In order to build wealth and create opportunities in and across underserved communities, and reverse the troubling trends we’re seeing in our economy, we no longer find it defensible to focus on job creation alone. It’s clear that job creation does not itself equate to lasting economic change. And so, we must shift our focus to the creation of higher quality jobs — jobs that are good for workers and their families, good for businesses, and good for communities — enabling us to build an economy that works for everyone.
Each month, we bring you the latest roundup of news from the fight for quality jobs for working people.
Beginning this past April, PCV began shifting its mission in order to move our economy to one where quality jobs are the norm—not the exception. CDFIs like ours must build consensus around a common definition of a quality job, undertake practical efforts to foster the creation of quality jobs, and measure results to understand what works.
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[block_grid_item]The Department of Labor’s 2017 budget is all about a future where a full-time job pays a living wage and working families have the support they need to thrive. Read more >[/block_grid_item]
[block_grid_item]State job creation strategies are off base — That’s the conclusion of The Center For Budget and Policy Priorities from a new analysis of data about which businesses create jobs and where they create them. Read more >[/block_grid_item]
[block_grid_item]As cities wrestle with the growing challenge of wealth inequality, more and more leaders are looking to broad-based ownership models as tools to create jobs and build community wealth. Read more >[/block_grid_item]
[block_grid_item]Forgoing the gig-economy model, a start-up called Managed By Q is betting on a strategy that puts handymen and cleaning-service workers on a professional path with living wages, retirement, and benefits. Read more >[/block_grid_item]
[block_grid_item]No, raising minimum wages doesn’t hurt local businesses. Case studies of cities with higher wage floors reveal “no statistically significant negative effects on employment or hours (including in low-wage industries). Read more >[/block_grid_item]
[block_grid_item]The Federal reserve Bank of Philadelphia explores various efforts to encourage the creation, dissemination, and integration of job quality standards into investment, philanthropic, and economic development efforts. Read more >[/block_grid_item]
[block_grid_item]While the problems in many poorer areas predate the recession, what has felt like a real recovery for Americans in wealthier cities and towns has left underserved communities — many of them concentrated in the nation’s old industrial heartland — even further behind. Read more >[/block_grid_item][block_grid_item]The New York Times Magazine takes a deep dive into the question, “Where Did the Government Jobs Go?” Long a ticket to the middle class, especially for African-Americans, they have become increasingly difficult to find. Read more >[/block_grid_item]
[block_grid_item]The belief that you can succeed financially with hard work and determination has been a core tenet of the American Dream. Now more than three-quarters of all Americans believe that downward mobility is more likely than upward mobility. Read more >[/block_grid_item]
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[block_grid_item]A two-year initiative from Wal-Mart to give its employees pay raises has translated into workers having more money to spend in the retailer’s stores. The initiative also included which also includes increased flexibility on schedules. Read more >[/block_grid_item]
[block_grid_item]Just 13 percent of small business owners provide their staff with access to a 401(k) plan — a five percent drop from last year — and a stark decline from the final quarter of 2014 when around one in four small business retirement plans were being offered to employees. Read more >[/block_grid_item]
[block_grid_item]People who make the federal minimum wage can’t find an affordable place to live anywhere in the country, according to a new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Read more >[/block_grid_item]
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