This article investigates the impact of employee ownership on business and worker outcomes, including links to improved productivity, pay, job stability, and firm survival. The article dives further into the effects and causation relationship, as well as the challenges presented by employee ownership.

An interview with Kevin Oxley, owner of Carpet One Floor and Home and a regional business coordinator with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE). Carpet One Floor and Home was part of a pilot, a collaboration between the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, Pacific Community Ventures (PCV), and the CDLE, focused on advancing job quality among small businesses. A part of EOP’s Reimagine Retail Initiative, with the support of Walmart, the pilot deepened relationships between small businesses and workforce organizations in the pursuit of improving jobs and boosting businesses’ bottom lines. The pilot paired small businesses recruited by CDLE’s business services team with good jobs advisors from PCV’s business advising network to implement strategies from their new Good Jobs Good Businesses Toolkit. Businesses also received specialized state and regional support and resources from the CDLE business services team. Kevin and Carolyn share experiences with this pilot, the impact of the pandemic on businesses like Carpet One, and how collaborative and creative partnerships that improve job quality can benefit workers and businesses across the country.

This guide contains tips and practices for creating trusted relationships with small business employers focused on improving job quality, and compiles seven lessons for small business prospecting, recruitment, and ongoing engagement. Lessons outlined in this publication were developed as part of the Economic Opportunities Program’s Reimagine Retail job quality research, and in response to a growing demand for employer engagement practices that enable collaboration and innovative solutions in connecting people to good jobs. Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to developing relationships with employers, this tool may be of interest to employers (and their partners) who would like to engage in job quality discussions and tailor engagement to their local contexts.

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.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act made it illegal to discriminate in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, or religion. Despite this, however, racial and gender wage gaps persist, discrimination still limits opportunity for many, and harassment continues to make many workplaces unproductive and unsafe. In this event, panelists discuss ongoing progress to realize equal opportunity at work, given the ever increasing diversity of the workforce. As we look to address the issues of today, and build toward a better future, what can we learn from the history and legacy of Title VII?

In this event, Erica Smiley and Sarita Gupta, the authors of “The Future We Need: Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century,” argue that collective bargaining can be used to help improve work, address discrimination, and improve the health of our democracy. They explore the struggles of work today and explain how new forms of collective bargaining and worker organizing and power can help build a healthy, multiracial democracy with an economy that works for all.

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.

In recent years, headlines have been filled with stories of workers from various industries on strike and attempting to unionize. The roots of these efforts lie with workers in the 1800s and early 1900s who first attempted to organize and used strikes to protest low wages and poor working conditions. Those early labor movements contributed to the passage of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935, which gave workers the right to organize into unions and made it the official policy of the US to encourage collective bargaining. Although union membership surged after its passage, the NRLA had less of an impact for women and people of color, whose main occupations in agricultural and domestic work were deliberately excluded from the law, exclusions that still negatively affect millions of workers today. And the impact of NRLA in supporting collective bargaining has also waned over time, as membership declined from 35% of wage and salary workers in 1954 to just 10% in 2022. As panelists discuss in this event, the future of work and job quality rests in part on workers having the ability to influence their work and workplace, and the NLRA provides the legal foundation for workers’ right to exercise that agency. As we look to shape the future of work, what lessons can we learn from the NLRA’s history, impact and effectiveness today?

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.