Job Quality

Written by Walker Kahn and Gianmarco Katz

What's the Problem?

The American workforce is among the most productive in the world, but our economy is structured around bad jobs and disposable labor. Employers for decades have engaged in a race to the bottom, and have failed to invest in worker training and career development. American workers are routinely denied rights and protections in the workplace and suffer from dangerous working conditions, discrimination on the job, wage theft, and union busting.

Effective economic development strategies that can be implemented at the local level are sorely needed.  Cities and towns all over the country have perpetuated this race to the bottom by competing with each other to attract businesses by offering ever-larger subsidies and tax incentives. When economic development policies rely solely on these strategies, they fail to meet local needs or benefit the community. This roadmap provides an overview of key strategies communities can take to support high-quality jobs and build high road economies where workers are empowered to make decisions and develop skills that advance their careers.  

What are People Currently Doing? 

Local governments across the country spend over two trillion dollars annually, and have significant discretion in how this money is spent. The ProGov21 Procurement Roadmap details issues related to government spending, but what’s key is that local governments can and should spend money in ways that support workers, unions, worker cooperatives, and high road local businesses. Some cities and towns already do this: Lake County, IN and Douglas County, WI have responsible bidder ordinances (RBOs) that require all contractors bidding on publicly-funded projects to participate in registered apprenticeship programs that provide high-quality professional development, demonstrate a history of compliance with wage, safety, and labor laws, and mandate that subcontractors meet the same standards. A model RBO from the Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust (LECET) is available here. Other cities use narrower procurement policies to increase their residents’ access to high-quality employment. For example, San Francisco's local hiring for construction policy mandates that city residents complete 30% of a project's total work hours and fulfill 50% of apprenticeship program hours on publicly funded projects.

Some local governments require contractors on publicly-funded projects to enter project labor agreements (PLAs), or collectively bargained agreements between unions and contractors that set project-specific terms and conditions and often mandate union hiring, participation in registered apprenticeship programs, safety requirements, and project-specific compensation. In Boston, a PLA supported direct employment from the Building Pathways program for people of color and women, alongside initiatives to bolster minority- and women-owned businesses and ensure access to childcare for project workers. Unfortunately, PLAs are under attack from anti-worker corporate interests and have been made illegal in more than 20 states since 2010. 

In states where PLAs are preempted, cities and towns can support community benefit agreements (CBAs) and community workforce agreements (CWAs) as alternatives. These are legally enforceable, project-specific agreements between community groups and contractors working on publicly-funded projects: CWAs are generally restricted to employment and subcontracting opportunities, while CBAs also involve an array of benefits for the broader community, including features like procedural equity, affordable housing development, environmental safeguards, and transportation investments that align with community priorities. The Milwaukee Deer District CBA secured strong community gains from the development of and around the Milwaukee Bucks stadium. This agreement guarantees workers’ right to unionize and collectively bargain, creates a wage floor for workers that is regularly adjusted to the local cost of living, and mandates local hiring practices. Critically, the benefits created by the Deer District CBA extend past the construction phase of the contract and apply to current retail and service workers in the businesses within the development area. This CBA roadmap offers best practices for both community groups and developers negotiating a CBA, including strategies for mediation, internal negotiation, and transparency.     

Cities and towns can also act directly to improve job quality by passing and enforcing ordinances that protect workers’ rights and safety. Workers (especially low-paid hourly workers) increasingly deal with unfair and unstable scheduling practices known as standby, on-call, surprise, or predictive scheduling. These practices give workers little to no advance notice that they are required to work, and are extremely commonplace: in 2022, 64 percent of service sector workers had unpredictable schedules, and 42 percent had no input at all in scheduling. Unstable hours create unstable earnings, as well as family and childcare emergencies, and prevent workers from taking on second jobs or pursuing education and career development opportunities. So far, one state and ten municipalities have passed laws curbing these unfair scheduling practices, while twelve states legislated to prevent local governments from enacting fair scheduling ordinances. This Philadelphia ordinance requires large employers in the retail, hospitality, and food service sectors to give workers good faith estimates of their schedules two weeks in advance, and establishes additional payments these businesses owe workers when they institute last-minute scheduling changes. Other fair scheduling ordinances in cities such as Seattle, Evanston, Emeryville, San Francisco, and San Jose mandate employers to post schedules two weeks in advance, and grant workers one extra hour of pay for each shift that is changed with less than seven to fourteen days’ notice.        

Cities have also passed ordinances to protect workers’ health and safety. Austin enacted an ordinance requiring mandatory rest breaks for all construction workers. Moreover, companies in Shell Lake, WI and Erie, PA have partnered with WisCon and the University of Pennsylvania OSHA Consultation program to improve safety on the job. These programs conduct regular health and safety visits where staff identify hazards within the facilities and provide recommendations to remedy them.        

Across the country, inconsistent labor law enforcement allows bad actors to routinely harm workers. This Economic Policy Institute roadmap reviews many options available to local roadmaps looking to strengthen enforcement. One effective strategy is building and funding local labor standards enforcement agencies. These agencies implement “investigation-driven” enforcement and build collaborative networks with worker centers, community-based organizations, and legal service providers to ensure marginalized workers can report violations and submit complaints. Another effective enforcement is revoking or denying city contracts to businesses that violate labor laws (see the ProGov21 Procurement Roadmap for more). The City of Cleveland takes a different approach: their 2022 ordinance prevents entities that have engaged in wage theft or payroll fraud from bidding on service or construction contracts with the city, and also bars them from receiving municipal financial assistance.

Worker misclassification violations, where employers classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees to avoid labor protections like minimum wage and overtime, often also go unenforced. This report from the National Employment Law Project provides an overview of best practices for creating worker misclassification task forces and highlights successful case studies. Best practices for robust enforcement of misclassification include creating local labor standards offices, coordinating with state agencies, establishing criminal penalties, reporting repeat offenders to the District Attorney's office, establishing expansive definitions of "employment" and the utilization of tools like the “ABC” test of employment, and implementing targeted enforcement.

Taking it to the Next Level

Regional industry partnerships are collaborations among industry sectors, firms, unions, local governments, and workforce development agencies that bring together stakeholders in a common industry or production cluster to achieve greater scale and leverage in workforce development. These partnerships are oriented around sector-wide workforce development needs and guided by input from industry leaders and high-quality data industry data, which increases the public sector’s ability to efficiently provide services. By organizing worker training at the level of the sector rather than the firm, these programs reduce free rider problems when companies poach skilled workers from other firms rather than invest in training their own workers. For workers, industry partnerships develop clear pathways to quality careers, facilitate access to career ladders, and create opportunities for historically excluded groups by reducing dependence on informal sources of career information. The Philadelphia Hospital and Health Care District 1199C Training and Upgrading Fund is a regional healthcare industry partnership between the city’s major healthcare companies,  public health authorities, healthcare unions, local technical colleges, and workforce development organizations. It’s managed by a board with both union and employer representation and the employment trust is funded by employer contributions. As a result, healthcare workers can access programs ranging from basic education to specialized healthcare training and take advantage of tuition reimbursement and full-time scholarships to prepare themselves for higher-paying roles and professional growth in the healthcare industry. By facilitating these types of partnerships, cities incentivize businesses to invest in their workforce, develop more effective workforce development costs, and improve the human capital available in the local community. All of this is accomplished while moving the fiscal burden away from the public sector and individual workers.

Helpers, Allies, and Other Useful Organizations

• Policy Matters Ohio is a non-profit policy research institute that works to creates a more vibrant, equitable, sustainable and inclusive society. Their research library includes many resources for developing workplace equity.

• Good Jobs First is a national clearinghouse for research and information that provides resources for anyone seeking information to push for more accountable and equitable development practices.

• American Sustainable Business Council promotes policies to create an equitable, prosperous, and sustainable economy to business owners, policymakers and the public.

• The High Road Strategy Center is a research and policy center that promotes "high-road" strategies to improve economic performance and living standards in the State of Wisconsin and nationally.