Job Quality and Employer Practices: Evidence from B Corporations
A new WorkRise report explores how employer practices related to job quality differ between certified B Corporations and similar firms, revealing insights into worker benefits, firm outcomes, and strategies to improve job quality.
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A new WorkRise report explores how employer practices related to job quality differ between certified B Corporations and similar firms, revealing insights into worker benefits, firm outcomes, and strategies to improve job quality.
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
In Depth

Worker voice, representation, and power
Feature
Last updated on October 24, 2024
Segregation in the Low-Wage Workforce
Over the past 50 years, the composition of the low-wage workforce has changed: more than half of low-wage workers are now people of color, up from just 20 percent in 1971. Today, Black, Latino, and women workers are more likely to be segregated into worse-quality and lower-paying jobs.
WorkRise Research

Employer practices
Last updated on November 19, 2024
Video
WorkRise Shorts: Overcoming Racial Disparities in Manufacturing Recruitment and Training Programs
Can a new local manufacturing workforce development program that targets workers who are not traditionally engaged in the sector overcome racial disparities in its hiring and wage rates?
Last updated on November 19, 2024
The Latest

Employer practices
February 27, 2024
Article
How Companies Can Modernize Their Approach to CSR: Strategies for a Successful Company, Workforce, and Society
This piece offers strategies to navigate the evolving landscape of corporate social responsibility in light of societal demands for more human-centered interventions.

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.
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
Economic context
Brief
September 28, 2020
Racial Inequality in the Labor Market and Employment Opportunities
This brief explores the persistent inequities and disparities in outcomes experienced by people of color in the U.S. labor market through key data points, delves into root causes based on a review of the evidence, and identifies key gaps in our knowledge of why and how labor market inequality endures.
WorkRise Research