How Businesses Can Advance Manufacturing's Future through Collaboration with Workers
Join us on 12/18 for a virtual conversation on how innovations in job design and worker partnerships can help manufacturers meet business priorities, increase worker satisfaction, improve sustainability, and promote long-term business success.
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
In Depth
Worker voice, representation, and power
Feature
Last updated on October 24, 2024
Segregation in the Low-Wage Workforce
Over the past 50 years, the composition of the low-wage workforce has changed: more than half of low-wage workers are now people of color, up from just 20 percent in 1971. Today, Black, Latino, and women workers are more likely to be segregated into worse-quality and lower-paying jobs.
WorkRise Research
Employer practices
Last updated on November 19, 2024
Video
WorkRise Shorts: Overcoming Racial Disparities in Manufacturing Recruitment and Training Programs
Can a new local manufacturing workforce development program that targets workers who are not traditionally engaged in the sector overcome racial disparities in its hiring and wage rates?
Last updated on November 19, 2024
The Latest
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.
Economic context
Last updated on April 16, 2024
Video
WorkRise Shorts: Racial Inequity in the Workplace with Adia Harvey Wingfield
Despite a multibillion-dollar diversity industry and decades passed since the Civil Rights Act, workplaces still see substantial racial inequity.
Last updated on April 16, 2024
Skills and training
April 16, 2024
Research Summary
Rethinking Career and Technical Education for Individuals Who Are Incarcerated: What Works?
A new study shows that individuals who complete career and technical education programs while incarcerated don’t have better employment outcomes or lower rates of recidivism when measured against a comparison group that did not. Instead of focusing on career-oriented programming, prisons should prioritize individuals with high needs, developing basic education programs and reducing practical barriers to employment.
Research
Employer practices
Executive Summary
June 26, 2023
A Workplace Divided: Survey Research and Stakeholder Engagement to Advance Equitable Workplaces
A national survey by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University explores workers' perceptions of discrimination and unfair treatment based on race and ethnicity. The survey reveals significant percentages of Asian-American, Black, and Latino workers experience discrimination in private-sector and government workplaces. Black workers are more likely to view workplace discrimination as a significant problem than white workers, with Black female workers reporting the highest levels of discrimination. The study highlights the impact of discrimination on career advancement and the need for government and employer interventions to promote workplace equity.
Grantee Research
Skills and training
Executive Summary
April 03, 2023
Navigating Public Job Training
Right now, more than 75,000 Eligible Training Provider (ETP) job programs are eligible for funding under America’s primary federal workforce development law, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). How well do these public investments prepare workers for high-quality jobs? In this analysis, authors combine training provider and program data from the US Department of Labor with performance records and occupational data to study the types of providers receiving WIOA funding and the kinds of jobs for which they offer training. The report also reviews websites for all 50 states to understand how easily potential job trainees can access information on these programs.
Grantee Research
Economic context
Executive Summary
March 15, 2023
How Past Criminal Convictions Bar Floridians from Occupational Licensing Opportunities
In this report, the Florida Policy Institute and the DeVoe L. Moore Center at Florida State University highlight research exploring the relationship between occupational licensing and recidivism and the consequences of overregulation on workforce development. The authors also survey the landscape of Florida’s occupational licensing laws and policy reform efforts and present policy proposals to reduce professional licensing barriers for people with criminal records.
Grantee Research
Worker voice, representation, and power
Executive Summary
March 13, 2023
Nailing New Labor Models: Exploring Sectoral Bargaining and High-Road Training Partnerships in the Nail Salon Sector
This report from the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative and the UCLA Labor Center explores how partnerships and sectoral boards can build a sustainable and equitable nail salon industry, focusing on two approaches from other sectors. High-road training partnerships and sectoral bargaining approaches can be adapted for nail salons but require distinct interventions and capacities for member participation.
Grantee Research