Overview

Certain opportunities aligned with a given job—such as access to dependable family care, reliable and affordable transportation, and workplace benefits like health care and paid leave—can affect people’s ability to succeed at work. WorkRise generates evidence on and elevates our understanding of how these social determinants of work can support job stability and worker well-being as well as how they affect equity in the workplace. 

Working Knowledge

Midsection of young disabled woman using computer at home
Social determinants of work Last updated on May 14, 2024
Research Summary

Creating Pathways to Remote Work Opportunities for Workers with Disabilities

Remote work can offer significant benefits for both workers and businesses and provides important opportunities for the meaningful inclusion of workers with disabilities. Employers, policymakers, workforce developers, and educational institutions all have an important role to play in reducing occupational segregation among disabled workers to open equitable pathways to remote work arrangements and career mobility.

Oluwasekemi Odumosu

Last updated on May 14, 2024
Social determinants of work March 05, 2024
Article

Move to Opportunity or Invest Locally: What helps workers get ahead?

Federal, state, and local investment in underresourced communities is more effective in improving low-wage workers’ economic mobility than moving them to well-funded communities.

Oluwasekemi Odumosu

March 05, 2024
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.

Oluwasekemi Odumosu

January 23, 2024
Social determinants of work January 09, 2024
Research Summary

Less Money, More Problems: Financial Stress and Psychological Harm among Vulnerable Workers

A recent study finds that those who are low income or unemployed are among groups more susceptible to financial stress and psychological harm. Workers who are already disadvantaged in the labor market—such as those who are women and/or less educated—are likely to have even higher psychological distress when faced with economic concerns.

Annabel Stattelman Scanlan

January 09, 2024

Research

Social determinants of work Executive Summary July 13, 2023

The Rise and Fall of Underemployment: Implications for Workers' Health

This brief offers an overview of the literature exploring the connection between underemployment and health outcomes. Public policies can be crucial in mitigating the negative health effects associated with underemployment. However, more comprehensive data on transitions into and out of underemployment are required to inform future research and policy initiatives.

Lonnie Golden, Jaeseung Kim

Grantee Research

July 13, 2023
Social determinants of work Brief September 29, 2022

The EITC and Racial Income Inequality

A new analysis from WorkRise grantees finds that the earned income tax credit reduces racial income inequality among lower- and middle-income households but may widen it for households in deep poverty.

Bradley Hardy, Charles Hokayem, James Ziliak

Grantee Research

September 29, 2022
Social determinants of work Executive Summary March 29, 2022

Income Inequality, Race, and the EITC

New grantee research finds the 1993 expansion of the earned income tax credit reduced income inequality among Black and white households in the lower half of the income distribution through a significant employment response among Black households.
March 29, 2022
Social determinants of work Report March 15, 2022

Implications of Providing Child Care Assistance to Parents In Education and Training

New WorkRise research uses microsimulation to model a hypothetical policy scenario where more parents in education and training were eligible for and received public child care subsidies.

Gina Adams, Linda Giannarelli, Nathan Sick, Kelly Dwyer

Grantee Research

March 15, 2022
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.

Gina Adams, Linda Giannarelli, Nathan Sick, Kelly Dwyer

Grantee Research

March 15, 2022

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