Address Low Employment

Addresses Risk Factor:

Economic Instability

Youth who experience economic instability and do not have consistent access to basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter are at higher risk of substance use, violence, delinquency, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of school

How does this strategy address this risk factor?

Living wage employment is related to one’s well being, with evidence supporting the relationship between employment and good health. Living wage employment allows individuals to earn an income, which in turn allows for economic wellbeing and promotes their ability to meet basic needs for themselves and for their family. Children from households in which parents, guardians, and/or family members work can benefit from nutritious food, safe and stable housing, and quality healthcare. Addressing low wage employment may require communities to consider how they can create new jobs if few exist and/or how they can help residents obtain and sustain living wage employment opportunities.

Before You Begin

Understand employment in your community and the prominent barriers residents face in obtaining and retaining living wage jobs. Understanding the current state of employment in your community is necessary for your coalition to begin work in this area. Furthermore, understanding the unique barriers to finding and securing living wage employment and organizations that may address these barriers in your community is an important component in planning the implementation activities your coalition should undertake.

Resources:

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics offers a variety of data tools to understand labor and employment in states and communities across the country.
Colorado communities can learn more about economic opportunities throughout the state via CDPHE’s social determinants of health research.

Educate stakeholders on the importance of mandating a living wage. A living wage is the minimum hourly wage necessary to meet an individual’s or family’s basic needs in a specific community. It is dependent on the cost of living in a community, and accounts for expenses that are not included when calculating the federal minimum wage. Calculators like this one can help people understand what living wages are locally. Research shows living wages can promote employment longevity, as well as positively influence health outcomes.

Resources:

To learn more about living wage policies, their health benefits, where they have been enacted, and implementation considerations and recommendations, review the report “Leveraging Evidence-Based Policies to Improve Health, Control Costs, and Create Health Equity” (pg 28).
The All-In Cities Policy Toolkit describes implementation of living wage policies and offers an Equitable Development Toolkit.

Analyze existing work supports available to your community. Work supports are benefits and community resources that can impact employment levels in your community. Before your coalition takes action, it is important for you to understand the work supports available to community members, as well as their current implementation and utilization/enrollment.

Resources:

The National Center for Children in Poverty offers a Family Resource Simulator, a simulation tool and benefit calculator that provides state and county data on benefit availability, gaps, and impacts for low- and middle-income individuals and families.
Colorado communities can learn more about employment assistance programs via the Colorado Department of Human Services.

Identify and connect with other organizations and individuals working or interested in this area, as well as those that hold decision-making power. Working with other organizations and/or individuals is the best way to maximize your coalition’s power and allows for a greater influence. Before selecting implementation activities, your coalition should take time to understand who is already working in this space, who has power to influence decision making, and what efforts are already underway. Reaching out to these organizations and individuals can help you form partnerships and learn from current and/or previous systems-level work in this area.

Resources:

The National Academy of Community Organizers offers A Guide to Power Analysis in Community Organizing, which can help coalitions understand where power sits within a community around a particular issue.

Understand the inequities that are related to this strategy and consider the systemic and structural causes of disparities. By understanding the factors that contribute to this strategy, your coalition will be better able to identify the action that needs to be taken. Additionally, new and/or existing policies and systems-level approaches have the potential to exacerbate existing inequities, making it important for your coalition to critically examine your action plan for signs of negative consequences.

Resources:

Colorado can learn about the disparities in workforce development throughout the state by reviewing the Colorado Workforce Development Council’s Colorado Talent Equity Agenda.
The Race Matters Institute of JustPartners, Inc. offers a free guide on conducting a Racial Equity Backmap, which helps groups and individuals consider and identify the various drivers of a given inequity.
Consider using an Equity Impact Assessment to better explore and understand such consequences. Both the Center for the Study of Social Policy and Race Forward offer free resources.
The Government Alliance on Race and Equity offers Racial Equity Toolkit An Opportunity to Operationalize Equity.
The Othering and Belonging Institute offers policy-based recommendations for addressing structural and systemic racism.

Understand the importance not only in the quantity of available employment opportunities, but the quality of available employment opportunities. While healthy, supportive jobs can improve health outcomes for individuals and families, an unhealthy work environment can negatively impact the health and well being of adults and children.

Resources:

This report discusses the research showing the impact of job quality on the health of families and children.
Colorado communities can learn more about job quality in Colorado via the Colorado Workforce Development Council.

Implementation Activities Aligned to Research

It is important to note that the uniqueness of your community, its resources, and its needs will ultimately determine what implementation of this strategy will look like. Additionally, it is important for your coalition to approach this strategy in a way that is aligned with your overarching goal(s). The list below offers suggestions and ideas of evidence-informed actions your coalition can consider taking as part of your implementation of this strategy.

Create Living Wage Employment Opportunities in the Community

Educate stakeholders on the importance of local and targeted hiring policies. These policies require or incentivize businesses to employ members from a specific community in order to increase living wage employment.

Resources:

Learn more about these policies and where they have been utilized previously via the All-In Cities Policy Toolkit.
The Partnership for Working Families offers a variety of resources for communities interested in exploring local and targeted hiring policies.

Educate stakeholders on the impact of Community Benefit Agreements. Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs) are legally enforceable contracts between community-based stakeholders and developers in which the community stakeholders help shape development projects impacting their community. A common component of CBAs is local and targeted hiring, which allows residents access to economic opportunities that the developer can provide.

Resources:

Learn more about CBAs and where they have been utilized previously via the All-In Cities Policy Toolkit.
The Partnership for Working Families offers a Community Benefits Toolkit, which includes information on CBAs, case studies on their implementation, and resources for communities that hope to develop a CBA.

Support the adoption of subsidized living wage employment programs. Subsidized employment programs offer individuals searching for employment a government-funded, temporary paid position to help them meet their basic needs while gaining work experience and basic skills. Often these programs are linked to additional supportive services (e.g., child care, TANF). The programs are often developed and run at the local or state level.

Resources:

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities summarizes subsidized employment programs and the research supporting their effectiveness in this report (pg 6).
Innovative Employment Approaches and Programs for Low-Income Families (pg 22) further explains these programs, as well as covers the key features of an effective program.

Help Residents Access and Retain Living Wage Employment

Educate stakeholders on the benefits of financial incentives. Financial incentives increase employment and duration of employment. They can be provided in various forms including tax credits, supplemental wages, and bonuses.

Resources:

Innovative Employment Approaches and Programs for Low-Income Families (pg 46) discusses financial incentives and their various iterations.

Educate stakeholders on the benefits of Fair Chance Hiring. Fair chance hiring refers to policies that eliminate criminal record questions on job applications and the immediate exclusion of justice-involved applicants. Fair chance policies still allow for criminal background checks and discussions of criminal records, but ensure employers first consider candidates’ qualifications for employment and that criminal record information is considered in a position-related context.

Resources:

Learn more about fair chance hiring and where these policies have been implemented via the All-In Cities Policy Toolkit.
The ACLU’s report, “Back to Business: How Hiring Formerly Incarcerated Job Seekers Benefits Your Company“ discusses successful implementations of fair chance policies and provides guidance for communities and businesses interested in adopting similar policies.

Support efforts to increase awareness of and access to available work-support programs. Many eligible families that are eligible for work-support programs do not participate due to a variety of barriers including complex application processes, a lack of knowledge of existing programs, stigma associated with receiving benefits, and misinformation about eligibility criteria.

Resources:

Communities can learn more about how to increase awareness and access to available work-support programs via the Menu’s Make Community Assistance Programs and Resources More Accessible to Eligible Families strategy page.
Innovative Employment Approaches and Programs for Low-Income Families (pg 44) discusses approaches to increase access to work-support programs that may help individuals retain jobs.
Additional strategies that can be taken at the state-level to improve access and awareness are discussed here.

Support efforts to establish Neighborhood Living Wage Employment Hubs and/or to co-locate services. Neighborhood Employment Hubs are community locations that offer employment assistance resources (e.g., recruitment, training). Oftentimes these hubs are more easily accessible and welcoming to community members versus the public agencies that may provide similar or the same resources. Additionally, these hubs can connect individuals and families with other resources and assistance programs that may further help them access and sustain employment (e.g., transportation, benefit enrollment, etc,).

Resources:

The report “Building Shared Prosperity: How Communities Can Create Good Jobs for All” (pg 18) discusses Neighborhood Employment Hubs and successful implementation examples.
Communities can also learn more about co-locating services via the Menu’s Make Community Assistance Programs and Resources More Accessible to Eligible Families strategy page.

Educate stakeholders on the importance of family friendly business practices to improve employment stability. Parents and guardians in the workforce can experience unique challenges in navigating and sustaining employment opportunities. Family-friendly business practices and policies provide critical support to help keep them employed.

Resources:

Communities interested in family friendly business practices should review the Menu’s “Family-Friendly Business Practices” strategy page.

Sama-Miller, E., Kleinman, R., Timmins, L., and Dahlen, H. (2019). Employment and Health Among Low-Income Adults and their Children: A Review of the Literature. Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Washington, DC.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2000). Connecting families to jobs: A guide to key ideas, effective approaches, and technical assistance resources for the making connections cities and site teams. Baltimore, MD. Retrieved from https://assets.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/aecf-connectingfamiliestojobs-2000.pdf