Job Quality Playbook

Education and Enforcement Metrics

How to Measure

The impact and effectiveness of the education and enforcement lever can be measured through trends in behavior of both businesses and workers. Qualitative data is particularly critical as problems will remain hidden unless workers speak up and vulnerable workers will not speak up in isolation. Workers need safe spaces with trusted communicators where they can share their experiences, challenges and insights. Trusted community organizations should be directly involved in the development of appropriate survey, interview or focus group questions to ensure sensitive violation issues are handled in a manner that is ethnically and culturally responsive. Collecting data at different stages of the process will provide a fuller sense of the impact.

Remember that workforce agencies may not be involved/responsible for every step of the process so focus data collection primarily on those areas within the realm of direct control or strong influence. For example, workforce agencies may be able to refer workers to appropriate reporting channels, provide information to investigators based on their relationship with the employer, and infuse prior investigation outcomes into their priority sector selection and funding approach.

Area
Sample Measures

Education

• # of trainings delivered, by type and location

• # of participants, by demographics

• # of referrals to reporting channels

• Pre and post training perception and knowledge changes, as measured by survey

• % increase in usage of available resources

Strategic Enforcement

• Shifts in industry trends as a result of enforcement activities

• Reductions in # of incidents particularly among subcontractors, temporary employees, and independent contractors who have typically been under represented

• Reductions in reporting gaps between high wage and low wage industries

• Reductions in public funding provided to repeat offenders through subsidy or business assistance programs

• Increased confidence in/satisfaction with labor enforcement on part of workers

Co-enforcement

• Increase in reporting of violations

• Trends in violation type, by race, ethnicity, gender or other

• Trends in business outreach

• Amount of Rapid Response / Layoff Aversion / Small Business Administration / Community Development Block Grant funding provided to business process transformation projects

• % or $ of funding prioritized to businesses in compliance

Tips for Measuring

  • Use local data on growing income inequality, pay stagnation, declines in union participation, and deregulation to target outreach and education activities both for workers and businesses.

  • Partner closely with trusted community-based organizations to develop worker voice surveys to capture vulnerable worker perspectives.

  • Set reasonable timelines for measurement and evaluation. Strategic enforcement cycles that tackle changes in an industry or cluster of businesses can be time consuming.

  • Acknowledge the reality that workforce development efforts, such as education, directed funding or reporting, are just one piece of the process and may lead to indirect results.