Leading Practices

In 2021, Harris County established an Essential Workers Board to advise the county on programs and policies that support essential workers. All members must be “low-income essential workers,” with at least one worker representative from the airport or transportation, construction, domestic work or home care, education or child care, grocery, convenience or drug store, health care or public health, janitorial, food services, hospitality or leisure services, and retail industries. In addition to advising the county on its overall approach to protecting essential workers’ rights and providing a public forum, the board is also tasked with providing feedback on the county’s purchasing and contracting policies; workforce development programs; tax abatement and incentive policies; community benefits agreements; distribution of federal COVID-19 relief and recovery funds; disaster preparedness and recovery programs; OSHA trainings; independent monitoring of local, state, and federal public health and labor laws and inclusive economic development planning.

King County (WA) "Best Start for Kids” levy - The levy expands access, affordability and quality of the region’s childcare system, including a childcare worker wage-increase demonstration project. The King County Department of Community and Human Services is leading implementation focused on increasing access and affordability for high-quality childcare for working families and for job quality for childcare workers.

In 2016, Minneapolis, Minnesota, created the Labor Standards Enforcement Division within its Department of Civil Rights. Through a team of five employees, the office enforces the city’s paid sick and safe time, minimum wage, wage theft and freelance worker protection laws.

First signed into law in 1937, this legislation outlines minimum national program standards for registered apprenticeship programs (RAPs). The systems, structures and policies outlined in this legislation provide the framework for local workforce agencies to fund union registered apprenticeship programs (as well as non-union programs) through other federal funds, including the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and SNAP employment and training to subsidize wages and classroom instruction related to RAP on-the-job learning and related instruction.

In June 2020, voters amended the city charter to create the Philadelphia Department of Labor. The Office of Worker Protections, located within the Department of Labor, has a total of nine full-time employees and enforces wage theft, paid sick leave and fair work week laws; laws covering specific industries (domestic worker bill of rights, wrongful discharge, recall and/or retention of hotel, travel and hospitality workers) and more. The office established a domestic worker task force and has been tasked with creating a portable benefits system for domestic workers, one of the nation’s first. In addition, in 2020 and 2021, the office partnered with worker organizations on the Philadelphia Worker Relief Fund, helping to distribute more than $2,200,000 to 2,820 families left out of COVID-19 government relief.

In 2020, the mayor’s office of Providence, Rhode Island, issued an executive order to set the stage for gathering and analyzing the necessary data to understand the current state of inequities in the community.

The San Diego Workforce Partnership, which is the local workforce board, structures its framework (job necessities, job opportunities and job features) based on how different aspects of job quality relate to the individual worker. The framework also includes specific job quality indicators that make up a good job as well as a guide for building job quality into workforce development.

In 2013, San Francisco passed the Family Friendly Workplace Ordinance, providing workers the right to request a flexible or predictable schedule to assist with caregiving responsibilities and requiring employers to engage in an interactive process with workers to develop a schedule that works for both workers and the business. In 2015, San Francisco passed a series of formula retail employee rights ordinances that regulate hours, retention and scheduling and treatment of part-time employees at some formula retail establishments. The laws apply to formula retail establishments with at least 40 stores worldwide and 20 or more employees in San Francisco, as well as their janitorial and security contractors.

Seattle, Washington, enacted one of the country’s first stable scheduling laws in 2017  (see the Secure Scheduling Fact Sheet and a study about the impacts of the ordinance for more information). The study evaluates the law’s effects two years after implementation. The findings include information on scheduling practices as well as on workers’ job satisfaction, well-being and economic security. The study found that Seattle: increased the share of workers who know their schedule at least two weeks in advance, decreased the share of workers reporting last minute shift timing changes without pay, increased workers’ satisfaction with their work schedule and their job, increased workers’ overall happiness and sleep quality and reduced workers’ material hardship.

The California Workforce Development Board job quality framework combines case making, local data, specific components and benefits of more quality jobs for each key stakeholder (workers, worker organizations, employers, communities). This framework specifically addresses how job quality can be brought to life through High Road Training Partnerships.

The Colorado Workforce Development Council structures its job quality framework on the basis of actions (elevate, create, attract) that are then tied to specific stakeholders. The framework also addresses why job quality is important, what features make up a good job and what actions different stakeholders can take.

The Texas Workforce Commission’s FY2022 operating budget projected revenues of $7,200,000,000 from administering the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, childcare, unemployment compensation, apprenticeship and state general funds, among other programs. These integrated funding streams, in addition to $183,000,000 in general fund investments, provide opportunities to launch job quality initiatives across multiple funding streams for Texas residents at different points in their employment and career paths.

In 2016, Travis County purchasing offices adopted the Better Builder Certification that defines job quality standards for public construction projects. These standards were defined by workers themselves through grassroots organizing with low-income construction workers of color, many of whom spoke limited English.

In 2022, the U.S. Departments of Labor and Commerce published eight “Good Jobs Principles” as a shared vision of job quality for workers, businesses, labor unions, advocates, researchers, state and local governments and federal agencies.

In 2020, Virginia passed a law lifting a previous ban on union organizing by municipal workers, thereby allowing localities to recognize and collectively bargain with unions by passing an ordinance. A number of Virginia localities have since passed collective bargaining ordinances, including the city of Alexandria, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County and the Richmond School Board.

The president issued an Executive Order on Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors in 2021 that increased the required wage for contractors to $15 per hour and addressed implications for tipped workers.