Essential Questions for Employment: Successful Launch into Rewarding Work

Share of adults ages 25 to 54 who are employed. This is a common metric for measuring employment levels among prime-age workers, also known as the employment-to-population ratio (Urban Institute, Upward Mobility Initiative).

Percent of college graduates who secure a quality first job. The career accelerator fellowship Braven defines a strong first job as one that requires a bachelor’s degree and is full-time and also includes some combination of promotion pathways, employee benefits and a market-competitive starting salary (Braven).

Percent of college graduates who were employed overall or enrolled in graduate school within six months of college graduation, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, family income and first-generation college student status (Braven).

Mean salary of employed program participants in their first 6 months after college graduation compared to the national average. For example, Braven fellows in the college graduating class of 2024 were earning a mean salary of $51,656, exceeding the national average by over $9,100 (Braven).

Mean salary of full-time employed program participants in their first 6 months after college graduation compared to the national average. For example, Braven fellows in the college graduating class of 2024 who were employed full-time were earning a mean salary of $57,570, exceeding the national average by over $7,900 (Braven).

Percent of recent college graduates who are in roles aligned with their long term career interests (Braven).

Percent of recent college graduates who are in jobs with employer-provided benefits (Braven).

Braven, a career-accelerating fellowship, empowers promising college students on their paths toward quality economic opportunities through a semester-long, cohort-based course — developed with input from our higher education partners and faculty — and support that extends beyond the course, continuing through six months after college graduation. In their core higher education model, students complete the course for credit (Braven).

According to the Colorado Workforce Development Council, a good job allows for workers, at minimum, to meet basic needs by providing: Wages that provide predictable income that covers basic living expenses and allows for wealth building; Benefits that facilitate a healthy, stable life; A schedule that enables workers to balance the other demands of life; Working conditions offer an environment that promotes physical, emotional and psychological safety and wellness; Employers establish transparent growth opportunities to advance along a career pathway and increase pay; Sense of belonging in an inclusive environment where individuals are accepted and connected to one another (CWDC, Job Quality)

Job quality – New jobs and job separations: Percentage of people who reported applying for a new job, starting a new job, leaving a job voluntarily or being laid off (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Job quality – Percentage of people who move to a new job and say that it is better than the last job they had (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Institution type, race/ethnicity, gender and geography matter with respect to post-graduation employment outcomes, but typically not as much as college major or internships. Graduates of more selective institutions are less likely to experience underemployment than those who attended more inclusive (and typically less resourced) institutions. Black and Latine students are substantially more likely than students of other races and ethnicities to wind up underemployed and men are more likely to be underemployed than women. Underemployment also varies substantially by state. While all of these differences are meaningful, none of them explains as much of the differences in underemployment rates as college major and internship completion (Burning Glass, Talent Disrupted).

Employment and gig work: Reasons for not working among prime-age adults disaggregated by gender (e.g., health limitations or disability; caregiving for an elderly, disabled or sick adult; family and personal obligations beside caregiving; could not find work; childcare; would lose access to government benefits; school or training; retired) (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Employment and gig work: Share of people doing gig activities disaggregated by age group, race/ethnicity, gender, parental status (e.g., being parents of younger children); student or non-student status (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Employment and gig work: Share of people agreeing to selected statements about gig work (e.g., “I am my own boss doing it,” “It lets me work flexible hours,” “I wish the pay was more consistent,” “It gives me work-life balance,” “Without it, I would have trouble making ends meet.” “I wish I got benefits, like health insurance, from doing it” (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Employment and gig work: Types of gig activities (e.g., selling or renting items, offering short-term rentals, performing short-term tasks) (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Underemployment rates of college graduates one year after graduation and 10 years after graduation. (Note: “Underemployment” refers to the experience of four-year college graduates who are employed in jobs that don’t typically require a bachelor’s degree.) In spite of a historically tight labor market, the underemployment of college graduates remains stubbornly high. Overall, 52% of graduates are underemployed a year after graduation. Even a decade after graduation, 45% of graduates are underemployed (Burning Glass, Talent Disrupted).

Probability of college-level employment 10 years after graduation based on the first job after college. Graduates who start out in a college-level job rarely slide into underemployment, as the vast majority of them (79%) remain in a college-level occupation five years after graduation. Of those employed in college-level occupation five years after graduating, 86% were still in a college-level job 10 years out. On the other hand, 73% of graduates who start out underemployed remain so 10 years after completing college, making them at that point about 3.5 times more likely to be underemployed compared with those who start out in a college-level job (Burning Glass, Talent Disrupted).

Earnings premium of college graduates over high school graduates and median annual earnings by educational attainment for recent college graduates with a terminal bachelor’s degree. A recent graduate employed in a college-level job typically earns about 88% more than a high school diploma holder, while an underemployed graduate typically earns only about 25% more than someone with no education beyond high school. This leaves underemployed graduates on weaker financial footing as they start their careers, especially those with substantial student loan debt (Burning Glass, Talent Disrupted).

Occupational employment outcomes by degree field. Graduates with degrees that involve a substantial amount of quantitative reasoning, such as computer science, engineering, mathematics or math-intensive business fields (e.g., finance, accounting), experience the lowest underemployment rates (i.e., less than 37%), especially right out of college. Underemployment rates also are low for those who study education or health programs (e.g., nursing). Graduates with degrees in public safety and security, recreation and wellness studies or general business fields (e.g., marketing) tend to face much higher levels of underemployment (i.e., 57% or higher) (Burning Glass, Talent Disrupted).

Underemployment rate by internship participation and institutional selectivity and type. College-level employment rates are higher for those who complete an internship. There is a strong connection between internships and college-level employment after graduation. Controlling for factors such as gender, race/ethnicity and institutional characteristics, the odds of underemployment for graduates who had at least one internship are 48.5% lower than those who had no internships and the benefits associated with completing an internship are relatively strong across degree fields (Burning Glass, Talent Disrupted).

Growth rate of occupations: Projected percent change of employment over the next ten years (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Occupations with most new jobs, the projected numeric change in employment of the next ten years (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Occupations projected to have the most openings each year, on average, disaggregated by required education level (i.e., no formal educational credential, high school diploma or the equivalent, postsecondary education but not a bachelor’s degree, bachelor’s degree, graduate degree) (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

City complexity: The average complexity of all the industries with a high local presence in the city. More complex cities have higher per capita incomes and tend to grow faster (Brookings’ Smart Growth Toolkit).

Tradable industries: Industries with products or services that can be sold outside the city, which is key to sustained economic growth (Brookings’ Smart Growth Toolkit).​​

Priority industry: Priority industries have low local presence, a high share of good jobs and are tradable (Brookings’ Smart Growth Toolkit).

Job presence in the city:​ This metric identifies the importance of the occupation to the city, compared to its importance in the national economy (Brookings’ Smart Growth Toolkit).

Expected 5-year job growth: Five-year job growth projections based on the city’s historical employment growth patterns (Brookings’ Smart Growth Toolkit).

Local industry complexity: More complex industries require a wide variety of local industry types. More complex industries promote economic growth but can take time to develop (Brookings’ Smart Growth Toolkit).

Good jobs: Jobs that pay above the local median wage and offer employer-provided healthcare benefits (Brookings’ Smart Growth Toolkit).

Strong leaders elevate good jobs by establishing trusting and inclusive work environments that support employees in developing new skills, advancing along career pathways and feeling connected to one another and the broader goals of the organization (CWDC, Job Quality)

Employers offer continuous opportunities for personal growth, creativity and problem solving (CWDC, Job Quality)

Employers practice open and transparent communication keeping employees informed and connected to broader organizational goals and decision makers (CWDC, Job Quality)

Employers take worker voice and agency into account with key decisions and workers are recognized for their contributions to the organization (CWDC, Job Quality)

Work is meaningful and provides a sense of satisfaction and purpose (CWDC, Job Quality)

Companies and industries work collaboratively to create good jobs that meet basic needs and offer conditions that promote equity, inclusiveness and opportunities for career and economic mobility (CWDC, Job Quality)

Community members and local stakeholders in economic development, workforce development, education and community organizations work collaboratively to improve the economic well-being and quality of life for their community by attracting and growing businesses that offer a variety of high-quality jobs (CWDC, Job Quality)

Community members and local stakeholders in economic development, workforce development, education and community organizations have coordinated policies and incentives that promote the creation and growth of good jobs (CWDC, Job Quality)

Community members and local stakeholders in economic development, workforce development, education and community organizations have long-term attraction and retention plans that prioritize quality jobs (CWDC, Job Quality)

Community members and local stakeholders in economic development, workforce development, education and community organizations have responsive education and training partners that collaborate to meet the evolving needs of learners, businesses and the economy (CWDC, Job Quality)

Qualified applicants are actively recruited – especially those from underserved communities. Applicants are free from discrimination, including unequal treatment or application of selection criteria that are unrelated to job performance. Applicants are evaluated with relevant skills-based requirements. Unnecessary educational credentials and experience requirements are minimized (U.S. Departments of Commerce and Labor, Good Job Principles).

Creating workforce development programs that support workers in reskilling and upskilling, such as public-sector apprenticeships (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Strengthening and diversifying the local government workforce, including by investing in recruitment, training and retention (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Supporting residents in accessing and completing postsecondary education (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Helping parents access high-quality and affordable child care (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Supporting existing employers, particularly locally owned businesses, to grow and thrive (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Investing in job placement services and supports to help residents find stable jobs, including transitional and reentry support programs (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Investing in infrastructure and other amenities (e.g., roads, public transit, parks and schools), which both creates jobs and enhances longer-term employment opportunities for residents (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Partnering with large community-serving institutions, such as universities and hospitals, to funnel capital and resources toward improving local communities (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Supporting existing employers, particularly locally owned businesses, to grow and thrive. City leaders and planners play a critical role in improving access to markets, particularly with respect to the city’s physical resources. For example, a city may work with local, regional and state planning resources to develop a transportation plan that addresses highway accessibility needs of businesses (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Paid family leave: As of February 2025, thirteen states and the District of Columbia have enacted mandatory paid family leave policies. A study of California’s paid family leave policy found improvements in parent-reported overall child health and suggestive improvements in maternal mental health status. Findings also suggest a reduction in asthma and a greater likelihood that parents feel they are coping well with the day-to-day demands of parenting (Effect of Paid Family Leave).

OECD Job Quality Measurement – Earnings Quality: Both earnings average levels and their distribution are considered due to their importance for individual and overall well-being. A large literature has indeed shown that: i) life satisfaction increases with the level of earnings and this holds both across countries as well as between persons within countries ii) for a given level of average earnings, life satisfaction tends to be higher the more equal is its distribution. This reflects the existence of a saturation effect (life satisfaction rising at a decreasing rate as earnings rise) and the fact that people tend to display an intrinsic dislike of too high inequality in society (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality). 

Pay: All workers are paid a stable and predictable living wage before overtime, tips and commissions. Workers’ pay is fair, transparent and equitable. Workers’ wages increase with increased skills and experience (U.S. Departments of Commerce and Labor, Good Job Principles).

Earnings quality – Average earnings. At an individual level, earnings can be measured in either gross or net terms (i.e. before or after deductions of employee taxes and social security contributions) and on an hourly, monthly or even annual basis. The OECD framework makes use of gross hourly wages. Hourly wages rather than monthly or annual earnings are chosen to abstract from differences in working time between workers that relate more to job quantity than job quality (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality). 

Earnings quality disaggregated by gender, age and education level (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality).

Pay on an average job compared with the cost of living. This metric reflects the supply of jobs in a community that pay enough to meet the local cost of a family’s basic needs (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

The self-sufficiency standard, developed by the Center for Women’s Welfare at the University of Washington, defines the income a family must earn to meet basic yet adequate needs, which is tracked by the percentage of youth ages 25-34 who are self-sufficient.This measure is based on family composition, ages of children and geographic cost differences. It includes all major budget items working adults face. The basic minimum living costs calculated into the measure include costs of housing, child care, food, transportation, health care and miscellaneous items, as well as taxes and credits (StriveTogether Cradle-to-Career Outcomes Data Guide: Employment).

Earnings: A living wage that provides full-time workers with the financial means to meet basic needs based on their local cost of living. This includes all compensation for work performed, including hourly wage or annual salary, commission, tips, bonus or profit share (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Earnings and worker well-being: Do worker earnings, in whatever format they take, contribute to worker well-being? Metrics include: Hourly rate/salary vs. living wage for local area, variance by demographics; Percentage of employed individuals with low pay (below living wage); Percentage of employed individuals above the poverty line for family of four; Percentage of employed individuals whose annual pay is <$10,000, $10,000-$20,000, $20,000-$30,000, >$30,000 or nominal monthly/hourly earnings of employed individuals by deciles (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Earnings distribution and fairness: Are earnings distributed across the organization’s/ intervention’s workforce? What are the current and historical inequities? Is pay perceived as equitable for the work and fair as compared to others? How does pay compare to the industry? Metrics include: Demographic gaps in high-wage or low-wage occupations; Percentage of frontline workers’ earnings required for basic needs; Percentage of full-time employed individuals on federal assistance; Average wage compared to industry (percentile for industry/occupation); Pay gap between subpopulation groups (e.g., women vs. men); Profit distribution by demographics for current year and historically; Bonus criteria for receipt and historical distribution by role and demographics (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Employment: Employment-to-population ratio for adults ages 25 to 54 (Urban Institute, Boosting Upward Mobility).

Access to jobs paying a living wage: Ratio of pay on the average job to the cost of living (Urban Institute, Boosting Upward Mobility).

Share of workers employed in jobs paying family-sustaining wages, disaggregated by race, educational attainment and industry category. A report by Georgetown University defines family-sustaining wages as at least $35,000 per year ($17 per hour for full-time jobs) for workers between the ages of 25 and 44 and at least $45,000 ($22 per hour) for workers between the ages of 45 and 64  (The Unequal Race for Good Jobs).

The MIT Living Wage Calculator is a tool that helps individuals, communities, employers and others estimate the local wage rate that a full-time worker requires to cover the costs of their family’s basic needs where they live. The calculator features geographically-specific costs for food, childcare, health care, housing, transportation, other basic needs – like clothing, personal care items and broadband, among others – and taxes at the county, metro and state levels for 12 different family types (MIT Living Wage Calculator).

Salary growth: Comparing salary progression of returnship participants to peers over time shows whether the program enables financial growth parallel to career advancement. An upward salary trend signals positive long-term impact (Women Tech Network).

Leveraging public procurement processes to incentivize employers to pay living wages (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Increasing wages for local government workers (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Prioritizing job quality in addition to wages, such as by supporting employee-owned businesses, integrating job-quality requirements in local government contracts and recognizing “high road” employers that pay living wages and provide other elements of high-quality jobs, such as paid leave, workplace flexibility and stable scheduling (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Companies track and publish pay equity and employee ownership metrics to show progress over time and importance to the company (Wharton).

Companies recognize and evaluate any tradeoffs between the competitive pressures of short-term demands, such as wage increases and hybrid work environments and long-term resilience (Wharton).

University of Tulsa – CaneCareers Job Placement Guarantee (OK). Completers are guaranteed a job offer or grad-school acceptance within 6 months — or they get a free semester of TU graduate tuition. Students must finish the multi-year career curriculum, keep a 3.0 GPA and follow explicit application quotas and timelines (The University of Tulsa).

Florida Southern College – Career Guarantee (FL). If a participant isn’t employed or in grad school within 6 months, FSC provides loan-payment assistance (up to 3 months) or tuition for six graduate credits, on top of a structured four-year career-readiness plan (Florida Southern College).

Identify significant institutions. Cities, large and small, can use publicly available data to identify anchor institutions that may not fit the traditional definition but serve important roles. They can also use this information to measure levels of engagement by those institutions in local hiring and procurement to identify potential areas of collaboration and improvement. For example, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis used mapping to identify anchor institutions along the Mississippi Delta. Using U.S. census data, researchers identified 14 anchor institutions based on the contributions of these organizations to the local economy relative to its size and then examined areas of high poverty and unemployment located within or near the locations of these anchors.

Partnering with “anchor institutions” (important local institutions like universities and health care systems that have significant geographic and/or market presence) to hire more local residents. A common metric for capturing an anchor institution’s engagement is the proportion of its workforce comprised of local residents. Institutions can set local hiring goals but also identify barriers that area residents may face in obtaining or maintaining employment at local anchors, particularly transportation issues. As part of its HopkinsLocal initiative, Johns Hopkins University has pledged to make 40% of new hires in targeted employment categories from certain Baltimore zip codes identified as disadvantaged (ICIC).

Partnering with “anchor institutions” to increase local procurement. Local institutions have enormous purchasing power for goods and service and using local suppliers is an important strategy for contributing to the local economy. This strategy can include efforts to purchase from local vendors, especially minority-owned or women-owned businesses and to examine contracting processes to identify any structural barriers that are preventing local vendors from successfully bidding on projects. Between 1996 and 2003, the University of Pennsylvania tripled the dollar amount of goods and services purchased from West Philadelphia businesses through their Economic Inclusion Initiative. Under their current plans, they continue to focus on local purchasing and aim to award 20% of all construction contracts to minority or women-owned businesses (ICIC).

Increase the funding and enforcement powers of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which is responsible for enforcing civil rights laws and protecting workers from discrimination. Yet the EEOC is underfunded and faces frequent budget shortfalls and hiring freezes. This, along with a focus on investigating individual rather than systemic cases of employment discrimination that dates back to the 1980s, has blunted its efforts. If equal opportunity in employment is to become more than a “good idea,” the agency charged with enforcing antidiscrimination practices must be fully funded to carry out its mandate (The Unequal Race for Good Jobs).

Promote industry and professional efforts to increase diversity. Business leaders, industry and professional groups should take the lead in implementing and promoting diversity and inclusion initiatives, including in recruitment, hiring, promotions, mentoring and professional networking. While many large organizations already have some type of diversity effort, the most effective diversity initiatives are those that involve organizational authority structures and accountability, rather than just broad diversity or anti-bias training. In addition, large employers should be more transparent about diversity in their hiring, promotion and salary-setting practices and those who do so should be recognized for their efforts (The Unequal Race for Good Jobs).

Grant tax incentives for employers to locate in underserved economic areas. Economic development programs are designed to ensure that residents of an area gain access to job opportunities and that all residents have equal access to those opportunities regardless of their race or ethnicity (The Unequal Race for Good Jobs).

Grant economic development incentives to companies that make diversity and inclusion a key recruitment priority (The Unequal Race for Good Jobs).

Invest in retraining of displaced workers. To address employment dislocation brought about by automation and other factors, federal and state governments should make substantial new investments in retraining displaced workers, including investments in adult education and career services. These investments should reach workers of all races and ethnicities without directing workers toward specific careers based on their race or ethnicity (The Unequal Race for Good Jobs).

Reward colleges that enroll and graduate students from underserved populations. Policymakers should take steps to reward colleges that provide exceptional educational and career outcomes for students from traditionally underrepresented and underserved backgrounds. For example, Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions that demonstrate success in preparing their students for good jobs deserve recognition and financial support (The Unequal Race for Good Jobs).

Make work-based learning the norm (co-ops, internships, practicums). Long, credit-bearing co-ops integrate real work into the degree so students graduate with employer experience and offers in hand (e.g., Northeastern and Drexel; nearly half of Drexel co-op students who work full-time receive offers from a former co-op employer) (Northeastern University).

Workforce Pell is the new federal policy that lets Pell Grants fund short-term, job-focused programs — not just traditional degrees. Beginning July 1, 2026 (the 2026–27 award year), Pell-eligible students can use aid for programs 8–15 weeks / 150–599 clock hours at accredited Title IV institutions (The Institute for College Access and Success).

Policy makers can increase funding to colleges that successfully prepare students from traditionally underrepresented and underserved backgrounds, for example, Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions that demonstrate success in preparing their students for good jobs (The Unequal Race for Good Jobs).

Ensure that counselors are trained to provide high-quality, sustained personalized  advising. High school and college advisors should receive the necessary training to provide all students with culturally competent counseling — advice customized to the individual student’s needs — about the benefits of completing a college credential. This would include more comprehensive information about the funding support that exists to help students attend and complete postsecondary education programs. These counseling efforts would be substantially bolstered by transparency on completion rates and earnings outcomes by program of study. This increased transparency would support all students in deciding which postsecondary education and training options are best for them (The Unequal Race for Good Jobs).

Full-time and part-time workers are provided family-sustaining benefits that promote economic security and mobility. These include health insurance, a retirement plan, workers’ compensation benefits, work-family benefits such as paid leave and caregiving support and others that may arise from engagement with workers. Workers are empowered and encouraged to use these benefits (U.S. Departments of Commerce and Labor, Good Job Principles).

Employer-sponsored health insurance, paid leave, employee education benefits, retirement plans, childcare subsidies or support and other benefits, including those that address barriers to work. This includes support accessing and maximizing benefits provided (e.g., financial wellness and career coaching) (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Benefits availability: Are benefits available through the organization/intervention responsive to employed individuals’ needs in terms of type, availability and costs? Availability of benefits, by type (sick leave, health insurance, etc.) and any variance of plans by level; Percentage of benefit cost covered by employer vs. employed individual (premiums + deductible); Mean number of days of paid annual leave per year to which employed individuals are entitled; Average amount saved in retirement plan annually; Percentage of homeowners vs. renters, broken down by race, gender, or other demographics; Average commute time, broken down by race, gender, or other demographics; Percentage of employed individuals with caregiving needs; Percentage of employed individuals who are single parents; Average amount provided to cover continuing education costs; Percentage of match or employer contribution; Existence of safety net navigation services (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Benefits accessibility: Are most employed individuals able to take advantage of the existing benefits? What inequities are present, both current and over time (trends)? Percentage of employed individuals eligible for insurance, by role and demographics; Percentage of employed individuals who take advantage of benefits, by benefit, role and demographics; Affordability: cost ratio of benefits to salary received; Percentage of employed individuals entitled to paid annual leave, by level; Average number of days of paid annual leave used per employed individual during the a given year; Percentage of employed parents with children under compulsory school age who currently use child care; Ratio of housing costs, childcare and commute costs to income; Trends in types of leave if tracked (e.g. jury duty, bereavement, parental leave, sick leave, vacation); Percentage of employed individuals taking advantage of education funding in a given year; Increase in title or earnings upon completion of education, by role and demographics as well as trends over time; Average amount saved in retirement plan annually, by role and demographics as well as trends over time; Increase in overall net worth; Percentage of employed individuals eligible for unemployment insurance; Use (percentage or number) of navigation services (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Provide caregiving assistance (e.g., time off for appointments, an Employee Assistance Program or care concierge access) to low-wage employees for looking after family members (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Provide a flexible sick time policy for personal sick time (e.g., low-wage employees allowed to take advances on sick leave that would be accrued in later months) (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Provide a flexible sick time policy for caring for a sick family member (e.g., low-wage employees permitted to stay home to take care of sick family member) (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Provide transportation assistance (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Provide tuition benefits (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Provide employee stock options program or other employee ownership structure (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Learning and Development: Pre-employment training partnerships, onboarding, technical skill training, cross-training, mentoring and coaching, sponsorship, upskilling opportunities such as apprenticeship or targeted degree programs and structured promotion pathways (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Training and skill development: Are there clear, fair processes for staff development, rewards and promotions? Metrics include: Number of job related non-formal education and trainings provided in the past twelve months; ​​Volume of job-related non-formal education and training per participant in the last twelve months (in days); Rate of successful completion of education and training, including industry recognized certifications; Percentage of employed persons whose job-related non-formal education and training has helped improve the way they work; Percentage utilization of learning and development tools; Percentage allocated to learning and development, allocation vs. amount spent; Percentage of employed persons whose job-related non-formal education and training has directly contributed to their advancement (title or role change); Increase in wages or benefits resulting from completion of training or education; Percentage of workers that persist beyond one year in the company, by role and demographics; Percentage of workers that advance from low wage to higher wage earning jobs, by role and demographics; Distribution of awards by role and demographics over last year (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Career path support: Are career paths in place for all roles? If so, are they clear and fair? Do employed individuals believe they can have a career at the company? Metrics include: Percentage of management comprised of population subgroups (e.g., women); Promotion rates by demographic and level; Percentage of frontline managers promoted from within; Average time to promotion by level and education; Percentage of employed persons who have received mentorship; Learning and development-related employee satisfaction trends by role or function and demographics (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Employers invest in mentorship, career pathways and learning and development. Some of the largest gaps between the perceptions of workers who move up and those who do not fall into three key areas: mentorship, career pathways and learning and development. Our research indicates that even incremental efforts in those three areas can help workers escape poverty-trap roles. Employers benefit by reducing the indirect costs associated with high turnover and raising the productivity of their workforce. In many instances, this requires little more than ensuring lowwage workers know of the existence of opportunities and that the programs’ design reflects a clear understanding of their needs and personal circumstances (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Companies allocate funds for a multi-year program of making significant investments in training and professional development and measure the return on that investment through tracking the promotion of internal managers (Wharton).

Companies inventory, anticipate and communicate corporate strategies for long-term investments in employees as part of a bigger company strategy (Wharton).

Companies provide employees with high-quality training, meaningful interactions with and professional development feedback from managers and growth opportunities (Wharton).

Safety and Security: Policies and practices to promote physical safety (precautions against disease or injury) as well as mental and emotional safety (e.g., training and clear policies for reporting, investigating and addressing harassment or discrimination). This also includes psychosocial safety and the level of role stressors employees experience (e.g., the extent to which employees feel safe to take risks, feel cared for by colleagues and are clear on what is expected, as well as the extent to which work tasks create ongoing conflict with other colleagues, teams or departments) (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Job Security and Working Conditions: Workers have a safe, healthy and accessible workplace, built on input from workers and their representatives. Workers have job security without arbitrary or discriminatory discipline or dismissal. They have adequate hours and predictable schedules. The use of electronic monitoring, data and algorithms is transparent, inclusive and carefully deployed with input from workers. Workers are free from harassment, discrimination and retaliation at work. Workers are properly classified under applicable laws. Temporary or contractor labor solutions are minimized (U.S. Departments of Commerce and Labor, Good Job Principles).

Physical, mental and emotional safety: Do employed individuals feel safe at work? Do they know their rights? Do employed individuals feel that they can bring their whole self to the workplace? Do employed individuals feel that they can voice concerns to someone they trust? Metrics include: Percentage of employed persons who are exposed to physical health risk factors at work, by role, demographics and trends; Rate of fatal and nonfatal occupational injuries for employed persons, by role, demographics and trends; Percentage of persons who have been victims of physical, psychological or sexual violence in relation to their employment by role, demographics and trends; Number of safety incidents annually; Legal/compliance costs and trends; Rates of occupational diseases; Grievance/complaint severity and frequency trends related to physical safety; Percentage of employed persons who have been victims of discrimination at work, disaggregated by role/function and demographics; Percentage of employed persons who are exposed to mental well-being risk factors at work; Percentage of leave requests related to mental or emotional health, if tracked; Employee assistance program (or related support) usage rates; Existence of antidiscrimination, harassment and profiling policies as well as frequency of training; Grievance/complaint severity and frequency trends related to mental/emotional safety; Existence of supervisor training, frequency and percentage of compliance with completion (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Structural job safety: Do employed individuals believe they will keep their job if they perform well — that they will not be laid off? Are employees correctly classified? Percentage of employed persons aged 18 years or over whose number of years of tenure at the current job or with the current employer is <1 year, 1 to less than 5 years, 5 to less than 10 years and (4) ≥10 years; Percentage of employed persons whose job is at risk due to strategy shift, downsizing, acquisition, etc. over next six months; Layoffs in the last five years and percentage of workforce they account for; Percentage of employed persons employed via a temporary employment agency or temporary contract; Percentage of employed persons without formal contracts or without pay slip (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Labor Market Security: The importance of labour market security for well-being has been investigated in several studies (Clark and Oswald, 1994; Postel-Vinay and Saint-Martin, 2005; Salvatori, 2010). Job security, notably, appears to be a major determinant of individual well-being. When workers are asked to state their preferences with respect to different aspects of work, as done in the European Social Survey (ESS) or the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), they rank job security consistently as the most important item in almost all countries for which data are available (Green, 2009; OECD, 2011a). The detrimental effect of labour market insecurity for individual well-being has also been demonstrated in several studies that relate perceptions of job security to well-being outcomes such as life satisfaction and health status (e.g. Green, 2011). Moreover, the effects of labour market insecurity may go well beyond the well-being of workers. Job insecurity may affect firms’ profits by reducing worker retention rates, investment in firm-specific skills and productivity, as well as society at large by shaping people’s political views, increasing social unrest, sapping consumer confidence and saving behaviour (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality).

Labour market security against the risk of unemployment is defined in terms of the expected earnings loss associated with unemployment. This loss depends on the risk of unemployment (i.e., the risk of becoming and staying unemployed) and the degree of mitigation against these losses provided by government transfers –unemployment benefits and social assistance− in the event of unemployment (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality).

Labor market security against unemployment – Unemployment risk. The risk of unemployment is computed by looking at the distribution of the length of ongoing unemployment spells at a given point in time. Data on unemployment duration are used to measure the monthly probability of becoming unemployed as well as the average expected duration of completed unemployment spells in months (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality).

Labor market security against unemployment – Unemployment insurance. Unemployment insurance captures the degree of loss absorption through government transfers on workers’ exposure to unemployment risk. For OECD countries, it is possible to compute a measure of effective unemployment insurance capturing the accessibility of benefits and the generosity of unemployment compensation, while also taking into account the progressivity of the tax system. The effective unemployment insurance is thus defined as the product of the coverage of the unemployment insurance/assistance and replacement rates of public transfers received by the unemployed (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality). 

Labor market security against unemployment disaggregated by gender, age and education level (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality). 

Quality of working environment – Job Strain due to too many Job Demands (e.g., time pressure at work, physical health risk factors). Job strain due to time pressure could include working usually more than 50 hours per week, difficulty taking an hour or two off during working hours for personal or family matters, working at very high speed and to tight deadlines. Job strain due to physical health risk factors could include having to maintain tiring and painful positions, carrying or moving heavy loads, exposure to vibrations from hand tools and machinery, exposure to high noise, exposure to high or low temperatures (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality). 

Experience of job strain disaggregated by gender, age and education level (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality).

Skills and Career Advancement: Workers have equitable opportunities and tools to progress to future good jobs within their organizations or outside them. Workers have transparent promotion or advancement opportunities. Workers have access to quality employer- or labor-management-provided training and education (U.S. Departments of Commerce and Labor, Good Job Principles).

Promotion rates: Organizations should track the percentage of returnship participants who receive promotions within specific timeframes after program completion. This metric reflects how effectively the program prepares individuals for upward mobility and indicates long-term career advancement (Women Tech Network).

Retention over years: Measuring how many alumni remain with the organization 1, 3 and 5 years post-program provides insight into long-term engagement and satisfaction. High retention rates suggest that the program supports sustainable career paths (Women Tech Network).

Performance scores: Analyzing performance review ratings of returnship participants over several years helps assess ongoing contribution and skill development, reflecting sustained career progression and organizational impact  (Women Tech Network).

Employee outlook on advancement opportunities. For instance, the Harvard Business School’s “Upward Mobility Survey of Low-Wage Workers in the U.S.” (2020) asked respondents to agree or disagree with the following statements: “My industry had many opportunities for me to move to a job with higher pay, skills and productivity,” “My company had many opportunities for me to move to a job with higher pay, skills and productivity,” “My industry does not have many opportunities for me to move to a job with higher pay, skills and productivity,” “My company does not have many opportunities for me to move to a job with higher pay, skill and productivity,” “My industry doesn’t have many opportunities for low-wage employees to move to a job with higher pay, skills and productivity,” “My company doesn’t have many opportunities for low-wage employees to move to a job with higher pay, skills and productivity” (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Quality of working environment – Job quality due to provision of sufficient Job Resources (e.g., work autonomy, learning opportunities, workplace relationships). Work autonomy and learning opportunities can include the ability to choose or change the order of tasks, the ability to choose or change methods of work, the opportunity to learn new things, opportunities to participate in employer-provided training or on-the-job training. Good workplace relationships involve environments in which workers feel “at home” at work and have very good friends at work (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality). 

Additional themes that diminish the Quality of Work Environment include: physical risk factors, physical demands, work intensity, intimidation and discrimination at workplace, emotional demands and work stress, subjective job insecurity and unsocial work schedule  (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality). 

Additional themes that improve the Quality of Work Environment include: task discretion and autonomy, training and learning autonomy, training and learning opportunities, opportunity for career advancement, opportunity for self-realization, organizational participation and workplace voice, intrinsic rewards, good managerial practices, task clarity and performance feedback, social support and good relationships at work, work-life balance and flexibility of working hours (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality).

Pre-employment: Describe career pathways on the company website (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Pre-employment: Describe career pathways in job postings (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Pre-employment: Describe career pathways in job interviews (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Employers make retention a cornerstone of strategy. Employers can always hire new workers on the spot market by offering marginally higher wages. But by accepting inordinate churn, employers create a cascade of indirect costs. Experienced workers are likely to be more valuable than new hires with the same skills, if they can be found. They have already overcome barriers to working at the company; they’re familiar with the company’s ways of doing business and already have demonstrated competence in performing their jobs; and they’re typically eager to remain at their current place of work. Voluntarily leaving a position is generally not their preference — almost two-thirds of low-wage workers indicated a preference to remain with their current employer if opportunities for advancement were available (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Employers understand the external implications of upward mobility. The more employers cooperate to develop a growing talent pool, the more they can create a smooth, well-functioning supply chain for local talent. Such collaboration can take place within an industry or in a given geography. Companies like Disney, Amazon and Walmart — which hire at scale in low-wage positions — have begun innovating on building career pathways for their employees, both within and outside the company. They are forging partnerships with community colleges, identifying skills gaps in local communities and preparing their workers for better paying positions at other employers. Smaller companies are also recognizing that, rather than competing for talent across employers, there are economies of scale in collaborating on deepening the talent pool. Solutions that help workers overcome barriers to employment through skills training, providing remedies to challenges like access to transportation or working with skills providers and educators at all levels to develop programs can improve the readiness of workers for available jobs (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Employers measure implementation rigorously. The last 20 years have seen a revolution in business analytics. Business intelligence systems provide executives and managers with near-real-time granular data on performance metrics of every variety. Comparatively few companies, however, utilize those capabilities to track the upward mobility of their low-wage workforce. The processes that will drive the creation of a more stable and productive workforce should be tracked with the same rigor as other mission-critical activities (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Employers create a diverse workforce, bottom up. In the U.S., women and people of color represent a disproportionate share of low-wage workers. Companies, meanwhile, are still struggling to find ways to deliver on the promise of diversity. Historical efforts to increase diversity, often through mechanisms associated with corporate social responsibility programs, have yielded little at scale. The process for building a diverse organization can be significantly advanced by building from the ground up. Low-wage workers constitute a pool of talent with skills and experience that are immediately available. In a labor market in which employers of every size are seeking to improve performance on diversity, equity and inclusion, “growing one’s own” is far more likely to achieve desired results than playing the spot market (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Onboarding: Communicate upward mobility opportunities and pathways during onboarding (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Onboarding: Communicate expectations for soft skills required to move up (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Onboarding: Communicate expectations for technical skills (e.g., knowledge of certain equipment, systems or tools) required to move up (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Onboarding: Communicate expectations for qualifications or credentials (e.g., a certain certificate or diploma) required to move up (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Pathways for Advancement: Create career pathways for low-wage employees (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Pathways for Advancement: Describe career pathways and skills progression on an ongoing basis in company communications (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Pathways for Advancement: Describe how total compensation (e.g., pay ranges and benefits) will change for the next role level in performance reviews (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Pathways for Advancement: Describe the skills, training, certifications and experience needed to get to the next role level in performance reviews (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Pathways for Advancement: Describe how to obtain the skills, training and certifications needed to get to the next role level in performance reviews (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Pathways for Advancement: Rewards (e.g., increase in wages, change in job title or offer of a bonus) to low-wage employees for reaching milestones of skills, training, credentials or experience (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Pathways for Advancement: Publicly recognize low-wage employees for reaching milestones of skills, training. credentials or experience (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Pathways for Advancement: Communicate examples of worker success stories to current low-wage employees (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Pathways for Advancement: Provide opportunities for low-wage employees to interact with successful role models who progressed from the low-wage job (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Number of hours needed to work in order to attain a livable wage, given hourly rate. A single-mother with two children earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour needs to work 138 hours per week, nearly the equivalent of working 24 hours per day for 6 days, to earn a living wage (Living Wage for US).

Schedule regularity and worker decisionmaking: Share of workers who often or always choose what tasks to work on and how to complete tasks, disaggregated by education level (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Schedules: Employers provide a good faith estimate of an employee’s schedule at the time of hire, employee input on work schedule, predictable hours, advanced notice of schedule changes and avoid or provide additional compensation for employees working between closing and opening shifts separated by fewer than 10 hours (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Schedule stability and flexibility: Do employed individuals in the organization/intervention get schedules sufficiently in advance to plan their lives? What is the frequency of changes after schedules are issued? What impact does that have on cost and employed individual morale? Metrics include: How many days/weeks in advance are employed individuals informed of their schedule? Percentage deviation between actual and planned hours/employed individual/week; Cost of overtime (by employed individual and overall); Percentage of employed individuals by shift (e.g., night, day); Percentage of employed individuals with a flexible work schedule, as well as breakdowns by role or function; Percentage of employed persons whose working arrangements offer the possibility to work at home, as well as breakdowns by role or function; Percentage of employed individuals who have more than one job, as well as breakdowns by role or function; Mean duration of commuting time between work and home (one way) (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Fair schedules: Are employed individuals receiving sufficient hours based on their desired employment status? Are there any unintended consequences or disparate impacts? What inequities are present, both current and over time (trends)? Percentage of employed individuals working (per week): <10 hours, 10-20 hours, 20-30 hours, 30-40 hours, >40 hours; Mean weekly hours usually worked per employed individual; Percentage of full-time employed individuals; Minimum guaranteed hours for part-timers; Percentage of employed persons usually working 41 hours or more per week; Percentage and frequency of employed individuals compensated when on call but not called in or sent home early from a scheduled shift (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Employee perception on their job’s stability and flexibility in work schedule. For example, responses to the following survey questions: “I had enough autonomy (i.e., independence) at work,” “I had a stable enough work schedule,” “I had a flexible enough work schedule” (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Provide adequate notice of upcoming shifts (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Provide stability in scheduling (e.g., consistent start time for shifts, consistent hours week-to-week and advance notice of working days) (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Twenty days paid leave: The reasons for taking leave vary enormously – for illness, vacation, the birth of a baby, to care for an elder. Richard Reeves and Isabel Sawhill of Brookings propose a broad rather than categorical entitlement, to 20 days per year of paid leave. This is less than many other countries but would at least establish a minimum floor. Some employers already provide this much paid leave in one form or another. But many do not – especially for their low-wage workers (Brookings, A New Contract with the Middle Class).

Schooldays matching workdays: Richard Reeves and Isabel Sawhill of Brookings propose that the standard school day be shifted later to better align with most job schedules and that after-school care be made universally available. After-school care would be universally available to students at public elementary and middle schools, enabling most parents to pick their children up from school around 5:30 or 6 in the evening; The federal or state government would provide grants to local education agencies that agreed to change their hours and provide an extended school day or school year; Participation in the extended hours would be optional for students and their families; To contain costs, families would pay on a sliding fee scale; School districts could decide how to use the additional hours, whether for additional instructional time or for extracurricular activities (Brookings, A New Contract with the Middle Class).

For younger children, universal pre-k programs and subsidized child care should play a similar role [in supporting working parents]. State pre-k programs have expanded in recent decades, especially for four-year-olds, but many states limit access to poor children or do not serve three-year-olds. To fill remaining child care gaps and provide flexibility, we also recommend making the existing child care tax credit both more generous and completely refundable (Brookings, A New Contract with the Middle Class).

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA): All workers have equal opportunity. Workers are respected, empowered and treated fairly. DEIA is a core value and practiced norm in the workplace. Individuals from underserved communities do not face systemic barriers in the workplace. Underserved communities are persons adversely affected by persistent poverty, discrimination or inequality, including Black, Indigenous, people of color; LGBTQ+ individuals; women; immigrants; veterans; military spouses; individuals with disabilities; individuals in rural communities; individuals without a college degree; individuals with or recovering from substance use disorder; and justice-involved individuals (U.S. Departments of Commerce and Labor, Good Job Principles).

Empowerment and Representation: Workers can form and join unions. Workers can engage in protected, concerted activity without fear of retaliation. Workers contribute to decisions about their work, how it is performed and organizational direction (U.S. Departments of Commerce and Labor, Good Job Principles).

Organizational Culture: All workers belong, are valued, contribute meaningfully to the organization and are engaged and respected especially by leadership (U.S. Departments of Commerce and Labor, Good Job Principles).

Voice and Representation: Valuing and acting upon employee input and engagement through surveys, stay interviews, employee resource groups and meaningful task forces or improvement teams. This may also include open-book management, broad employee ownership (e.g., through employee stock ownership plans [ESOPs]), participatory management (co-operative), opportunities for workers to participate in collective action and productive relationships with organized labor. Overall metrics include: Demographic gaps in voice and representation; Increase/number of individuals with voice and representation (e.g., employee ownership, union participation) as a result of intervention (intervention may be an effort on the part of workforce entity or employer change); Increase/percentage of funds allocated to roles/programs/organizations with inclusive voice and representation as a result of intervention (intervention may be an effort on the part of workforce entity or employer change); Increase/percentage or number of individuals educated about the options for inclusive voice and representation (intervention may be an effort on the part of workforce entity or employer change); Variance in success outcomes (time to placement, wages, etc.) for individuals requiring, participating in or prioritizing voice and representation vs. those who do not (at various points in time); Voice- and representation-related employee satisfaction trends by role or function and demographics (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Formal representation: Are employees free to organize? Is union participation encouraged? Metrics include: Percentage of employed individuals covered by collective bargaining agreements; Percentage of employed individuals who are members of one or more trade unions; Wage and benefit trends by role; Trends in union jobs compared to local union membership benchmarks (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Employee voice: How is employee voice incorporated into decision-making processes? Do all individuals feel seen and heard? Metrics include: Employee retention rate; Voluntary turnover rate; First-year or 90-day turnover percentage; Frontline employed individual turnover; Cost of turnover annually; Frontline manager turnover rate; Absenteeism/callouts by role; Employed individual satisfaction survey or focus group results; Cost savings from frontline employed individual ideas/new efficient practices discovered and implemented; Participation rate in business resource groups (or related forums); Ratings on Glassdoor (and related crowdsourced platforms); Employee productivity rate, based on role or function (time to complete tasks, revenue generated, customer satisfaction increased) (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Employee engagement: Is leadership representative of the larger organization and the clients served? Metrics include: Number and percentage of participation in employee resource groups; Race, ethnicity and gender breakdown of leadership by totals and percent; Existence of inclusive policies and procedures (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Participatory management: Do options for employee ownership exist? Metrics include: Percentage of company stock owned by employee stock ownership plan; Size of company contribution to employee stock ownership plan; Stock return trends; Employee stock ownership plan voting rights; Participation rates in co-op leadership roles; Percentage/amount of wealth/profit transitioned to employed individuals post- employee-ownership transition; Grievance/complaint severity and frequency trends before and after employee ownership transition; Trends in hours and earnings pre-post transition (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Environment and Culture: Use of skills, proper tools and technology to be productive, connection with co-workers, level of input and autonomy and control in the performance of duties. This also includes the culture established, modeled and reinforced by an organization’s leadership and management teams, as well as the qualities, management competencies and communication practices of individuals responsible for managing people and the quality of relationships employees have with direct supervisors. Overall metrics include: Demographic gaps in environment and cultural participation; Increase/number of individuals with understanding of environment and culture as a result of intervention (intervention may be an effort on the part of workforce entity or employer change); Increase/percentage of funds allocated to roles/programs/organizations making shifts in environment or culture as a result of intervention (intervention may be an effort on the part of workforce entity or employer change); Increase/percentage or number of individuals educated about inclusive environment and culture (intervention may be an effort on the part of workforce entity or employer change); Variance in success outcomes (time to placement, wages, etc.) for individuals requiring or prioritizing aspects of the environment or culture vs. those who do not (at various points in time) (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Use of skills: Do individuals feel that their skills are valued and applied? Is skill development encouraged and rewarded? Metrics include: Percentage of employed persons who have the opportunity to use their knowledge and skills in their current job; Mapping of existing skill sets against skill matrices; Frequency/number of recognitions or rewards for skill attainment annually; Trends from assessment tools and 360-degree feedback instruments that measure skills and abilities; Percentage utilization of coaching tools or resources (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Stability and autonomy: Do individuals have autonomy over their work and how it is performed? Metrics include: Percentage of employed persons whose work experience and job skills would be transferable to another job in the organization or the industry; Percentage of employed persons who are able to choose their methods of work, order of work and/or influence their pace of work; Percentage of employed persons who can influence decisions that affect their work (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Sense of connection: Does leadership foster an inclusive, collaborative culture? What are the results? Metrics include: Percentage of employed persons who have a good relationship with their supervisors; Percentage of employed persons who have a good relationship with their coworkers and colleagues as evidenced by participation in company events, business resource groups and collaborative projects; Participation rates in employer-sponsored events; Trends in morale measured through surveys; Environment- and culture-related employee satisfaction trends by role or function and demographics (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

Personal alignment: Are the organization’s/project’s purpose, goals and strategic plan clearly defined? Do employed individuals understand how their role supports the organization’s/ project’s goals? Metrics include: Gauge of employed individuals’ understanding of organization’s purpose, goals and values through survey or focus group; Employed individual’s feedback on organization’s purpose goals and values through survey or focus group (Results For America, What is Job Quality?).

Meaningfulness and mattering: Are individual values and goals considered in the development process? Percentage increase or decrease in an individual’s sense that work matters as indicated by a variety of factors such as developing and becoming self, expressing full potential, unity with others, service to others, moral correctness, expressiveness and identification at work and work utility. Measure of cognitive (intellectual sense of how things are connected), affective (sense of importance or value) and motivational (sense of direction) aspects for an individual.  Purpose- and meaning-related employee satisfaction trends by role or function and demographics (Results For America, What is Job Quality?) 

Purpose and Meaning: The extent jobseekers and workers feel work tasks are significant, interesting and challenging. This also includes how well a job, career path, specific employer or industry aligns with an individual’s strengths, interests and values. Metrics include: Increase/number of individuals with understanding of purpose and meaning as a result of intervention (intervention may be an effort on the part of workforce entity or employer change); Increase/percentage of funds allocated to roles/programs/organizations making shifts in purpose or meaning as a result of intervention (intervention may be an effort on the part of workforce entity or employer change); Increase/percentage or number of individuals educated about importance of purpose and meaning (intervention may be an effort on the part of workforce entity or employer change); Variance in success outcomes (time to placement, wages, etc.) for individuals requiring or prioritizing aspects of meaningfulness or alignment vs. those who do not (at various points in time) (Results For America, What is Job Quality?)

OECD Job Quality Measurement – Quality of Working Environment: The quality of the working environment (QWE) captures non-economic aspects of employment. Having a quality job does not just mean receiving good salaries or having good career prospects, but also providing workers with a chance to fulfil their ambitions, to feel useful in society and build self-esteem, as work often represents their main recognised contribution to the community where they live. The quality of the working environment thus considers factors which make the working environment conducive to personal accomplishment; it includes the nature and content of the work performed, working-time arrangements, workplace relationships as well as opportunities for training. The quality of the working environment is an important driver of individual well-being and depends crucially on whether workers have autonomy in their job, are given learning opportunities and well-defined work objectives and also receive constructive feedback. Good relationships with colleagues are also important. When jobs and workplaces combine these factors, people are more apt to manage work pressure and difficult tasks; they also tend to be healthier, more satisfied with their job and more productive. But working conditions may also impinge negatively upon an individual’s personal life (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality).

Quality of the working environment is measured by the incidence of job strain among employees, where job strain is defined as jobs where workers face more job demands than the number of resources they have at their disposal. Taking into account of data availability, two types of job demands are identified: i) time pressure which encompasses long working hours, high work intensity and working time inflexibility; and ii) physical health risk factors, such as dangerous work (i.e. being exposed to noise, vibrations, high and low temperature) and hard work (i.e. carrying and moving heavy loads, painful and tiring positions). Similarly, two types of job resources are considered, namely: i) work autonomy and learning opportunities which include workers’ freedom to choose and change their work tasks and methods, as well as formal (i.e. training) and informal learning opportunities at work; and ii) workplace relationships which measure the extent to which good relations prevail among colleagues (Table 2). The composite job-strain index accounts for the buffering effect of job resources on the relationship between job demands and well-being at work; it refers to those jobs where the workers face one demand but have no resources or face two demands but have one or no resource (OECD, Measuring and Assessing Job Quality).

Companies establish a strong purpose-driven corporate culture that employees can contribute to and benefit from (Wharton).

Companies analyze the impact of a range of levers, including, but not limited to, wage and non-wage benefits, employee stock ownership, inclusion initiatives, health & safety measures, labour policies and lifestyle benefits throughout the organization over various periods of time (Wharton).

Employers recognize low-wage employees as critical assets. Instead of perceiving low-wage workers as a cost, employers need to view such workers as assets. The skills, experience and implicit knowledge of low-wage workers are intangible assets of real value to companies (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Hiring: Relax English language fluency requirements (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Hiring: Practice skills-based (e.g., using skills and competencies as the requirements for the job rather than a degree or credential) job descriptions (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Hiring: Practice name-blind resume review (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Hiring: Work with trusted community organizations to recruit candidates  (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Offboarding and Post-exit: Track why low-wage employees quit or take jobs with other employers (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Offboarding and Post-exit: Track which companies or industries your low-wage employees move to when they quit your company (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Offboarding and Post-exit: Ask low-wage employees leaving the company if they felt valued while in their job (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Offboarding and Post-exit: Hold exit interviews when low-wage employees leave (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Offboarding and Post-exit: (Employer survey only) Identify and track root causes of turnover for low-wage employees (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Offboarding and Post-exit: (Employer survey only) Create a plan to address root causes of turnover for low-wage employees (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Measures of economic mobility: Absolute mobility refers to any economic changes (often increases or decreases in income) at the individual or household level, adjusted for inflation. Relative mobility refers to how individuals or households move their position along an economic distribution. Intragenerational mobility describes changes in economic status over the course of an adult’s working life (ages 25 to 64), i.e., within a generation. Intergenerational mobility compares an adult child’s economic status to that of her or his parents, typically at or near the same age, i.e., across generations (Institute for Research on Poverty).

Units of measurement: Some research compares income at the individual level, while other studies look at the household or family income, as larger households and families benefit from economies of scale with respect to living costs (Levine, 2012; Rose, 2018) and pool income among earners. Trends in mobility vary depending on the unit of measurement, so both are valuable to consider (Institute for Research on Poverty).

Types of data (e.g., individual vs. aggregate data): While most mobility studies compare matched parent-child samples, some rely in part on aggregate data. For example, Aaronson and Mazumder (2008) estimate intergenerational elasticity by comparing an adult son’s earnings to an estimate of his parents’ household earnings, derived from aggregate state and year specific census data (Institute for Research on Poverty).

Economic mobility indicators: Income, earnings, wealth, occupational status. (a) Income or earnings: Most studies measure economic mobility using income or earnings. In the mobility literature, researchers generally use the term “income” to refer to family or household income; and “earnings” to refer to individual earnings/income. The literature is inconsistent about the forms of income included in each; (b) Wealth: Although measures of wealth may be of interest, those data are rarely available (Winship, 2017) and the few studies that include wealth elasticity have findings similar to income elasticity (Killewald, Pfeffer, & Schachner, 2017). Most wealth mobility research uses the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (PSID), which began asking about wealth only in 1984; (c) Occupational categories: Sociological research historically measured intergenerational mobility with occupational categories that correspond to differing levels of education and income. Large datasets with individual income data are only available for recent decades; historically, occupation data was much easier to obtain (Torche, 2013). Occupational rankings, however, are more subjective than income and thus, changes in occupational mobility are harder to interpret (Winship, 2017) (Institute for Research on Poverty).

Intergenerational mobility measurements: Rank-rank mobility, intergenerational elasticity, intergenerational correlation. (a) Rank-rank mobility: Rank-rank mobility metrics compare the relative positions of parents to their adult children at similar points in the life cycle (Venator & Reeves, 2015). The “rank” (position) of the parent is compared to the rank of the adult child at a time deemed to be equivalent. This allows researchers to make claims about changes in mobility at different points in the distribution and in different directions (Bhattacharya & Mazumder, 2011; Corak, Lindquist, & Mazumder, 2014; Winship, 2017); (b) Intergenerational earnings elasticity: Much intergenerational mobility research — particularly international comparisons — measures mobility using persistence or intergenerational earnings elasticity (IGE). IGE could also be understood as the rate of regression to mean income. IGE measures the extent to which economic differences between families persists across generations (Aaronson & Mazumder, 2008). It estimates the percentage of a child’s income (as an adult) attributable to their family income during childhood. IGE does not, however, allow for differentiation between upward and downward mobility (Mazumder, 2015). IGE is typically considered a relative mobility metric (Chetty, Hendren, Kline, Saez, & Turner, 2014), but some argue it better describes absolute mobility (Winship, 2017); (c) Intergenerational correlation: Some research also uses intergenerational correlation (IGC), which measures positional mobility, i.e., the likelihood of moving positions in the income distribution relative to parental position at the same age. IGC and IGE patterns do not always align (Aaronson & Mazumder, 2008). IGC is similar to rank-rank mobility. IGC measures the correlation of parent and child incomes, whereas rank-rank mobility measures the correlation of parent and child income percentile ranks (Chetty et al. 2014). Some of the literature uses IGC and rank-rank mobility interchangeably (Mazumder, 2015) (Institute for Research on Poverty).

Relevant income to measure (e.g., taxable income; pre-tax income; disposable cash income; unrealized capital assets and noncash transfers): Income distribution position and mobility estimates can vary depending on which type of income is measured. Taxable income (derivable from federal tax data) includes all income reported on tax returns and includes capital income but does not include some public benefit cash transfers, such as Social Security and unemployment compensation. Pre-tax income (derivable from the Census’s Current Population Survey), alternatively, includes cash transfers but does not include capital gains. Disposable household money income adds cash transfers and adjusts for taxes and household size (Levine, 2012). Marginal tax rates and tax credits can have large effects on disposable income at the top and bottom of the distribution, respectively. For this reason, mobility estimates that exclude taxes may misrepresent people’s economic realities. None of these measures reflect unrealized capital assets, such as home purchases, nor do they reflect noncash transfers, such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and housing subsidies (Institute for Research on Poverty).

Age and timing of data sample (e.g., point-in-time vs. average income): Many people do not experience linear income growth throughout their adult life, which can make it challenging to determine the appropriate points of comparison to provide a meaningful measure of mobility. About 10 percent of U.S. households shift income quintiles every year due to life cycle effects (Larrimore, Mortenson, & Splinter, 2015) and income may look very different before and after having a child, particularly for women who are more likely to temporarily leave the labor force. The common solution is to measure income near age 40, when transitory fluctuations are less common and earnings trajectories are typically well established (Torche, 2013). For intergenerational comparisons, Mazumder and Acosta (2015) recommend using 10-year averages centered at age 42 (Institute for Research on Poverty).

Demographics of the sampled population (e.g., include only U.S.-born individuals, working adults or intergenerational mobility from fathers to sons only). A fair amount of mobility research examines mobility among only native-born U.S. citizens and does not disaggregate mobility trends by race. The research that does disaggregate generally only examines blacks and whites due to sample size limitations for other racial and ethnic groups. Mobility research frequently excludes Asian Americans and American Indians/Alaskan Natives due to small sample sizes, particularly in the PSID. Trends for Hispanic, Asian and Native Americans are discussed where available. Several studies exclude households making very low, zero or negative income, particularly studies that use tax data, as people with extremely low and zero income who file tax returns are not considered representative of the zero income population and people who report negative income typically experienced large capital losses, which typically signifies wealth (Chetty et al., 2014). Winship (2011), for example, excludes the bottom (and top) 2% of income observations from his analysis. However, excluding these individuals from analysis can bias results and overstate rates of mobility (Dynan, Elmendorf, & Sichel, 2012; Chetty et al., 2014; Mazumder, 2015). Finally, individual intergenerational earnings mobility estimates typically compare men, specifically fathers to sons, excluding women from analysis, as well as sons from single-mother households, which can bias estimates (Corak et al., 2014). While these studies may not generalize to women or to children from single-mother families, other research suggests that men and women experience similar rates of household intergenerational mobility, but that women’s household mobility is more often attributable to their spouse or partner’s earning mobility, whereas men’s mobility is generally due to their own earnings (Chadwick & Solon, 2002). Further, increases in women’s labor force participation over time complicate trends both at the individual level and at the household level (Institute for Research on Poverty).

Measures of children’s outcomes in adulthood (Credit and debt measures): Average credit score, debt delinquency, debt delinquency accounting for income, auto loan balance, mortgage balance, credit card balance, student loan balance (Opportunity Atlas).

Measures of children’s outcomes in adulthood (Income and employment measures): Household income at age 35, individual income (excluding spouse) at age 35, spouse’s income at age 35, employment rate at age 35, hours worked per week at age 35 fraction in top 20% based on household income, fraction based on top 1% based on household income, fraction in top 20% based on individual income, fraction in top 1% based on individual income, hourly wage at age 35, household income for those staying in the same commuting zone, individual income for those staying in the same commuting zone, household income for US natives, household income for immigrants, individual income for US natives, individual income for immigrants (Opportunity Atlas).

Measures of children’s outcomes in adulthood (Other life events): Incarceration rate, teenage birth rate, fraction married at age 35, number of children, Percent staying in same commuting zone as adults, percent staying in same census tract as adults (Opportunity Atlas).

Neighborhood characteristics to measure economic opportunity: median rent, job growth rate, median household income of residents, poverty rate, percent of college graduates, percent single parents, population density, density of jobs, fraction of residents with short work commutes, census response rate (as a social capital proxy), demographics by race and ethnicity (Opportunity Atlas).

Percentage of individuals who reach the level of earnings needed to enter the fourth (60th to 80th percentile) income quintile in their state or above 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 years after completing their highest degree or leaving education (high school or postsecondary) (EW Framework).

Household income at 20th, 50th and 80th percentiles. This metric captures the financial resources available to low-, middle- and high-income households and the extent of income inequality in a community. Larger gaps between values for the three income groups indicate greater inequities (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Intergenerational mobility measurement – rank-rank mobility vs. intergenerational elasticity. Rank-rank mobility metrics compare the relative positions of parents to their adult children at similar points in the life cycle (Venator & Reeves, 2015). The “rank” (position) of the parent is compared to the rank of the adult child at a time deemed to be equivalent. This allows researchers to make claims about changes in mobility at different points in the distribution and in different directions (Bhattacharya & Mazumder, 2011; Corak, Lindquist, & Mazumder, 2014; Winship, 2017) (Institute of Research on Poverty) 

Percent of college graduates who out-earn their parents at the same age in their first job out of college (Braven).

Percentage of low-wage employees who moved out of poverty who stay in the industry or switch industries after five years (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Employee attitudes about upward mobility. For instance, the Harvard Business School’s “Upward Mobility Survey of Low-Wage Workers in the U.S.” (2020) asked respondents to report on the biggest contributors to their upward mobility. Responses included, “I was interested in moving up,” “I wanted to take on the additional responsibility that would be required if I were to move up,” “I believed moving up was possible,” “My family and/or peers were supportive of me trying to move up,” “I was not afraid to be rejected for a job application,” “I did not worry that if I applied to a higher-level job and my application was not accepted there would be negative consequences for my job” (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Employee attitudes about barriers to upward mobility. For instance, the Harvard Business School’s “Upward Mobility Survey of Low-Wage Workers in the U.S.” (2020) asked respondents to report on the biggest barriers to their upward mobility. Responses included, “I don’t have any interest in moving up,” “I don’t want to take on the additional responsibility that would be required if I were to move up,” “I don’t believe moving up is possible,” “My family and/or peers are not supportive of me trying to move up,” “I do not want to be rejected for a promotion,” “I worry if I apply to a higher-level job and my application is not accepted there will be negative consequences for my job” (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Employee outlook on barriers to upward mobility for low-wage employees at their company. For instance, the Harvard Business School’s “Upward Mobility Survey of Low-Wage Workers in the U.S.” (2020) asked respondents to report on the biggest barriers to low-wage employees at their company. They are asked how strongly they disagree or agree with the following statements: “Low-wage employees don’t have interest in moving up,” “Low-wage employees don’t want to take on the additional responsibility that would be required if they were to move up,” “Low-wage employees don’t believe moving up is possible,” “Low-wage employees’ family and/or peers are not supportive of them trying to move up,” “Low-wage employees don’t want to be rejected for a promotion,” “Low-wage employees worry if they apply to a higher-level job and their application is not accepted there will be negative consequences for their job” (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Overall financial well-being: Percentage of adults reporting feeling “better off” (or “worse off”) financially compared to 12 months prior (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Intergenerational mobility: Likelihood of children from low-income families reaching the top 5% of income distribution, compared to children from high-income families. For example, a study by Tom Hertz at The Center for American Progress found that children from low-income families in the United States have only a 1% chance of reaching the top 5% of the income distribution, versus children of the rich who have about a 22% chance (Understanding Mobility in America).

Intergenerational mobility: Likelihood of children from the middle quintile of parental income ending up in a lower (or higher) quintile than their parents. For example, a study by Tom Hertz at The Center for American Progress found that children born to the middle quintile of parental family income ($42,000 to $54,300) had about the same chance of ending up in a lower quintile than their parents (39.5%) as they did of moving to a higher quintile (36.5%). Their chances of attaining the top five percentiles of the income distribution were just 1.8% (Understanding Mobility in America).

Year-to-year change or volatility in household income (Understanding Mobility in America).

Share of households who experienced significant downward short-term mobility. For instance, the share of households who saw their incomes decline by $20,000 or more within a year-to-year time frame (Understanding Mobility in America).

Employee perceptions about the connection between their personal circumstances and  upward mobility. For instance, the Harvard Business School’s “Upward Mobility Survey of Low-Wage Workers in the U.S.” (2020) asked respondents to report on the biggest contributors to their upward mobility. Responses included, “I had reliable transportation to and from work,” “I had reliable caregiving options for looking after family,” “I felt comfortable asking my manager/supervisor for assistance when I had personal issues preventing me from moving up (e.g., lack of transportation, family caregiving issue),” “I could afford the upfront costs for actions I needed to take to move upward,” “I had the time needed to get the training, certifications and/or skills needed to move up,” “I could stay in my job long enough to move up” (Harvard Business School, Building from the Bottom Up).

Income inequality. Countries with greater inequality of incomes also tend to be countries in which countries with greater inequality of incomes also tend to be countries in which a greater fraction of economic advantage and disadvantage is passed on between greater fraction of economic advantage and disadvantage is passed on between parents and their children. Miles Corak, in his study “Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity and Intergenerational Mobility” measures income inequality as the Gini coefficient, using disposable household income for about 1985 as provided by the OECD (Miles Corak).

Intergenerational economic mobility: Miles Corak, in his study “Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity and Intergenerational Mobility” measures intergenerational economic mobility as the elasticity between paternal earnings and a son’s adult earnings, using data on a cohort of children born, roughly speaking, during the early to mid 1960s and measuring their adult outcomes in the mid to late 1990s. (Note that this study uses the earnings of fathers and sons to avoid the more complicated analyses needed to address the changing role of women in the labor force. It is not that studies of mothers, daughters and the marriage market do not exist, only that father–son analyses are more common and permit a broader set of cross-country comparisons) (Miles Corak).

College earnings premium. The earnings premium refers to the ratio of average earnings of men 25 to 34 years of age with a college degree to the average earnings of those with a high school diploma. This is measured as the average employment income in 2009 of men 25 to 34 years of age with a college degree relative to the average income of their counterparts with a high school diploma (Miles Corak).

Middle class household income growth over time. Measured as the average cumulative growth in household income after transfers and taxes, disaggregated by quintile. A study by the Brookings Institute found the middle class has experienced much slower income growth than both the affluent (who have seen rising wages) and the poor (who have been helped by an expanded safety net). The household incomes in the middle 60% of the distribution have grown only about half as fast as those in the bottom and top 20%, once taxes and transfers are taken into account (Brookings, A New Contract with the Middle Class).

Middle class wage growth over time. Wages are the main source of income for middle-class families – more so than for the affluent, who get some of their income from capital or for those experiencing poverty, who receive a much higher share of their income from government transfers. But wage growth in the middle and bottom of the earnings distribution has been sluggish in recent decades (Brookings, A New Contract with the Middle Class).

Percentage of children earning more than their parents. A study by the Brookings Institute found the chances of a middle-class earner (in deciles four through seven of the distribution) moving up to the top fifth of the earnings ladder, over a 15-year period, has dropped by 20% since the early 1980s (Brookings, A New Contract with the Middle Class).

Income inequality measured by household income as estimated in the Current Population Survey (CPS), a survey of households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in partnership with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These estimates refer to gross (pretax) income and encompass most sources of income. A key omission is the value of in-kind services received from government sources. Because income taxes are progressive and in-kind services also serve to boost the economic wellbeing of (poorer) recipients, not accounting for these two factors could overstate the true gap in the financial resources of poorer and richer households (Pew Research).

Income inequality measurements that take into account cash transfers and in-kind services. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) offers an alternative estimate of income inequality that accounts for federal taxes and a more comprehensive array of cash transfers and in-kind services than is possible with Current Population Survey data. The CBO finds that the Gini coefficient in the U.S. in 2016 ranged from 0.595, before accounting for any forms of taxes and transfers, to 0.423, after a full accounting of taxes and transfers. These estimates bracket the Census Bureau’s estimate of 0.481 for the Gini coefficient in 2016. By either estimate, income inequality in the U.S. is found to have increased by about 20% from 1980 to 2016 (The Gini coefficient ranges from 0 to 1 or from perfect equality to complete inequality). Findings from other researchers show the same general rise in inequality over this period regardless of accounting for in-kind transfers (Pew Research).

Measurements of inequality in consumption, which implicitly accounts for all forms and sources of incomes, taxes and transfers. Some estimates based on consumption show that inequality in the U.S. increased by less than implied by estimates based on income, but other estimates suggest the trends based on consumption and income are similar. Empirically, consumption can be harder to measure than income (Pew Research).

Gaps in income between upper-income and middle- and lower-income households (Pew Research).

Share of aggregate income held by upper-, middle- and lower-income households (Pew Research).

Income growth for upper-, middle- and lower-income households. Average annual change in mean family income, by income quintile and for the top 5% (Pew Research).

Median wealth of families. Other than income, the wealth of a family is a key indicator of its financial security. Wealth, or net worth, is the value of assets owned by a family, such as a home or a savings account, minus outstanding debt, such as a mortgage or student loan. Accumulated over time, wealth is a source of retirement income, protects against short-term economic shocks and provides security and social status for future generations.

Wealth gap among upper-income families and middle- and lower-income families.

Share of aggregate wealth held by upper-, middle- and lower-income households

Wealth growth for upper-, middle- and lower-income households. Average annual change in median family wealth, by wealth quintile and for the top 5% (Pew Research).

Income inequality: Ratio of income at the 90th percentile to income at the 10th percentile (90/10 ratio).

Focus on youth. Existing workforce policies typically target the current generation of working adults in areas or sectors with declining employment (e.g., job retraining or trade adjustment assistance programs). Our results suggest it may be equally important to invest in supporting the next generation of children in these communities through targeted job training and mentorship programs for youth and young adults or investment in schools (Opportunity Insights).

Target interventions at communities, not just neighborhoods. Most place-based efforts to improve economic mobility focus on neighborhoods as a whole. Our results show that social communities — defined by whom children interact with while they grow up — are a key unit at which change occurs. One approach to increasing opportunity is to increase connections between communities (e.g., through policies to reduce segregation or foster cross-class and race interaction in schools and neighborhoods). A complementary approach is to target childhood development programs to social communities with low levels of economic mobility (Opportunity Insights).

Social capital in addition to financial and human capital. Most economic mobility policies provide financial capital (e.g., the Earned Income Tax Credit, Pell grants) or human capital (e.g., K-12 education). Our findings suggest that investing in social capital may be equally important. Consistent with this finding, evaluations of programs — from housing vouchers to job training to higher education — show that combining financial resources with social support and connections (e.g., housing navigators, connections to employers or college counselors) has the greatest impacts. Targeting such programs to communities with limited opportunity has the potential to improve economic opportunity and narrow racial and socioeconomic disparities significantly (Opportunity Insights).

Workforce upskilling policies for employers: Determine the Skills Necessary for Success Today. Begin by identifying the skills employees need to perform their current roles effectively. This requires a deep understanding of each role you hope to upskill. Consider the following: What duties does each position have? What business metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) does the role impact, whether directly or indirectly? What would it look like for your employees to work five or 10% more efficiently? What specific skills could empower them to work more efficiently and drive that productivity boost? Keep in mind that critical competencies will differ across teams. Your accounting team may require finance and accounting skills to excel; the same isn’t true for your marketing or business administration teams, which would prioritize marketing skills and business essentials, respectively (Harvard Business School Online).

Workforce upskilling practices for employers: Identify Skills Necessary for Organizational Initiatives. Evaluating workforce skills based solely on current demands isn’t enough; consider what they’ll need to be successful over the next year, five years or 10 years. Consider the following: What direction is your organization moving in? What new products or services do you want to launch? What new markets do you plan to enter? What new technologies or systems are you hoping to implement and what skills will be required on an organizational level to help you get there? (Harvard Business School Online).

Workforce upskilling practices for employers: Document Employee Strengths and Weaknesses. Identify and celebrate areas of proficiency while also recognizing areas of weakness, which will ultimately form the basis of your upskilling program. Where weaknesses exist, prioritize them to guide your efforts. Start with what’s essential to the job, followed by skills that aren’t as necessary but could lead to significant productivity and efficiency gains. The lowest priority should be skills considered “nice to have” rather than essential (Harvard Business School Online).

Workforce upskilling practices for employers: Design Your Employee Training and Development Program. The next and possibly most intensive step is implementing a training and development program to help your employees learn the missing skills. Your program’s structure will depend on several factors, including your internal resources and expertise, the availability of external training materials and how much control you want over the learning experience (Harvard Business School Online).

Workforce upskilling practices for employers: Incentivize Employees. If your organization already offers an upskilling program but struggles with completion rates, consider offering incentives to motivate employees. While career growth is a long-term upskilling benefit, offering more immediate rewards can boost engagement, establish goodwill and even encourage healthy competition among team members. Some potential incentives to consider include: Public recognition in a company announcement or during an all-staff meeting; Financial rewards, such as a bonus or raise, when upskilling goals are met; A promotion or title change once certain educational requirements are attained (Harvard Business School Online).

Workforce upskilling practices for employers: Formalize the Upskilling Process. Instead of establishing your upskilling program as an optional component of corporate learning, consider integrating it into your existing systems and processes as a mandatory requirement. For instance, during annual performance reviews or when creating personal development plans, ask employees to choose a skill from your list as something they can focus on over the year. You might suggest a skill to benefit them and explain how your development program can support their progress. This approach has two key benefits: Accountability – It puts upskilling goals in writing, making it possible to evaluate employee progress toward mastering the skill; and Career alignment – It ties upskilling to career development, incentivizing completion (Harvard Business School Online).

Workforce upskilling practices for employers: Make it Continuous. Think of upskilling not as a one-time initiative, but a continuous investment in your employees. Routinely evaluate employee proficiencies to identify where skill gaps exist and opportunities for additional training. Periodically evaluate them to determine their effectiveness. Are you seeing measurable progress? If not, don’t hesitate to adjust. For example, organizations with an informal mentorship program might choose to move to a more structured learning experience (Harvard Business School Online).

Skill-based hiring practices for employers: Aligning Job Duties With Skills. Create skills-based hiring crosswalks, both offline and within your applicant tracking system (ATS), to address your organization’s evolving needs (SHRM Foundation).

Skill-based hiring policies for employers: Expand Channels for Sourcing Candidates. Identify qualified talent through traditional and non-traditional sourcing channels via app-based tools. To expand the talent pool, employers need to become more creative in actively sourcing candidates, not just from traditional job boards (i.e., Indeed, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter), but other talent pools (i.e., veterans, military spouses and caregivers, individuals age 60 or older, disabled workers, those with a criminal record and opportunity youth). Social media and other web-based resources can be powerful tools to locate untapped talent pools (SHRM Foundation).

Skill-based hiring practices for employers: Assessing Hard & Soft Skills. Leverage tools for assessing hard and soft skills like computer literacy, writing competency, creativity and critical thinking (SHRM Foundation).

Skill-based hiring practices for employers: Assessing Current Job Market Trends. Access current job market reports with industry-specific considerations and talent heatmaps within your geographical area (SHRM Foundation).

Skill-based hiring practices for employers: Industry-Specific Employee Value Propositions. Create compelling employee value propositions for your organization to attract qualified candidates. The employee value proposition communicates the values and culture of the organization and takes the focus off salary as the sole reason for working there. It is a part of employer branding that can attract candidates that employers desire and keep workers engaged (SHRM Foundation).

Skill-based hiring practices for employers: Formal Upskilling Programs. Design upskilling programs to fill in-demand roles with internal workers who demonstrate transferrable skills. 3 Identifying internal talent with transferrable skills and upskilling them to fill in-demand roles eliminates time and reduces employment costs. Upskilling has also been proven to improve retention, boost morale, increase customer satisfaction and attract new talent (SHRM Foundation).

Skill-based hiring practices for employers: Differentiated Job Postings. Construct skills-based job descriptions that go beyond lists of functions and qualifications, while including only the skills required for the actual job. Be transparent within job postings about the hiring process (e.g., are assessments required?); the timeline for hiring decisions to be made; the wage (e.g., offering a range is a start, but sharing the minimum starting wage is better); whether or not candidates with criminal histories are eligible, etc. Encourage prospective employees to include referrals and recommendations when skills are not easily translated to job requirements in postings (SHRM Foundation).

Skill-based hiring practices for employers: Interviewing Scorecard. Generate interview scorecards that objectively and quantitatively assess candidates for aptitude and fit. By using quantitative interview scorecards to evaluate candidates — and by comparing interview-based predictions with performance on the job — it’s possible to boost your organization’s return on human capital investment, reduce turnover and increase retention. Each interviewer scores the candidate on the same set of criteria and the hiring team can meet and compare scores objectively (SHRM Foundation).

Skill-based hiring practices for employers: Compelling Employee Benefits. Create a powerful total rewards program that will attract the best talent and encourage them to stay and grow within your organization. Relevant benefits can include extended medical insurance, paid time off, profit sharing, learning and development strategies, retirement benefits and more. A well-constructed rewards program can contribute significantly to employee recruitment and retention (SHRM Foundation).

Skill-based hiring practices for employers: Behavioral Interview Guide. Train HR professionals and hiring managers on behavioral interviewing to assess qualifications more effectively. A behavioral interview guide provides a structured process that helps interviewers avoid making decisions based solely on a gut feeling. It also helps less experienced interviewers avoid unlawful or biased questions, such as about age, marital status, disability, etc. When paired with another selection tool (i.e., personality assessments, cognitive tests), behavioral interviews can be a great way to evaluate candidates (SHRM Foundation).

Richard Reeves and Isabel Sawhill of Brookings propose new pro-work contract with the middle class includes the following: A $12 per hour federal minimum wage floor, but with higher rates in many areas; Worker tax credits for the bottom half of wage earners, administered through an offset to their payroll taxes; Tax incentives for corporations to train their workers and share profits broadly; Labor law reform and workers’ councils to strengthen employee engagement and bargaining power; Adequate fiscal and monetary stimulus to create and maintain full employment (Brookings, A New Contract with the Middle Class).

Richard Reeves and Isabel Sawhill of Brookings propose eliminating income tax by raising the standard deduction for most middle-class families — specifically, any married couple making less than $100,000 a year or any single person making less than $50,000. This is an average tax cut of around $1,600 for middle-class families (Brookings, A New Contract with the Middle Class).

State policies to increase the minimum wage.  For example, states and localities are piloting solutions like policies that index the minimum wage to inflation. 13 states and the District of Columbia have policies that increase (or index) their state’s minimum wage based on inflation. Most of those indexed increases are based on the August-to-August change in the Consumer Price Index (Jobs for the Future and Economic Policy Institute).

Promoting pay transparency: A major shift is already brewing across U.S. workplaces, fueled in part by a recent wave of pay transparency laws popping up across the country. These laws require employers to provide information about salary ranges and the criteria that inform decisions about salary levels to both current employees and job candidates (Jobs for the Future).

Promoting wage theft prevention regulations: Enacting or strengthening wage theft prevention laws is another way for states and localities to ensure that workers in their regional economies receive fair compensation. These laws set clear standards for what constitutes wage theft and call for monitoring of employer practices to ensure that jobs are properly classified and employers comply with overtime rules (Jobs for the Future).

Earmarking funding for programs that build pathways to quality jobs. States and localities are increasingly tying their workforce investments to initiatives that promote job quality. Through skills development, sector partnerships, career pathways and work-based learning programs, these regions are maximizing their workforce investments — guided by strategy and measurement — to ensure that workers can not only survive but contribute back to a thriving economy where quality employers are the norm (Jobs for the Future).

Work-based learning: In recent years, policies that advance apprenticeship and other work-based learning models have gained significant bipartisan support among state and local officials across the country. Strategies that have proved effective at building viable pathways to quality jobs include apprenticeship tax credits, college-sponsored apprenticeships and funding for wraparound supports. For example, in the state of Washington, the long-term care industry has been experiencing a workforce crisis, so the state’s Training and Education Coordinating Board established a new nursing apprenticeship program that moves certified nursing assistants and home care aides along a pathway to becoming licensed practical nurses. It’s one of the first Registered Apprenticeship programs in the state that specifically serves frontline caregivers in long-term care and creates supported pathways into nursing careers. (Jobs for the Future).

Employer incentives: Other state and local governments have enacted targeted tax credit legislation, creating tangible incentives and supports for employers who provide quality jobs. These credits are often tied to specific commitments on the part of the employer, such as providing workers with clear pathways to career advancement and opportunities to build new skills (Jobs for the Future).

Advancing equity and inclusion in the workforce: State and local policymakers are expanding access to quality jobs for members of populations that have long faced barriers to employment in three ways: supporting hiring efforts that give priority to local workers, advancing programs that open new career opportunities for people with criminal records and promoting skills-first hiring (Jobs for the Future).

Place-based hiring initiatives: Often supported by tax breaks or rules requiring companies to hire local residents if they want to win government contracts, place-based hiring initiatives can stimulate local economies and ensure that residents are the first to benefit from new economic activity and government spending. For example, as part of a deal to spend $850 million in public funds on the construction of a new stadium for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills franchise, New York state and Erie County officials worked with Bills officials to craft a community benefits agreement under which the team agreed to invest at least $3 million (indexed to the inflation rate) in the community in each year of the 30-year stadium lease. The team and stadium developers agreed to, among other things, adhere to living wage and prevailing wage standards in setting compensation levels for stadium construction contractors and future stadium employees. They also agreed to offer local companies, including “minority-owned” and women-owned businesses, opportunities to be part of the stadium construction project and ongoing operations and maintenance activities (Jobs for the Future).

Fair-chance hiring initiatives: To give people with records of arrests or convictions access to pathways to quality jobs, many state and local governments are implementing fair chance hiring initiatives, which often start with passage of “Ban the Box” laws that prevent employers from asking people whether they have criminal histories on job applications. And some are eliminating regulations that prevent people from holding certain jobs if they have criminal records. For example in 2015, Georgia enacted legislation that limits public employers in the state from conducting criminal background checks on job applicants during the initial stages of the hiring process (Jobs for the Future).

State and local officials are also exploring ways to craft policies that would encourage employers to forgo degree requirements and embrace skills-first hiring, meaning they’d evaluate candidates based on what they can do, not on their academic achievements. (Jobs for the Future).

Enhancing work-life balance and well-being. Across the country, state and local policy measures that promote improvements in paid family and medical leave, the affordability of child care and access to mental health and well-being supports could play key roles in improving job quality by improving non-financial benefits (Jobs for the Future).

Paid family and medical leave policies have become a focal point in many state and city-level efforts to enhance employee well-being. These policies generally mandate that employers provide a designated period of paid leave to employees for personal health needs, family care or other qualifying reasons. These initiatives prioritize the health and work-life balance of employees, ensuring that they can address personal and family matters without facing financial hardships. For example, in 2023, Illinois became the third state in the nation and the first in the Midwest, to mandate paid time off to be used for any reason. The measure, which takes effect January 1, 2024, guarantees 40 hours of paid leave during a 12-month period. In California, the Paid Family Leave program entitles workers who contribute to the California State Disability Insurance fund to eight weeks of partial pay within a 12-month period when taking time off to care for family members (Jobs for the Future).

Crafting policies that enable affordable child care solutions has long been a goal for many states and communities. These initiatives aim to alleviate the financial burden on families while ensuring that parents can participate fully in the workforce. Specific policy priorities vary, but many focus on providing funding subsidies, increasing the supply of child care “seats,” and establishing public-private partnerships. Iowa has launched innovative policy initiatives to significantly expand access to child care. New funding led to the creation of nearly 11,000 new child care spots for the children of working parents. Philadelphia has a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights that, among other things, established a portable paid sick day program that includes provisions entitling domestic workers to use paid time off for mental health days (Jobs for the Future).

Proposals for promoting employee mental health and well-being initiatives are gaining ground in policy discussions and such initiatives are becoming integral to state and regional workforce strategies. Of course, achieving this goal involves reshaping workplace cultures and there isn’t necessarily a straightforward way to craft policies that do that. Nonetheless, cities and states could help bolster and expedite employer initiatives supporting worker well-being by establishing benefits funds, incentive programs, recognition initiatives and more (Jobs for the Future).

Extend basic protections to all workers. Workers in alternative arrangements need access to the same basic protections that full-time wage workers have, including eligibility for minimum wage and overtime protections, the right to collectively bargain, discrimination protection, unemployment and workers compensation, disability insurance and access to retirement plans (Mobility Partnership).

Pilot and scale models for portable benefits. With the rise in contract work and people working for multiple employers, basic benefits that travel with workers will be a foundation for economic security (Mobility Partnership).

Support a strong role for workers in shaping the future. Invest in organizations that advocate on behalf of workers, create alliances for underserved workers across sectors and strengthen platforms that allow workers to have a voice in improving working conditions (Mobility Partnership).

Test wage subsidies for the most vulnerable. Pilot a subsidized jobs program that offers longer-term wage subsidies, job guarantees and skill development for those with serious barriers to obtaining and maintaining work. We also suggest examining whether a permanent subsidy program for lower-wage jobs could help disadvantaged workers (Mobility Partnership).

Expand the earned income tax credit. Expand the value of the credit for all adults, especially adults not living with children; include younger workers; and raise the maximum age at which people can receive the credit from 65 to 67 in line with the scheduled change in the retirement age for full Social Security benefits (Mobility Partnership).

Support a comprehensive strategy for improving jobs in the care sector. Jobs in some rapidly growing sectors, like care work, have low wages, less generous or no benefits, fewer legal protections and limited ways for workers to change their working environments. These sectors need to improve in the near term and develop a deeper strategy for rewarding and supporting the skills and experience of workers over their careers (Mobility Partnership).

Many states and localities have raised their own minimum wages. While the federal minimum wage only applies to a small proportion of the workforce, updating it and ideally indexing it to inflation would improve job quality for a critical segment of low-wage workers and symbolize a renewed commitment to those earners across the entire nation. Many progressive states and cities have done more to set the minimum wage above the federal floor, but some movement also is evident in more conservative political contexts, with ballot measures passed in 2024 in Missouri and Alaska. More states need to take this step in lieu of changes at the federal level (Washington Center for Equitable Growth).

Wage theft — including minimum-wage violations, failure to pay for all hours worked and violations of overtime pay requirements — occurs routinely and is patently unfair. The misclassification of workers as independent contractors when they should be counted as employees also robs them of minimum-wage protections and overtime pay, as well as Unemployment Insurance and coverage by other labor laws. Enforcement could certainly be increased and the financial penalties for violations also should be adjusted to motivate compliance and level the playing field for firms that follow the law (Washington Center for Equitable Growth).

Scheduling laws, often referred to as fair workweek, fair scheduling or predictive scheduling laws, aim to shift employers’ scheduling practices by requiring more stable schedules, advance notice of schedules or commitments to minimum hours. These regulations are standard in many countries and could be expanded in the United States. An evaluation of Seattle’s Secure Scheduling Ordinance, for example, finds that “eliminating schedule unpredictability would reduce the share of workers experiencing at least one material hardship by 45 percentage points (from 64% to 19%).” Additionally, that policy evaluation and a study of a stable-scheduling initiative at GAP Inc. stores find workers’ well-being and sleep improved with more schedule stability. The GAP study also demonstrates benefits to the firm via reduced turnover among experienced employees and increased productivity (Washington Center for Equitable Growth).

Passing paid leave laws also is an important priority for improving job quality for working families. Laws enacted in 13 states and Washington, DC demonstrate feasibility. Paid leave recognizes workers’ legitimate needs and signals respect for workers and their families. Paid leave also supports economic security by keeping people employed and providing income replacement at a critical time. California’s leave law, for example, nearly doubled access to pay during leaves, increasing benefits especially for low-income and less-educated workers and for men. New paid leave laws at the federal level would address these variations across states and help meet the needs of lower-income workers who are not as well-served by the federal unpaid family leave law and employer-provided benefits (Washington Center for Equitable Growth).

Facilitate opportunities for advancement and autonomy. Public policy can help expand collaborative training initiatives that engage multiple employers within a given industry. Such sectoral programs typically provide training for jobs in specific industries, such as health care, life sciences and technology, that have both good starting wages and promotion opportunities (Washington Center for Equitable Growth).

Rigorously evaluated programs, such as Project Quest and Year Up United, combine the training for these fields with soft-skills training, job-placement support and a variety of services, including transportation support and child care. Successful sectoral programs increase employment in high-wage jobs, but public investments and long-term commitments are needed to scale these programs. For instance, the Economic Development Administration within the U.S. Department of Commerce recently supported new communities of practice focused on specific industries’ or regions’ workforce development initiatives (Washington Center for Equitable Growth).

Policymakers also can also champion and incentivize employers who design work with autonomy and learning in mind. A long tradition of “high-performance work systems” research finds that the combination of certain practices, such as building autonomy, cross-training and other skills development and performance-based pay, can improve productivity, raise pay in some settings and also support workers’ well-being (Washington Center for Equitable Growth).

Public procurement policies that incorporate job-quality data could encourage employers to design work in these ways. Additionally, local policymakers and community leaders can establish community benefit agreements with developers and new employers, encouraging job-quality standards, the hiring of local workers and more (Washington Center for Equitable Growth).

Support worker power and union organizing. Worker power, including collective bargaining by unions, can advance all the elements of job quality discussed here. To protect workers’ rights to organize and pursue their own job-quality priorities, we need to strengthen the enforcement of existing laws and ideally update federal labor law as well (Washington Center for Equitable Growth).

Given how few U.S. workers are currently represented by unions and the limitations of current federal law, though, it is also important to pursue organizing innovations and state and local changes. One such innovation is the industry standard board, also known as a workforce standard board or sectoral co-regulation. These boards involve employers, state officials and worker representatives in certain industries. They give workers a formalized role in setting wage rates and benefits, often improving pay for those already above the minimum wage. Additionally, these boards can support the effective enforcement of labor laws, acting as partners to educate workers, employers and the broader community. “Bargaining for the common good” is another strategic innovation in which unions and other local organizations develop integrated campaigns focused on community concerns, such as housing, climate, racial justice, schools and also decent jobs. This approach may foster solidarity across people with different employment statuses, work experiences and backgrounds and provide a path toward feeling respected and recognized both at work and in the larger community (Washington Center for Equitable Growth).

Percentage of individuals who reach median levels of wealth 10, 15, 20 and 30 years after completing their highest degree or leaving education (high school, workforce training or postsecondary education (EW Framework).

Ratio of the share of total home values owned by a racial or ethnic group to the share of households of the same group. This metric shows the degree of racial and ethnic disparity in housing wealth. The larger the difference between the two values, the greater the inequities (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Share of adults with debt in collections. People with overdue debt typically have few assets or negative wealth (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Income: Household income at 20th, 50th and 80th percentiles (Urban Institute, Boosting Upward Mobility).

Financial security: Share of households with debt in collections  (Urban Institute, Boosting Upward Mobility).

Overall financial well-being: Percent of adults reported doing okay financially or living comfortably financially over time, disaggregated by educational level, racial and ethnic group, age group, disability status, metropolitan status and approximate neighborhood income levels (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Overall financial well-being: People’s main financial challenges or concerns (e.g., inflation and prices, basic living expenses, housing, employment, retirement and savings) (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Overall financial well-being: People’s self assessment of their personal financial well-being, their local economy’s well-being and the national economy (by year) (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Income and expenses – Family income: Reported amount of cash income from all sources that survey respondents and their spouse or partner received during the previous year.

Income and expenses – Sources of income: Total level of yearly income disaggregated by labor income (i.e. wages, salaries or self-employment) and non-labor income (i.e. interest, dividends or rental income; Social Security; Pension; SSI, TANF or cash assistance from a welfare program; unemployment income) (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Income and expenses – Income variability: Percent of survey respondents saying their income varied from month to month and percent of survey respondents saying this variation causes financial hardship for their family (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Income and expenses – Changes in income, spending and prices: Survey respondents reporting increases (or decreases) in monthly income and spending from 12 months earlier (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Income and expenses – Changes in income, spending and prices: Actions taken in response to higher prices in the prior 12 months (e.g., switching to cheaper products, using less or stopping using products, delaying a major purchase, reducing saving, increasing borrowing, working more, asking for a raise) (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Income and expenses – Spending relative to income: Percentage of respondents saying they spent less than their income in the month prior to the survey (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Income and expenses – Bills and regular expenses: Percentage of adults reporting that they did not pay all their bills in full in the prior month, disaggregated by family income level, age, race/ethnicity, disability status and parental status (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Income and expenses – Bills and regular expenses: Types of bills not paid in full in the prior month (e.g., water, gas and electric bills; phone, internet and cable bills; rent or mortgage; car payment; credit card) (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Income and expenses – Food sufficiency: Percentage of respondents saying that members of their household sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the prior month (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Income and expenses – Food sufficiency: Percentage of respondents saying that members of their household had enough to eat in the prior month, but not always the kinds of food they wanted to eat (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Income and expenses – Healthcare expenses: Percent of adults reporting going without some form of medical care in the past year because they could not afford it (e.g., dental care, seeing a doctor or specialist, prescription medicine, follow-up care, mental health care or counseling) (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Savings and investments – Emergency savings: Percentage of respondents saying they could cover a hypothetical emergency expense of $400 by using cash or its equivalent (e.g., savings or a credit card paid off at the next statement) (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Savings and investments – Emergency savings: Approach to covering a hypothetical $400 emergency expense other than with cash or its equivalent (e.g., putting it on a credit card and paying it off over time; borrowing from a friend or family member; selling something; using money from a bank loan or line of credit; using a payday loan, deposit advance or overdraft; foregoing the expense altogether) (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Savings and investments – Emergency savings: Largest emergency expense individuals could handle right now using only savings (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Savings and investments – Emergency savings: Percent of respondents reporting having savings sufficient to cover three months of expenses if they lost their primary source of income (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Savings and investments – Retirement savings: Percent of respondents having assets that are specifically designated for producing income in retirement. This can include tax-preferred retirement accounts and pensions (e.g., employer-sponsored defined contribution plans such as 401(k)s, individual retirement accounts (IRA), Roth IRAs, defined benefit pension through an employer). It can also include other assets such as an owned home; savings or money market accounts or certificates of deposit; stocks, bonds, ETFs or mutual funds held outside a retirement account; cash value in a life insurance policy; business or real estate (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Savings and investments – Retirement savings: Percent of respondents who view their retirement savings plan as being on track (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Savings and investments – Retirement savings: Percent of non-retirees who had a major unexpected medical expense or who experienced a layoff and had to borrow or cash out money from a retirement account or who had to reduce regular retirement account contributions (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Banking and credit – Financial fraud and scams: Percent of adults who reported that they experienced financial fraud or scams involving their money (credit card-related and non-credit card-related) (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Banking and credit – Bank account ownership: Percent of adults who report being “unbanked,” meaning neither they nor their spouse/partner have a checking, savings or money market account (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Banking and credit – Overdraft fees: Percent of adults who report having to pay an overdraft fee in the prior 12 months (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Banking and credit – Nonbank check cashing and money orders: Percent of adults who used non-bank check cashing or money orders (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Banking and credit – Credit outcomes and perceptions: Percent of adults who feel confident their credit card application would be approved if they were to apply (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Banking and credit – Credit outcomes and perceptions: Percent of adults applying for credit, disaggregated by race (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Banking and credit – Credit outcomes and perceptions: Percent of credit applicants who were denied credit or approved for less credit than they requested, disaggregated by race (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Banking and credit – Credit cards: Rate of credit card ownership (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Banking and credit – Credit cards: Percent of credit card holders who carry credit card balances from month to month (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Banking and credit – Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) products: Percent of people who used BNPL products in the last year. Buy Now, Pay Later products provide consumers the option to pay for a purchase with a small number of equal payments (usually four), often without being charged interest. For example, someone purchasing a $100 item may be able to make one payment of $25 at the time of purchase, then make three additional monthly payments of $25 (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Banking and credit – Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) products: Reasons for using BNPL, including the following responses: wanting to spread out payments, convenience, avoiding interest charges, the only way I could afford it, did not want to use a credit card, wanted a fixed number of payments, only accepted payment method I had (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

Banking and credit – Nonbank small dollar credit: Percent of adults who used a payday, pawn, auto title or tax refund anticipation loan, disaggregated by race, ethnicity and disability status (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking).

The MIT Living Wage Calculator provides an alternative measure of basic needs than the federal poverty level. It is a market-based approach that draws upon geographically specific expenditure data related to a family’s likely minimum food, childcare, health insurance, housing, transportation and other basic necessities (e.g. clothing, personal care items, etc.) costs. The living wage draws on these cost elements and the rough effects of income and payroll taxes to determine the minimum employment earnings necessary to meet a family’s basic needs while also maintaining self-sufficiency (MIT Living Wage Calculator).

Wealth as a cumulative measure: Wealth is typically measured as net worth: the sum of the value of a household’s assets, less the value of debts. Whereas income measures the flow of financial resources at a particular time, wealth is a cumulative stock that reflects years of prior circumstances and decisions (Wealth Inequality and Accumulation).

Trends in wealth levels, including mean and median household wealth (Wealth Inequality and Accumulation).

Measures of net worth inequality such as the Gini coefficient; the wealth share owned by the top 1%, top 5%, top 10% compared to the bottom 50%; the ratio of wealth owned by the 95th percentile compared to the 50th percentile (Wealth Inequality and Accumulation).

Establishing a local reparations program to make amends for historical harms and address the structural roots of ongoing wealth disparities (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Creating matched savings accounts for residents with low and moderate wealth.

Investing in baby bonds and other child development accounts (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).  

Providing local entrepreneurs and small-business owners with the supports they need to succeed, including capital and technical assistance (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Helping families with low and moderate incomes overcome barriers to homeownership, such as by providing down payment assistance (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Creating programs that allow renters to earn equity through their rent payments and share in the long-term appreciation of their homes (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Adopting community wealth-building strategies, such as establishing a public bank, supporting cooperatives and worker-owned businesses, implementing progressive procurement policies and supporting community land trusts and other models of collective ownership (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Creating a local living-wage ordinance that requires employers to pay wages higher than the federal minimum wage (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Strengthening the social safety net and reducing obstacles to accessing public benefits, such as asset limits (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Providing direct cash transfers to residents, such as through guaranteed income programs (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Reforming government fines and fees, which disproportionately affect residents with low incomes and wealth (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Helping residents access financial services and build credit safely, including by regulating predatory lending practices, such as payday loans (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Providing financial education and counseling services to residents (Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Initiative).

Strategies for Improving Public Benefits Access: (1) Treat Clients with Dignity and Humanity; (2) Engage Community Members, Organizations and Advocates; (3) Conduct Intentional, Data-Driven Outreach; (4) Use Technology to Simplify Application and Recertification Processes; (5) Adopt Practical Phone Call Processes; (6) Reduce Program Application Siloes; (7) Revise Unnecessary and Burdensome Policies; (8) Streamline Renewals; (9) Expand Eligibility and Benefits; (10 Partner with Civic Tech and Others to Implement Strategies (Urban Institute, Strategies for Improving Public Benefits Access and Retention).

Government transfer programs, including Aid to Families with Dependent Children/ Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (AFDC/TANF) and Medicaid, may affect household wealth by reducing saving incentives, encouraging dissaving due to asset tests, or both, but evidence for these effects is mixed (Gruber & Yelowitz 1999, Hurst & Ziliak 2006, Sullivan 2006) (Wealth Inequality and Accumulation).

Policies to increase savings incentives, such as matching contributions to savings accounts — which are sometimes contingent on using the savings for qualified expenditures such as purchasing a home, starting a business or financing education — may also spur asset-building among low-income households. However, whether these programs affect net worth — or merely incentivize the build-up of specific asset components at the expense of others — is less clear and these effects are small relative to the scope of US wealth inequality (Duflo et al. 2006, Grinstein-Weiss et al. 2014, Mills et al. 2008, Schreiner & Sherraden 2007) (Wealth Inequality and Accumulation).

General Family Safety Net Policies: Reducing or eliminating work requirements or defending against increased work requirements, for Medicaid, SNAP, housing and TANF; Smoothing benefit cliffs so that a small increase in income doesn’t mean families lose needed benefits; Removing or substantially increasing asset limits when determining eligibility for safety net programs; Connecting families to services via call centers, online service directories, community hubs in schools, community enrollment campaigns, etc. (The Alliance for Early Success).

Expanding access to Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF). Policies include Changing requirements and benefits; Using TANF for direct cash assistance to families with low income; Eliminating exclusions and punitive behavioral policies; Eliminating Full-Family Sanctions; Work Requirement Exemption; Decoupling TANF from Child Support; Work Requirement Reduction; Exemption on Benefit Time Limit for Pregnant People; Time limit extensions during times of high unemployment; Monthly diaper subsidy for parents or other caregivers receiving TANF; Providing TANF benefits to recent immigrants (<5 years) (The Alliance for Early Success).

Cash Assistance Policies, including: Universal Basic Income pilot programs; Baby Bonds or Child Trust Funds; Cash Assistance Policies designed for families (e.g., during pregnancy); Unemployment Insurance; Increasing Minimum Wage (The Alliance for Early Success).

Tax policies that states can choose to put into place to support economic security for families with young children: State Child Tax Credits; State Earned Income Tax Credits; State Dependent Care Tax Credit; Tax Credit Outreach; Young Child Tax Exemption; Property Tax Cuts for Child Care Providers; Poverty Income Tax Exemption; Progressive Tax System; Grocery Tax Reforms (The Alliance for Early Success).

Housing policies that states can choose to put into place to support economic security for families with young children: Establish automatic or streamlined eligibility for children experiencing homelessness; Childcare subsidy exceptions during homelessness; Pre-K priority during homelessness; Rental assistance for low-income families; Policies to keep rents low; Housing-based food access; Proxy for income in determining rental assistance eligibility; Improving affordable housing supply through zoning and procedural changes; Improving affordable housing supply through tax credits to developers; Using ARPA dollars for housing assistance; Establishing tenant’s rights (e.g., establishing eviction protections, expanding tenants’ rights to purchase properties); Improving home financing options for first-time homeowners, first responders, teachers and others (The Alliance for Early Success).

Food security policies that states can choose to put into place to support economic security for families with young children: Establishing Universal School Meals programs, Protecting family eligibility for transitional food assistance; Adjusting SNAP income and asset limits; Modernizing SNAP technology and business practices; Waiving SNAP time limits for certain categories of recipients in areas where there are insufficient jobs; Removing restrictions/requirements for people with prior drug-related felony convictions to access SNAP benefits; Protect SNAP recipients from skimming (via reimbursements); Increase WIC enrollment through targeted outreach; Remove child support cooperation requirements; Increase SNAP flexibility during a health pandemic or other emergencies (The Alliance for Early Success).

Paid Family and Medical Leave policies that states can choose to put into place to support economic security for families with young children: Offering paid family leave for a minimum of six weeks with partial replacement of wages; Offering accrual of at least five paid sick days; Expanding Paid Family Leave and increasing wage replacement, particularly so that low-income workers are better able to afford to take advantage of paid family and medical leave (The Alliance for Early Success).

Percentage of employees who have access to on-the-job training or a professional learning and development plan directly from their employer (EW Framework).

Percent of program participants who attain internships during college compared to national average. For example, Braven Fellows in the college graduating class of 2024 were 22 percentage points more likely to have at least one internship during their college experience compared to the national average (70% versus 48%) (Braven).

College students secure quality internships, serving as critical proof points of experience that open professional doors. The highest quality internships share these characteristics: they are paid, they have a plan for what the intern is learning, they include relatively high skill tasks with supervision and there is sufficient mentorship support (Braven).

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WOIA): Performance Indicator: Employment Rate after Exit – The percentage of participants who are in unsubsidized employment, education or training activities during the second and fourth quarters after exiting the program (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Performance Indicators and Measures)  (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Performance Indicators and Measures).

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WOIA): Performance Indicator: Title I Youth Education and Employment Rate after Exit – The percentage of Title I Youth program participants who are in education or training activities or in unsubsidized employment, during the second and fourth quarters after exiting the program (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Performance Indicators and Measures) (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Performance Indicators and Measures).

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WOIA): Performance Indicators and Measures: Median Earnings, 2nd quarter after exit – The median earnings of participants who are in unsubsidized employment during the second quarter after exit from the program (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Performance Indicators and Measures).

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WOIA)  Performance Indicators and Measures: Credential Attainment –  The percentage of those participants enrolled in an education or training program (excluding those in on-the-job training (OJT) and customized training) who attain a recognized postsecondary credential or a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent, during participation in or within one year after exit from the program. A participant who has attained a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent is included in the percentage of participants who have attained a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent only if the participant also is employed or is enrolled in an education or training program leading to a recognized postsecondary credential within one year after exit from the program (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Performance Indicators and Measures).

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WOIA) Performance Indicators and Measures: Measurable Skill Gains – The percentage of program participants who, during a program year, are in an education or training program that leads to a recognized postsecondary credential or employment and who are achieving measurable skill gains, defined as documented academic, technical, occupational or other forms of progress, towards such a credential or employment. Depending on the type of education or training program, documented progress is defined as one of the following: (a) Documented achievement of at least one educational functioning level of a participant who is receiving instruction below the postsecondary education level; (b) Documented attainment of a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent; (c) Secondary or postsecondary transcript or report card for a sufficient number of credit hours that shows a participant is meeting the State unit’s academic standards; (d) Satisfactory or better progress report, towards established milestones, such as completion of OJT or completion of one year of an apprenticeship program or similar milestones, from an employer or training provider who is providing training; or (e) Successful passage of an exam that is required for a particular occupation or progress in attaining technical or occupational skills as evidenced by trade-related benchmarks such as knowledge-based exams (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Performance Indicators and Measures).

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WOIA) Performance Indicators and Measures: Effectiveness in Serving Employers –  The percentage of participants in unsubsidized employment during the second quarter after exit who were employed by the same employer in the second and the fourth quarters after exit (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Performance Indicators and Measures).

Percent of available jobs that are at the middle-skill level, requiring more than a high school diploma but not a four year degree (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

Percent of workers who are trained at the middle-skill level (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

Fostering in-house talent. Corporate leaders increasingly recognize the value of upskilling to the business bottom line. Companies benefit from IET as a way to build incumbent workers’ skills so that they can promote from within, in recognition of the loyalty and institutional knowledge of their existing employees. Investing in current workers can also reduce business costs related to employee turnover and onboarding of new hires (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

Building the talent pipeline. Integrated Education Training (IET) also helps businesses to strengthen the pipeline of new workers coming into their workplaces, making sure that people just entering the workforce are being trained with the skills most relevant to their business needs (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

Ensuring that public investments respond to current business needs. Businesses benefit when public workforce and adult education programs like Integrated Education Training (IET)  are demand-driven – that is, responsive to the specific needs of local labor markets. Strong relationships with companies can help to ensure that IET models reflect the current needs of local businesses (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

Accelerated pathways to career advancement. IET allows workers to speed up their path to better employment and higher wages, by removing the need to finish a time-consuming foundational skills class before embarking on occupational training (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

Ability to acquire in-demand credentials. IET programs typically allow participants to earn both a secondary credential (if needed) and one or more postsecondary credentials. The latter often consist of industry-recognized credentials that are in demand by local employers, thus ensuring that workers are earning documents of value in the labor market (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

Increased cost effectiveness. Using adult education funds to support instructional time and materials, while drawing on CTE funds for classroom space and laboratory equipment, is a cost-effective solution to the question of how to pay for IET. Local communities’ investment in high school CTE facilities and equipment is primarily a fixed cost that is not increased by allowing adult learners to access them in off-hours (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

Leveraging complementary expertise. Stakeholders in each of the adult education and CTE systems possess relationships and expertise that would be costly and time-consuming for the other partner to acquire. Alignment benefits both systems. For example, adult education providers have deep expertise in effective pedagogy for adult learners. In addition, they often have strong referral and recruitment networks and trusted relationships with community partners. CTE providers have established relationships with industry partners through their employer advisory groups, strong expertise in technical training and access to the laboratory space and equipment needed for many CTE classes (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

State Policy Recommendations: Ensure full utilization of federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WOIA)  and Perkins funds and consider supplementing with state investments. States should ensure that they are making full use of available federal investments in adult education and CTE to increase alignment and coordination across systems. For example, to the extent permissible under the authorizing legislation, states may wish to encourage or require applicants for competitive funding to demonstrate greater alignment. Or states may consider how state leadership funds available under WIOA may be used to provide technical assistance or other support to local providers in establishing adult education/CTE partnerships. In addition, policymakers should consider making additional investments of state funds to incentivize close partnerships between adult education and CTE partners, including as part of larger state initiatives such as credential attainment goals or workforce development strategies. Finally, states can consider reconfiguring existing investments (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

State Policy Recommendations: Capitalize on federal policy mandates to bring together key state agency and institutional partners to develop a shared strategic vision. Both major pieces of federal legislation — WIOA and Perkins — require states to bring together an array of stakeholders to create plans for how their workforce and education strategies will be implemented. Congress has further facilitated alignment by ensuring that the WIOA and Perkins statutes cross-reference each other with regard to planning and that the timing of states’ required four-year plans is aligned across both laws. State policymakers should take advantage of these mandates to bring together the full range of relevant decision makers from across the workforce, postsecondary education, adult education and human services systems and use the joint planning process to create a shared vision for addressing the needs of state residents, including adults with foundational skills gaps (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

State Policy Recommendations: Ensure that state Perkins plans incorporate career pathway design and thinking. The 2018 reauthorization of the Perkins Act incorporates the definition of career pathways that was first codified in 2014 under WIOA. This definition emphasizes the importance of pathways that enable adults to progressively build their skills, entering and exiting training programs at different points as they move in and out of the labor market. States should take advantage of the new Perkins language to encourage adult education, secondary and postsecondary CTE and workforce partners to plan collaboratively about how both Perkins- and WIOA-funded activities can support career pathways. Such pathways should incorporate WIOA-mandated IET programs as well as apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

State Policy Recommendations: Explore opportunities for how TANF and SNAP E&T can support upskilling in collaboration with adult education and CTE partners. Both Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment & Training (SNAP E&T) programs provide opportunities for states to invest in skillbuilding for adults with foundational skills gaps. For example, TWC allocates almost $1 million in TANF funds annually across Texas to support adult education efforts, including IET. States should incorporate these partners into broader WIOA and Perkins Act planning processes, as appropriate and consider how braiding funds from these sources can support IET and other effective models for helping adults to exit public benefits by moving into good, family supporting jobs (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

State Policy Recommendations: Provide state policy guidance and technical assistance to spark ideas while allowing flexibility for local innovation. As the Texas example shows, states can strike an effective balance between providing guidance that outlines potential implementation options, while also providing sufficient freedom to spur local creativity. TWC’s supportive yet still relatively non-prescriptive approach — providing local partners with technical assistance and mentoring support, as well as the ability to experiment and iterate — provides [school district partners] with the freedom to design an effective IET model for their community (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

State Policy Recommendations: How adult education partners can pay for IET activities using sources in addition to WIOA Title II. A perennial question for adult education providers is how to finance the development and implementation of IET models. Well-designed IET collaborations can be very cost-effective. State agencies should issue policy guidance that provides specific, concrete examples of federal and state funding sources that can be used to support IET. Guidance should clearly affirm that relevant federal and state policies permit funding to be used in this way (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

State Policy Recommendations: How alignment between adult education and CTE can ensure demand-driven integrated education and training models. Demand-driven training responds to the specific needs of the local labor market. There are a variety of ways that training providers can gather input from businesses to ensure that their programs are reflective of local business needs, such as through employer advisory committees, curriculum review, industry instructors and sector partnerships. CTE programs are already mandated by the Perkins Act to gather such input; states should encourage adult education providers to collaborate with their CTE partners to draw on these employer resources as appropriate to inform the development of IET models. Ideally, Perkins employer advisory groups should include local sector partnerships. Sector partnerships bring together multiple firms in the same industry, as well as education and training providers and other stakeholders, to address skill shortages and develop talent pipelines. The new Perkins law identifies sector partnerships as potential CTE partners at both the state and local level and allows state leadership funds to be used to support them (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

State Policy Recommendations: How adult education providers can capitalize on opportunities to use K-12 facilities during off-hours to support adult learners and workers. School districts that have invested in CTE facilities and equipment for high school students can leverage those investments by making them available to adult learners during non-school hours. States should provide guidance to local partners that affirms the value of such arrangements and offers a list of key considerations local providers can use in determining the appropriate use of space and equipment, contractual arrangements with teachers and other factors (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

State Policy Recommendations: How adult education/CTE partnerships can help localities achieve broader goals regarding career pathways. States should consider how they can use technical assistance to help local adult education/CTE partnerships reinforce broader career pathways efforts and vice versa (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

Federal Policy Recommendations: Provide guidance on Perkins Act planning. The reauthorization of the Perkins Act in 2018 marked the first time that Congress required state CTE agencies funded under Perkins to include adult education agencies in their planning process. In addition, the timeline for Perkins planning has been adjusted to coincide with similar planning that states are required to conduct for WIOA. The Departments of Labor and Education should issue joint policy guidance that highlights opportunities for coordinated planning and encourages states to identify areas for shared investments and goal setting. Such guidance should also spell out states’ new opportunities and obligations with regard to adult education partners and provide suggestions for how best to engage adult education partners in Perkins planning (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

Federal Policy Recommendations: Consider using WIOA Title II national leadership funds to support adult education/CTE collaboration. A key factor identified by the Socorro ISD adult education and CTE partners was the importance of having time to engage and build relationships with each other. The Department of Education should consider usingWIOA Title II national leadership funds to support similar opportunities that bring together adult education and CTE partners for peer learning and mutual engagement, perhaps using a policy academy model (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

Federal Policy Recommendations: Fund the Perkins Act at full authorized levels. When the Perkins Act was reauthorized in 2018, Congress established new authorized spending levels for the legislation. Going forward, annual appropriations should fund the legislation at its full authorized levels, enabling states and localities to carry out their Perkins-funded activities with the resources necessary to do so (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).

Federal Policy Recommendations: Fund WIOA at full authorized levels. WIOA is one of the nation’s foremost investments in adult education and workforce development. Yet frequent spending cuts over the past fifteen years have cut federal investment in WIOA by approximately 40% in current dollars. While Congress has recently begun to reverse this trend with modest increases in WIOA funding for the FY18 and FY19 budget cycles, future appropriations should fund WIOA at its full authorized levels (Bergson-Shilcock, Better Together).