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.

In this event, panelists discuss the latest research on the experiences of workers grappling with schedule instability, how new technology is helping businesses adopt worker-friendly scheduling practices, what we are learning from states and cities with fair workweek laws, and other opportunities and strategies for change.

In this event, panelists discuss alternative models of platform-based work — including cooperatives and public options — policies being introduced to improve gig workers’ lives, and research pointing to what’s next in the gig economy.

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 summarizes the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program’s event “Unstable Schedules: Unwrapping the Challenges and Solutions for Service Workers,” during which panelists discussed the importance of stable scheduling practices for job quality.

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.

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

The Roadmap for Investing in Good Jobs is a guide developed by the U.S. Department of Labor to help governments—at the federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial levels—leverage the Biden administration’s Investing in America agenda (including BIL, CHIPS, and IRA) to create high-quality, good-paying, union jobs. This resource provides recommended language to embed in grants, loans, and contracts, which outlines requirements, preferences, and encouraging job quality practices in projects. While created for the Investing in America initative, this language in applicable beyond these projects and provides a tangible guide for employers and other organizations aiming to embed job quality more formally in their project documentation and contracts.

The Roadmap is organized around key elements of job quality and worker empowerment, such as mandating and incentivizing fair pay (e.g., prevailing wages and pay equity audits), committing to worker rights protections (like project labor agreements and union neutrality agreements), promoting skills and career advancement through proven models like registered apprenticeship programs, providing family-sustaining benefits (like paid leave and health insurance), adopting DEIA workforce plans to promote opportunities for underserved communities, and safeguarding job security and working conditions by combating worker misclassification and establishing joint labor-management safety and health committees.

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/