What's New

The National Domestic Workers Alliance has released a report on the state of domestic workers in the United States.  "Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work" is the first report of its kind in the country. The research was conducted in collaboration with the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois in Chicago and DataCenter.

Among other sobering findings, the report reveals that:

• 23 percent of workers surveyed are paid below the state minimum wage.
• Domestic workers earn a median hourly wage of $10 an hour.

As journalist Barbara Ehrenreich writes in her introduction, the report's findings are a call to action, not only for domestic workers and employers, but for our nation as whole:

The best way to bring an end to the abuses documented in this report is to go beyond appeals to individual conscience and codify the rights of domestic workers in contracts and law. As a start, we must insist on the inclusion of domestic workers under the coverage of existing labor laws.

The challenge posed by Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work goes beyond the immediate community of employers. Anyone who reads this report will be forced to reflect on the larger consequences of extreme inequality, which are moral as well as economic. As we should have learned from the crisis that brought on a global downturn, inequality threatens economic stability. . . . Home Economics offers a way out of this shameful situation, a clear course of action toward a society in which everyone's work is respected and valued.

You can read the executive summary or download the full report here.

 

Yesterday at Austin Polytech, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the city will invest $1.25 million in advanced manufacturing education programs led by the Chicago Manufacturing Renaissance Council and its managing partner, the Center for Labor & Community Research (CLCR).

"We need to invest in something other people recognize as one of a kind. We have it right here in the city of Chicago," Mayor Emanuel said.

The funds will support the Austin Innovation Park, Austin Polytech Career Program, Austin Manufacturing Training Center, outreach to elementary school students around advanced manufacturing education and careers, and a new bridge program to prepare African-American males for advanced manufacturing training.

Watch the press conference with Mayor Rahm Emanuel at Austin Polytechnical Academy

"This crucial funding will allow us to take a decisive step forward in establishing Chicago as a hub for advanced manufacturing and a national leader in this growing and crucial field," said Jorge Ramirez, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor and co-chair of the Chicago Manufacturing Renaissance Council.

Learn More...

Blog post by Madeline Janis, co-founder and National Policy Director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), Nov. 2, 2012

It seems like a hopeless conundrum. We need our government - federal state and local - to stimulate the economy and help create jobs. But our government has no money. Or at least less money. So does that mean that it's foolish - or unfair - to insist that our local, state and governments do "something" to create more and better jobs for people who desperately need them?

Well, no. In fact, there is a lot that our government can do to double or triple the number of jobs that are being created in the US with the same or similar amounts of money. We just have to do things in a smarter and more strategic way to get much better results.

Read more...

The National Skills Coalition (NSC), a Surdna grantee, released a report, Building Pathways to Employment in America’s Cities through Integrated Workforce and Community Development, which explores ways that federal policy can better support cities’ efforts to integrate human and physical capital investments, particularly in the areas of public housing and transit oriented development.  The report is the result of a collaboration between NSC and local leaders in five cities—Baltimore, Chicago, New Orleans, Twin Cities, and Seattle—who are working to bridge the worlds of community and workforce development locally.

Despite growing interest in building these bridges, it has been challenging for local community development and workforce development practitioners to collaborate, even as both know that coordination is essential for improving the skills and employability of low-income individuals and for more efficiently using limited public resources. Federal Policy has a role to play in making this type of coordination easier.

America’s cities have the potential to be the engines of full national economic recovery and growth. Realizing this potential requires integrated investments not only in places, but also in people.

Read the report...