Blueprint to Empower Workers for Shared Prosperity
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Blueprint to Empower Workers for Shared Prosperity Report by Richard Kirsch, Dorian Warren, and Andy Shen October 7, 2015 Until economic and social rules work for all Americans, they’re not working. Inspired by the legacy of Franklin and Eleanor, Roosevelt Institute reimagines America as it should be — a place where hard work is rewarded, everyone participates, and everyone enjoys a fair share of our collective prosperity. We believe that when the rules work against this vision, it’s our responsibility to recreate them. We bring together thousands of thinkers and doers — from a new generation of leaders in every state to Nobel laureate economists — work to redefine the rules that guide our social and economic realities. We rethink and reshape everything from local policy to federal legislation, orienting toward a new economic and political system, one built by many for the good of all. For media inquiries, please contact Chris Linsmayer at 720 212-4883 or [email protected]. The Roosevelt Institute’s Future of Work initiative focuses on three areas: promoting innovative strategies for worker organizing and representation, strengthening labor standards and their enforcement, and assuring access to good jobs for women, workers of color and immigrants. Future of Work brings together thought and action leaders from multiple fields to reimagine a 21st century social contract that expands workers’ rights and the number of living wage jobs. The aim is to aggregate and support the development of innovative policies and organizing models and to disseminate that vision to opinion leaders, policymakers, and to the broader public. The Future of Work initiative is led by Roosevelt Institute Fellows Annette Bernhardt, Richard Kirsch, and Dorian Warren. Two Roosevelt Institute program managers, Harmony Goldberg and Andy Shen, facilitated the work of the initiative leading to this publication. The authors of the Blueprint to Empower Workers for Shared Prosperity are Richard Kirsch, Andy Shen, and Dorian Warren. We want to thank all of those who participated in the Future of Work process over the past three years for their thoughtful contributions, their time, and their passionate commitment to empowering workers. Thanks especially to Mark Barenberg and the Columbia University Program on Labor Law and Policy for supporting the formation of the Future of Work initiative and hosting our March 2015 convening. Amalgamated Bank is the major sponsor of the Future of Work Initiative. The Roosevelt Institute also gratefully acknowledges support from the Open Society Foundations, SEIU, and the AFL-CIO. COPYRIGHT 2015 BY THE ROOSEVELT INSTITUTE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 3 Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................ 5 INTRODUCTION .........................................................5 PAPERS INCLUDED IN ..................................................6 BLUEPRINT FORWARD POLICY SECTIONS ......................................................9 Maximize Worker Power in the New Economy Ensure local residents receive a fair share of the wealth generated by publicly funded projects Hold all employers accountable for violations of labor and civil rights Promote worker-centered business models and socially responsible business practices Valuing Care by Valuing Care Workers CONCLUSION ..........................................................24 APPENDICES ...........................................................24 Appendix A: Executive Summary of Commissioned Papers Appendix B: Individuals who Participated in Future of Work Convenings REFERENCES ...........................................................30 COPYRIGHT 2015 BY THE ROOSEVELT INSTITUTE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY We believe that in order to challenge inequality The Future of Work (FoW) Initiative, a project and achieve economic justice, we must rebuild the of the Roosevelt Institute, has been working fundamental norms of the workplace. We need since 2013 to strengthen the right to organize to fight inequality at its source, from low wages and collectively bargain, uplift and uphold labor to lack of bargaining power to systemic labor standards, and end racial, ethnic, and gender market exclusion. Doing so will improve economic discrimination in the workplace. performance, as workers’ increased incomes drive spending and raise the standard of living. We will The Blueprint to Empower Workers for Shared build a fair and high-performing economy from the Prosperity is the culmination of a two-year process bottom up and the middle out. that brought together labor unions, academics, leading thinkers from worker organizing centers, Building on this core principle, the Blueprint community and policy groups, and attorneys explores five policy strategies to empower to identify major areas in which to explore new workers and advance shared prosperity: (1) policies. Based on these discussions, the Future maximizing worker power and voice in the new of Work leadership team commissioned a set of economy; (2) ensuring local residents receive a fair papers to develop significant policy proposals. share of the wealth generated by publicly funded This Blueprint synthesizes those papers and a projects; (3) holding all employers accountable for small number of related papers. The result is a violations of labor and civil rights; (4) promoting set of bold proposals that, taken together, would worker-centered business models and socially transform the American workplace, making it more responsible business practices; and (5) valuing inclusive, dignified, and just. care by valuing care workers. Many pundits argue that sluggish economic growth Introduction and declining prospects for the middle class are THE PROBLEM WE FACE: RISING inevitable outcomes of technological changes and a ECONOMIC INSECURITY globalized economy. Economic security, they suggest, is as antiquated as the assembly line. This is simply The U.S. economy is no longer working for the vast not true. The impact of technology and globalization majority of Americans. Too many are unemployed, is shaped by the economic rules and institutions we underemployed, stuck in low-wage jobs, or only able to choose as a nation. We cannot underestimate the impact find part-time employment.1 These people are working government policy plays in determining how Americans hard and playing by the rules, but are unable to attain experience economic forces or structural changes. economic security, much less mobility. As a result, Nothing about 20th century industrialization, for a larger and larger share of workers, students, small example, guaranteed the emergence of a booming business owners, and families feel that the rules are middle class and high-pressure economy. It took rigged against them and in favor of the most powerful. striking workers, the Great Depression, and 1 By late 2014, the unemployment rate had dropped from more than 10 institutional revolution in the form of the New Deal percent at the height of the recession to less than 5.4 percent, but that number masks grave and enduring problems; labor participation and long- to secure power and protection for many American term unemployment rates remain at historically low levels for a mid-recovery workers. economy, and severe racial and ethnic unemployment disparities persist— the Black unemployment rate is still twice that of whites, as it has been Over the last 40 years, politicians and corporate leaders since the 1960s, and in many American cities Black unemployment sits at Depression Era levels of 20 percent or higher. have systematically dismantled a host of the protections won in this earlier era. Further, they have blocked COPYRIGHT 2015 BY THE ROOSEVELT INSTITUTE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 5 reforms that would have allowed labor law to adapt to the changing economy. And the results are in: Today, roughly four out of PAPERS INCLUDED IN BLUEPRINT ten Americans earn less than $15 an hour Future of Work commissioned papers and the outlook for wage growth is poor. Mark Barenberg, Widening the Scope of Worker Organizing: Sixteen of the 20 occupations with the • Legal Reforms to Facilitate Multi-Employer Organizing, largest numeric growth projected through Bargaining, and Striking 2020 are low-wage jobs that do not require Ben Beach and Kathleen Mulligan-Hansel, Metropolitan a college degree. Mid-wage occupations • Coalitions: Creating Opportunities for Worker Organizing represented 60 percent of jobs lost in the Laura Dresser, Valuing Care by Valuing Care Workers: The recession, but constituted only 22 percent • Big Cost of a Worthy Standard and Some Steps toward It of those gained in the recovery. Low-wage Olatunde Johnson, Promoting Racial and Ethnic Inclusion in occupations, on the other hand, made up • Employment through Regulatory Mandates and Incentives nearly two-thirds of jobs gained. 1 2 3 4 • Michael Piore, Labor Standards and Worker Organization Failure to update labor policy has Strategy left already vulnerable workers and • Haeyoung Yoon, Local and State Business Registration communities in an increasingly precarious Schemes: An Enforcement Lever to Strengthen Employer position. Work such as that offered by Compliance with Labor Standards and to Facilitate Worker the gig economy and the growing care Organizing economy is unstable and excluded from the legal protections of the Fair Labor Other papers referenced Standards Act. It also exists outside the • Janice Fine, Tackling Exploitation Through the Co-production confines of the