This report examines findings from phase two of the Gig Worker Learning Project, an effort of The Workers Lab and the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. The purpose of this effort is to understand more about gig work and workers directly from gig workers themselves – motivations to do gig work; challenges being faced; and solutions that would impact gig workers personally, their families, and their work. The first phase of the Gig Worker Learning Project produced an analysis of existing research and recommendations. The phase two findings presented in this latest report emerged from participatory research which included more than a dozen focus groups and several participatory analysis sessions led by an incredibly diverse set of workers. It marks the beginning of The Workers Lab’s plan to help build greater advocacy for gig workers nationally.

Shared Success, a demonstration project run by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, leverages the trusted relationships of community development financial institutions (CDFIs) to improve job quality for workers while helping small business owners strengthen their businesses. This piece discusses findings from a portion of the Shared Success Project, which helps to understand business perceptions of job quality, identify strategies to encourage the adoption of job quality elements, and define recommendations to involve financial institutions in this process.

This piece provides an overview of job quality challenges affecting LGBTQ+ workers, including economic need, discrimination, and barriers to career advancement. The piece also contextualizes these challenges in the current landscape of anti-LGBTQ+ policies being passed in the United States.

In this event, Benjamin Lorr, author of “The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket,” traces the history and evolution of the modern-day supermarket, exposes the grocery supply chain, and reveals the often exploited and underpaid labor that goes into making sure shelves are stocked. Lorr paints a vivid picture of how agricultural and meat processing workers, fisherman, truck drivers, and grocery store workers, among others, often endure poverty and sometimes worse as they work to feed our country.

In this event, panelists discuss the challenges that poultry and meatpacking workers face, ideas for improving their jobs and well-being, and the policies and practices to reshape this industry and build a sustainable system where workers, consumers, and businesses thrive together.

In this event, panelists discuss the long-standing challenges that farmworkers face and how to build good jobs in this essential sector. In short, better jobs are possible and within reach. Multiple states have led the way in legislating better pay and protections, including the right to organize, a right these essential workers have long been excluded from.

This piece provides a summary and highlights from “Good Work in the Gig Economy: Building a Sustainable App-based Economy,” an Opportunity in America event EOP hosted in 2023.

This piece provides a summary of The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone’s Work, a book talk EOP hosted with MIT Professor Zeynep Ton in 2023.

This piece is an introduction to job quality in the US food supply chain, with a focus on poultry and meat processing, and on farm labor. The piece also highlights the prevalence of child labor in these industries and the elevated risk for many immigrant workers in the food supply chain.

This playbook, developed by A—B Partners, is part ot the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program’s Shared Success project. Shared Success is working with CDFIs across the US to help them integrate job quality into their financing and advising services. This playbook offers findings and recommendations on how best to communicate the importance of job quality to owners of small- and medium-sized businesses.