WorkRise Impact Report
Our 2023 Impact Report highlights how we lead with rigorous, actionable research and ensure it reaches the hands of the change-makers best positioned to act on it.
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Our 2023 Impact Report highlights how we lead with rigorous, actionable research and ensure it reaches the hands of the change-makers best positioned to act on it.
Grantmaking and Partnerships
Led by a cross-sector Leadership Board that is ideologically diverse and representative of often-siloed groups, WorkRise invests in research on policies, programs, and practices that have the potential to accelerate economic security and mobility for low-wage workers. We fund analyses and the creation of data that shed light on labor market barriers, trends, and opportunities. And we engage in strategic partnerships that help advance evidence-based solutions in support of our mission. Learn more about our most recent request for proposals and how you can collaborate with WorkRise.
The Latest
Skills and training
Last updated on June 18, 2024How to Expand Access to Good Clean Energy Jobs among Women and People of Color
New research shows women and people of color are underrepresented in the potential workforce for high-quality clean energy jobs. Universities, employers, and unions can play a role in creating a more diverse workforce.
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Skills and training
Last updated on June 04, 2024WorkRise Shorts: Applying AI to Rebuild Middle Class Jobs with David Autor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor David Autor asks what artificial intelligence could enable people to do and who could be enabled by this tool.
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Economic context
Last updated on June 11, 2024Better Local Labor Market Conditions Can Help Reduce the Risk of Reincarceration in the United States
Formerly incarcerated people who face better local labor market conditions when they are released from prison are estimated to face lower likelihoods of being reincarcerated.
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The Latest
Job search and matching
February 13, 2024
Research Summary
Minimum wages create opportunities for good jobs and better business productivity
Research on minimum wages in the United States finds that, contrary to frequent arguments against these policies, they often raise wages, moving low-wage workers into better jobs and benefiting companies’ productivity.
Job search and matching
February 06, 2024
Research Summary
The Digital Divide in Job Hunting
Socioeconomic factors and gaps in digital skills impact who uses social media to look for jobs. Older workers and low-income individuals are less likely to have the technological literacy or digital access to look for jobs online, while digital skills and use of social media across racial and ethnic groups are varied.
Worker voice, representation, and power
January 30, 2024
Research Summary
Sexual Harassment Is Underreported When the US Economy and Safety Net Are Weak
When the US unemployment rate is high and unemployment insurance benefits are weak, workers are less likely to report workplace sexual harassment. Fears of retaliation increase workers’ reluctance to report sexual harassment, reducing worker protections and worker power in the labor market.
Social determinants of work
January 23, 2024
Research Summary
Eviction Cases Penalize Low-Wage Workers When They’re Down
Housing evictions lead to more than just immediate shelter concerns. Tenants
face lower earnings and worse health outcomes in the years before and after an eviction case is filed against them.
Research
Social determinants of work
March 15, 2022
Expanding Child Care Subsidies to Parents in Education and Training
A fact sheet summarizes findings from a new WorkRise report that models a hypothetical policy scenario where more parents in education and training were eligible for and received public child care subsidies.
Grantee Research
Job search and matching
Executive Summary
January 14, 2022
Rise with the STARs
New research from WorkRise grantee Opportunity@Work demonstrates the harm and exclusion workers without four-year degrees who are “skilled through alternative routes” (STARs) experience in the labor market.
Grantee Research
Employer practices
Report
July 01, 2021
Skills, Degrees, and Labor Market Inequality
In a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, researchers demonstrate that workers with college degrees have dramatically better access to higher-wage occupations where the skill requirements exceed the workers’ observed skill compared to workers without degrees.
Grantee Research
Employer practices
Brief
October 07, 2020
The Challenge of Slow Wage Growth
Because of sluggish wage growth, middle- and low-wage workers in the United States are today doing little better in real terms than similarly situated workers 40 years ago, exacerbating economic burdens experienced by workers during the current COVID-19 crisis. This brief examines the evidence on wage growth for the typical worker over several decades and concludes that efforts to rebuild the U.S. labor market must include policies to accelerate wage growth.
WorkRise Research