Jobs Institute.

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.

Over the past year, UpSkill America conducted a three-phase study to learn how the pandemic and heightened attention on racial inequities have influenced companies’ employment plans for the months and years ahead. We were especially interested in the impact these changes were having on frontline and entry-level employees and employers’ education and training programs. n this third phase of the research, we spoke directly with employers and asked:

In what ways are businesses adopting technology in the workplace, and has COVID-19 accelerated these efforts?
How is digital transformation impacting skill needs for frontline workers?
What approaches are businesses taking to support development of digital skills for frontline workers?

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.

Government, business, labor, and education leaders need to consider ideas to build and strengthen inclusive systems of lifelong learning that provide opportunities for adult workers to develop and improve the knowledge and skills they can apply to their jobs. This brief explores one such approach: separating training from specific jobs, so that workers can accumulate the benefits of training as they work across multiple jobs or switch jobs frequently, an approach we call portable training. In the following sections, we first contextualize portable training in the current landscape of worker education and training in the US. We then consider the potential strengths and risks of a portable approach. Finally, we look abroad and consider several portable training programs that have been established in France, Singapore, Canada, and Scotland, highlighting how program design choices can mediate the possible challenges of a more portable system of training.

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.