When the pandemic put essential workers center stage, many doubted that the surge in gratitude for the people who power the nation’s economy would last. But more than two years later, support for workers is holding strong. A 2022 survey by Just Capital of public attitudes toward corporate America found that treatment of workers was the top priority when assessing company behavior. And support for unions is at its highest level since 1965, garnering 71 percent approval in a recent Gallup poll.
As employers struggle to fill positions in a consistently strong job market, workers increasingly recognize that they have the power to change their circumstances. In response, many are voting with their feet. Last year, more than 47 million people took part in the so-called Great Resignation — quitting to seek out new, better-quality jobs.
These are welcome and long-overdue developments, but the overall picture for workers remains troubling. Economic inequality has fallen only moderately despite low unemployment rates, and the racial wage gap persists: Black women make 61 cents for every dollar earned by white men. Women and people of color are still concentrated in industries and jobs where they are most likely to experience dangerous working conditions or wage theft such as through denial of minimum wages, overtime pay, or managers pocketing employee tips.
Uprooting the current levels of inequality in the labor market, which date back to the nation’s founding, will require a well-coordinated coalition of workers, businesses, nonprofits, and government leaders. These efforts should build on the current pro-worker momentum and the actions employees are taking to gain more influence over decisions that affect their lives.
Grant makers who care about poverty, economic opportunity, and worker equity haven’t had an opportunity like this in decades. Fortunately, they have a hefty playbook to work from. Philanthropy has mobilized to address worker injustices since the Industrial Revolution, playing a vital role, for example, in the settlement-house movement, which brought together low-income workers and middle-class leaders to collectively address workplace problems, among other issues. Philanthropists not only funded direct services but also advocated for worker-safety and child-labor laws that remain essential today.
Philanthropy has a chance to do it again, collaborating with and supporting employees and aligned government and business leaders to build an economy in which all workers receive a decent wage and benefits, and have equitable opportunities to advance into better paying positions. Here are three ways grant makers can quickly have an impact:
Elevate the voices of underrepresented workers. Many grassroots organizations across the country are dedicated to building the power and influence of the most marginalized workers but may lack the communications expertise or staffing necessary to reach new members and build up local chapters.
Take the case of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, or NDWA, which organizes and advocates for the more than 2 million people who clean homes and care for children and families. The organization would not have been able to respond effectively to its members during the pandemic without significant philanthropic support.
Domestic work, which is performed mostly by immigrants and women of color, is largely unregulated, low paying, and rife with abuse. These problems were compounded by Covid-19 because such workers are often excluded from formal safety-net programs. Philanthropy, however, quickly mobilized to provide support.
A grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded, among other things, weekly Spanish-language surveys of NDWA’s members to understand their evolving needs. The Rockefeller Foundation supported a campaign to promote vaccine access. The Open Society Foundations, in collaboration with business and government, helped enable the creation of an open-source digital platform to provide emergency cash relief to workers. And funding from the James Irvine Foundation, which Don leads, helped NDWA and its California partners connect with nearly 35,000 additional care workers in the state last year.
With the current waning of the pandemic, these groups now need multiyear funding to improve their operations, increase their staff and pay them fairly, and engage effectively with partners and coalitions.
Support improved labor laws. State and federal governments have the primary responsibility for expanding collective bargaining rights and strengthening labor protections. But philanthropy can help by supporting groups that raise awareness of labor laws, monitor enforcement, and help workers advocate for reforms.
The National Employment Law Project, for example, is collaborating with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office and 17 workers’ rights and legal-advocacy organizations to bolster anti-wage-theft enforcement and help low-wage workers exercise their rights under the law. On a national level, foundation resources allowed NELP to develop and promote its 2022 Policy and Advocacy Agenda, which provides advocates with resources for effectively engaging in a range of pro-employee activities, including efforts to raise wages and benefits, enforce workplace safety, and build worker power.
Grant makers committed to supporting such pro-worker policies need to step up their support at a time when employees have greater leverage to push for and achieve these long-held goals.
Insist on good-quality jobs. The reality behind the rosy employment numbers is that too many of those jobs barely pay a living wage or do not offer decent benefits. And while average wages have climbed this year, they have failed to keep pace with inflation. According to Oxfam America, nearly one-third of workers overall, and half of women of color, earn less than $15 an hour. Even jobs that pay a living wage often lack affordable health insurance, paid sick days, or opportunities for training and advancement.
Changing this picture starts with accurately defining and measuring the problem so that government and philanthropic funding goes where it’s needed most. Grant makers are already leading the way on such efforts.
Just this month, the multidonor Families and Workers Fund, which Rachel leads, and the Aspen Institute partnered with more than 200 business, labor, work-force development, and philanthropy leaders to release a broadly endorsed definition of good jobs, focusing on factors such as economic stability and mobility, and access to training and other wealth-building opportunities. Next, the fund is partnering with the U.S. Department of Labor to develop and release a new series of recommendations on how to integrate job quality into traditional economic measures such as unemployment.
Across all areas of worker support, grant makers should use their sizable platforms and networks to convene stakeholders from different fields to collaborate, learn together, share information on best practices, and ensure equity is embedded into job-creation programs. Most immediately, that means funding work-force development and training programs that will prepare more people to fill jobs created by massive federal and state infrastructure and climate spending.
Fixing the nation’s broken labor market and addressing chronic economic inequality require sustained and collective action. Philanthropy should stand at the center of those efforts at a time of real opportunity for change.