WorkRise Welcomes Seven New Leadership Board Members
Our incoming board members bring outstanding credibility and recognition from the full range of sectors involved in improving work and workers’ lives.
Learn more
Our incoming board members bring outstanding credibility and recognition from the full range of sectors involved in improving work and workers’ lives.
Grantmaking and Partnerships
Led by a cross-sector Leadership Board that is ideologically diverse and representative of often-siloed groups, WorkRise invests in research on policies, programs, and practices that have the potential to accelerate economic security and mobility for low-wage workers. We fund analyses and the creation of data that shed light on labor market barriers, trends, and opportunities. And we engage in strategic partnerships that help advance evidence-based solutions in support of our mission. Learn more about our most recent request for proposals and how you can collaborate with WorkRise.
The Latest
Skills and training
September 26, 2023The Impact of Student Debt on the Low-Wage Workforce
Student loan debt has a negative impact on labor market outcomes and economic mobility, with disparate economic impacts for low-wealth households. Burdens fall more heavily on Black and Latinx borrowers and those who did not complete their degree.
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The Latest
Economic context
Last updated on April 30, 2024
Video
WorkRise Shorts: Workers’ Assessments of AI’s Impact on Jobs
Rutgers University distinguished professor Carl Van Horn, founding director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, shares insights from his research, which looks at US workers’ attitudes toward government oversight of AI technologies and its impact on jobs.
Last updated on April 30, 2024
Worker voice, representation, and power
Last updated on April 30, 2024
Research Summary
The Consequences of Signing Noncompete Agreements among Low-Wage Workers and Those without College Degrees
Noncompete agreements are commonly used by businesses when hiring highly educated, high-wage workers entrusted with sensitive information or specialized training, but new research finds that 14 percent of workers without a bachelor’s degree and 13 percent of workers earning less than $40,000 per year are also bound by these contracts. The Federal Trade Commission now wants to ban all noncompetes because they often are associated with harmful employment outcomes for workers’ career mobility and income growth, relying in part on this new research.
Skills and training
Last updated on April 23, 2024
Video
WorkRise Shorts: The Harvard Workforce Almanac
The workforce almanac is a first-of-its-kind open-source directory mapping thousands of workforce training providers across the US. The workforce training system in the US has historically been treated in fragmentation, Nathalie Gazzaneo, co-director of Harvard Project on Workforce, shares.
Last updated on April 23, 2024
Employer practices
Last updated on April 23, 2024
Research Summary
A Win-Win for Business and Workers: Evidence from a Predictable Scheduling Intervention at Gap, Inc.
Given shifts in attitudes and legislation around irregular work hours, this study explores the effects of changes in scheduling practices on employee and business outcomes, finding benefits for both parties.
Research
Employer practices
Executive Summary
December 13, 2023
Temporary Staffing Industry Testing Report
The temporary staffing industry is a $186 billion sector. The National Legal Advocacy Network team used matched-pair testing in Harris County, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, to generate evidence on potentially unlawful employment practices in this industry and found widespread racial and gender discrimination in access to work. These tests showed that agencies offered fewer job opportunities, lower wages, and less frequent follow-ups to workers who were women and/or Black than they did to Latinx workers and men.
Grantee Research
Economic context
Report
November 20, 2023
Quantifying the Costs of Rising Unemployment
Rising unemployment brings significant costs to workers, their families, social outcomes, and the economy at-large. The contemporary tight labor market provides a good opportunity for researchers to better understand the benefits of low unemployment and thus the risks of high unemployment.
WorkRise Research
Skills and training
Executive Summary
November 15, 2023
The Workforce Almanac: A System-Level View of US Workforce Training Providers
This working paper describes the Workforce Almanac, a first-of-its-kind effort to understand workforce training at a systemwide level. The Almanac is an open-source directory of nearly 17,000 workforce training providers across the United States. This database offers the most comprehensive view to date of US workforce training providers and includes information such as provider names, locations, and types.
Grantee Research
Employer practices
Executive Summary
October 18, 2023
Who Has Access to Paid Sick and Safe Leave?
A new report by Family Values at Work and World Policy Analysis Center charts access to paid sick and safe leave in the US and identifies the most equitable policies in effect.
Grantee Research