Overview
Employer practices such as hiring, scheduling, promotion, supervision, and on-the-job training determine workers’ day-to-day reality and long-term prospects in the labor market. The growing prevalence of independent contractors and contingent workers underscores the continued fissuring of employer-employee relationships.
Working Knowledge

Employer practices
Last updated on March 04, 2025
Research Summary
What Works to Reduce Workers Changing Jobs in US Manufacturing
More than half of US manufacturing employers say their biggest challenge is recruiting and retaining skilled workers. What affects whether manufacturing workers want to leave their jobs? Research shows that their opinions on their jobs, their workplaces, and how their jobs impact their home lives may play an important role.

Employer practices
Last updated on January 07, 2025
Research Summary
What Does it Take for a Fair Scheduling Policy to Work in Practice?
A study of service workers found many are unaware of their rights and face pressure to waive protections, highlighting the need for enhanced enforcement and education funding and more explicit language to prevent loopholes.

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

Employer practices
Last updated on October 08, 2024
Research Summary
Young Workers Need Support When They Can't Find Their Footing in the US Workforce
During recessions, young workers are less likely to find work and face lower wage growth than more experienced workers. Unemployment Insurance could be reformed to support these young workers as they navigate the labor market amid economic downturns at foundational times in their careers, alongside other policy tools that can be effective in these instances.
Research
Employer practices
Report
Last updated on January 22, 2025
Job Quality and Employer Practices: Evidence from B Corporations
A new WorkRise report, Job Quality and Employer Practices: Evidence from B Corporations, examines differences across firms in employer practices related to job quality, and how those differences relate to outcomes for both workers and businesses.
WorkRise Research
Employer practices
Last updated on December 04, 2024
Advancing Economic Mobility in Manufacturing
In today’s labor market, manufacturers, like many employers, recognize that recruiting and retaining workers often means rethinking diversity considerations and identifying new talent pools.
Last updated on December 04, 2024
Employer practices
Report
Last updated on October 25, 2024
The Minneapolis Small Business High-Road Labor Standards Intervention Pilot Project
The Minneapolis Small Business High-Road Labor Standards Intervention Pilot Project seeks to provide services that support immigrant, black, indigenous, and people of color owned small businesses so that they can create healthy, just, and equitable jobs through meeting and or exceeding minimum city labor standards.
Grantee Research
Employer practices
Brief
Last updated on September 19, 2024
Extreme Heat at Work
This research brief offers the first nationally representative estimates of how outdoor and indoor workers are affected by extreme heat, highlighting that low-wage workers, defined as adults earning less than $15 an hour, face greater risks than higher-wage earners.
WorkRise Research
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