Resources

Resources: Job Quality Levers

Frequently Requested Job Quality Topics

Additional Resources and Studies

• ICA Group (National) Employee-Owned Child Care Businesses: This national nonprofit works with childcare workers and owners to increase the number of employee-owned childcare businesses and cooperatives, such as the Rose Garden in Buffalo, New York. Workforce and economic development agencies can partner with groups like ICA to create more resiliency, equity and wealth building opportunities in the childcare industry, helping childcare businesses grow and expand to create more spots for working families.

• GAP Stable Scheduling Study: The Gap ran a pilot at 28 stores in San Francisco and Chicago. This report is the first randomized controlled experiment of a multi-component intervention designed to shift schedules in hourly retail jobs toward greater stability. The Stable Scheduling Study found that increasing the stability of work schedules is possible and even profitable in today’s competitive retail environment. Key findings include increases in consistency, predictability and worker input. Adequacy of work hours did not increase for most associates; experienced associates may have benefited more from the shift to stability than inexperienced employees. Stable scheduling significantly increased median sales and labor productivity, and return on investment was high. Fluctuating customer demand is not the primary source of instability; managers consistently implemented advanced notice and elimination of on-calls in both control and treatment stores. Store managers’ responses to the Intervention were generally positive, with a strong recommendation that other business practices be changed at the same time as scheduling practices.

• Chicago (IL) Hourly Worker Survey on Schedule Instability: A survey of 1,717 workers found that more than 40% of hourly paid workers have at least occasional on-call work, often with very short advance notice, and almost half have little to no input into their daily work schedules. More than a third of all workers have less than one week’s advance notice of their schedule, and almost half have a preference to work more hours for more income. Irregular shifts and underemployment are both higher among part-time workers. The findings include a list of public policy recommendations to address the erratic work schedules and their documented work-life consequences for working people.

• White House Executive Order (National) Increasing Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors: 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.

• Economic Policy Institute (National) Local Government Action Protecting Worker Rights: In 2022, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) provided a comprehensive overview with detailed examples of how local governments are protecting workers’ rights by establishing local labor standards offices to enforce workers’ rights laws, establishing worker boards and councils, passing local worker protections laws, setting job quality standards for contractors and internal employers and championing workers issues through local public leadership.

• San Diego County (CA) Stable Scheduling Research and Advocacy: The San Diego County workforce board produced a position paper in 2021 to raise awareness of the importance of scheduling and to support advocacy efforts for the implementation of a scheduling ordinance in the county. The paper addresses the benefits to workers and businesses of making a shift in scheduling stability, predictability and reliability.