ProGov21 Policy Library

A Community Led Strategy to Fight State Interference, Build Political Power and Win Progressive Policy

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2018

Level City or Town, County

State(s) All States

Source Partnership for Working Families

Policy Areas Democracy & Governance

State legislatures around the country have routinely worked to strip power from local governments. Aggressive corporate and special interests have moved state legislators and courts to gut the ability of local governments in a vast number of states to alleviate unemployment and protect...

Aspen Institute Quality Job Tools Library

Type Policy Brief or Report, Fact Sheet or Infographic

Year 2020

Level City or Town, County, Other Boards and Agencies

State(s) All States

Source The Aspen Institute

Policy Areas Economic Justice

The Aspen Institute's Economic Opportunities Program developed this Job Quality Tools Library to provide actionable tools – including checklists, instructions, and guidelines – to help leaders adopt practices to strengthen job quality in their own organizations, in the businesses...

LA Freelance Worker Protections Ordinance

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2023

Level City or Town

State(s) California

Source Los Angeles City Council

Policy Areas Economic Justice

This Los Angeles ordinance ensures that freelance workers are treated fairly and receive the compensation they are due. It mandates that freelance worker contracts must be in writing, establishes that hiring entities provide full payment to freelance workers on the day of the written...

Government on Workers’ Side: How State and Local Policymakers and Advocates can Raise Standards for Publicly Supported Work

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2024

Level City or Town, County, State

State(s) All States

Source Center for American Progress

Policy Areas Democracy & Governance, Economic Justice, Finance & Procurement

State and local governments can raise standards for workers and the public through a variety of labor-focused procurement policies including prevailing wages and project-labor agreements. This report outlines best practices for improving conditions for public workers and highlights...

Taken for a Ride: Poverty and Food Insecurity Among Workers at Universal Studios Hollywood

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2023

Level City or Town, County, State

State(s) California

Source UCLA Labor Center

Policy Areas Economic Justice

While Universal Studios receives millions of dollars in government subsidies, it pays minimum wage to most of the 6,000 workers at its Universal Studios Hollywood theme park, resulting in widespread food and housing insecurity, including hunger and homelessness. These workers struggle...

Do Responsible Contractor Policies Increase Construction Bid Costs

Type Article

Year 2014

Level City or Town, County

State(s) All States, Ohio

Source Fair Contracting

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Finance & Procurement

Local government procurement policies can require that public contractors provide health and retirement benefits to their workers. However, skeptics of such "responsible contractor policies" argue these approaches inflate project costs. This study examines the impact of responsible...

Working From Home: From Invisibility to Decent Work

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2021

Level City or Town

State(s) All States

Source International Labour Organization

Policy Areas Economic Justice

With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, large portions of the world’s workforce shifted to homeworking, joining hundreds of millions of other workers who had already been working from home for decades. Given the continued struggle to improve the rights and working conditions...

From Community Benefits to Collective Bargaining, and Back: Building Worker Power in Milwaukee

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2024

Level City or Town

State(s) All States, Wisconsin

Source High Road Strategy Center

Policy Areas Community Development, Economic Justice

Community Benefits Agreements (CBA) are negotiated between private developers, labor organizations, and community stakeholders to ensure large-scale developments create high-quality jobs during and after the construction phase. This report examines how the Milwaukee Area Service and...

New Directions in Racial and Economic Justice: How California’s Worker Centers Are Bringing Worker Power into Workforce Development

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2022

Level State

State(s) California

Source UCLA Labor Center

Policy Areas Economic Justice

The traditional public workforce development system has struggled to serve California's most marginalized workers. Worker centers, community-based organizations created by and for BIPOC and immigrant workers in low-wage industries, provide an alternative approach to workforce development...

2021 Madison Resolution 638 Establishing a Wage Equity Increase Schedule

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2021

Level City or Town

State(s) Wisconsin

Source Madison Common Council

Policy Areas Economic Justice

This resolution establishes a wage increase schedule for municipal employees in the City of Madison that are not in police, fire, or Teamsters bargaining units. The schedule outlines annual increases between 2022 and 2024. This resolution also requires that municipal employees' wages...

Flexible Work Without Exploitation: Reversing Tech Companies’ State-by-State Agenda to Unravel Workers’ Rights and Misclassify Workers as ‘Contractors’ in the Gig Economy and Beyond

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2023

Level City or Town, State

State(s) All States

Source Economic Policy Institute

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Finance & Procurement

Digital platform companies like Uber and Doordash consistently violate workers' rights by misclassifying them as 'independent contractors,' paying subminimum wages, and shifting primary risks and costs of doing business onto workers and consumers. This report examines how tech companies...

Building Opportunity: Investing in our Future through a Port Construction Careers Policy

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2009

Level City or Town

State(s) California

Source Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Transportation & Mobility

Proposed investment in the Port of Los Angeles would create thousands of new construction jobs and boost the city's overall economy. This report provides analysis of existing economic conditions in the region and explains how a "Construction Careers Policy" would ensure equitable...

Essential but Unprotected: App-based Food Couriers in New York City

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2021

Level City or Town

State(s) New York

Source Los Deliveristas Unidos

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Health, Data & Technology

This report contains the findings from a participatory action research project that examined the working and living conditions of delivery workers engaged by digital platforms (also known as apps) to deliver restaurant food orders to consumers in New York City. Findings show that...

Collective Bargaining can Reduce Turnover and Improve Public Services in Colorado

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2019

Level State

State(s) Colorado

Source EARN

Policy Areas Democracy & Governance, Education

Colorado has struggled with public sector employee turnover, reducing the quality of government services, and costing taxpayers more than $10,000 per exiting worker. Colorado's labor- management partnerships have improved not worker retention, largely because compensation issues are...

Health Care for Airport Workers: Protecting Our Security and Safeguarding Our Children's Future

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2009

Level City or Town

State(s) California

Source Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy

Policy Areas Children & Families, Economic Justice, Health

This report underscores the failure of the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance to increase healthcare benefits for LAX workers, and outlines how the lack of insurance has impacted workers' families. It recommends that the city invest to increase the health care differential of the living...

COVID-19 Response Tools and Resources for Employers and Workers

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2020

Level City or Town, County, Other Boards and Agencies

State(s) -

Source The Aspen Institute

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Health

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how we approach job quality, and created a new context for how employers and workers dramatically conceptualize and pursue quality employment. COVID-19 mean that strengthening job quality is more important than ever—both in the short-term to support...

2020 Washington Legislation Chapter 39.12 Establishing Prevailing Wage

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2020

Level City or Town, County, State

State(s) Washington

Source Washington State Legislature

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Finance & Procurement

This act requires that government contractors pay a prevailing wage rate to all workers who are employed on public works and public building maintenance projects in the state of Washington. It defines the prevailing wage rate as the hourly wage, usual benefits, and overtime pay provided...

2022 Cleveland Ordinance 892-2022 Preventing Wage Theft and Payroll Fraud

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2022

Level City or Town

State(s) Ohio

Source City of Cleveland

Policy Areas Civil Rights

This ordinance prevents persons or entities that have engaged in wage theft or payroll fraud from bidding on city services or construction contracts or receiving financial assistance from the city. It also requires the city to create a database of entities that have committed such...

Preempting Progress in the Heartland: State Lawmakers in the Midwest Prevent Shared Prosperity and Racial, Gender, and Immigrant Justice by Interfering in Local Policymaking

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2021

Level City or Town, County, State

State(s) All States

Source EARN

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance

Across the midwest, conservative state lawmakers have increasingly used preemption—a tactic whereby a higher level of government limits or eliminates the power of a lower-level government to regulate an issue—to reduce the policy tools and power available to local lawmakers. This...

10 Ways to Rebuild the Middle Class for Hard Working Americans

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2012

Level City or Town, State

State(s) All States

Source Partnership for Working Families

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Public Safety, Health

The U.S. economy is headed towards greater inequality as middle-class jobs are becoming increasingly scarce, while low wage jobs are growing. This report details ten proposals to strengthen the economy for the long term by creating “good” jobs and addressing the economic insecurity...

A Completed Sentence, but Ongoing Punishment: How Past Criminal Convictions Bar Floridians from Occupational Licensing Opportunities

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2023

Level State

State(s) Florida

Source Florida Policy Institute

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Economic Justice

Mass incarceration has left millions of Americans with a criminal record, significantly limiting their employment outcomes. This is compounded by occupational licensing requirements that impose barriers to entry for certain occupations. In Florida, occupational licensing has dramatically...

2017 Cook County Ordinance 16-4229 Earned Sick Leave

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2017

Level County

State(s) Illinois

Source Cook County Board

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Health

Under this ordinance, any covered employee who works at least 80 hours for an employer within any 120-day period shall be eligible for earned sick leave. For every 40 hours worked after a covered employee's earned sick leave begins to accrue, they shall accrue one hour of earned sick...

Sustainable and Safe Recycling: Protecting Workers Who Protect the Planet

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2015

Level City or Town

State(s) All States

Source Partnership for Working Families

Policy Areas Environment & Natural Resources, Public Safety, Health

Recycling workers face serious hazards on the job. For long hours, they work with heavy equipment in dangerous situations and deal with an array of unsafe materials (needles, broken glass, etc) that should not be on the recycling line. As a result of these unsafe conditions, recycling...

PAYMENT OF LIVING WAGE TO EMPLOYEES OF CITY CONTRACTORS; AMENDING BERKELEY MUNICIPAL CODE CHAPTER 13.27

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2019

Level City or Town

State(s) California

Source City of Berkeley

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Finance & Procurement

This Berkeley ordinance requires contractors, commercial users of public property, and corporate subsidy recipients to pay their workers a living wage. It sets wage floors for these entities, requires employers notify workers of the wages and benefits they are entitled to, and mandates...

Winning Wage Justice: An Advocate’s Guide to State and City Policies to Fight Wage Theft

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2011

Level City or Town, County, State

State(s) All States

Source National Employment Law Project

Policy Areas Democracy & Governance, Economic Justice

This guide outlines effective state and city-level policies for strengthening the enforcement of minimum wage and overtime laws. This guide advocates for policies that raise employers' costs for violating wage laws, strengthen local government's capacity to enforce labor regulations,...

ProGov21 Policy Library

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