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This week: John Oliver Shouts out CLASP, Celebrating Women’s History Month

RECENTLY FROM CLASP
March 21, 2024

John Oliver Tackles Student Debt, Features CLASP Report

In the most recent “Last Week Tonight” show, John Oliver focused on student debt and cited a 2022 report we co-authored with the National Consumer Law Center. Our report addressed the disproportionate impact of student debt on Black borrowers.
WATCH HERE

CLASP Reflects on Women’s History Month

Over the month of March, CLASP has used our social media channels to lift up the voices and impact of women who have played key roles in the fight for economic, social, racial, and gender justice. Among the women we have featured so far are Nancy Duff Campbell, Marian Wright Edelman, and Marcia Greenberger. Stay tuned as we highlight other women leaders this month.

Unleashing Worker Power: Building Good Jobs Beyond the Traditional Workforce System

On March 12, CLASP, in partnership with other organizations, launched The Good Jobs Collaborative (GJC). In a new report released at the event, GJC features its findings from projects in which workers are improving their jobs through organizing, policy, workforce training, job restructuring, and more.
READ REPORT
WATCH LAUNCH EVENT
The United States remains one of the few countries that does not offer paid family or medical leave. This often forces working families to make the difficult choice between financial stability and their health and well-being. The recently re-introduced Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act hopes to establish a comprehensive and inclusive federal paid leave policy that meets the needs of workers.
READ MORE

CLASP in the News

MARCH 19 | INSIDE HIGHER ED

The Exploitation of Black Athletes

MARCH 18, 2024 | TEEN VOGUE

Young Workers Have Rights: What to Know About Your Labor Protections

MARCH 18, 2024 | POLITICO

POLITICO Weekly Education


Recent Events

March 19: Tiffany Ferrette gave a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice on child care and early education policy situated within U.S. social systems and the history of race/ism in social policy.

 

March 14: India Heckstall spoke at the Generation Hope conference in New Orleans on a panel about CLASP’s work on Black student fathers.

Lorena Roque 

Last week, a federal judge in Texas struck down the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) joint employer rule. This rule is crucial to protecting workers’ rights, ensuring fair labor practices, and increasing corporate accountability. The joint employer rule would treat companies as joint employers that share control over working conditions of employees who have more than one employer, such as contracting agencies, staffing agencies, and franchises. This rule is especially important to workers earning low wages and in dangerous jobs, who need the protections of the National Labor Relations Act the most: those who are placed in jobs via temp or staffing agencies, and those who work in heavily contracted industries, including janitorial, construction, delivery, manufacturing, home care, and warehousing. 

U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker agreed with the challenge to the joint employer rule, stating that it is too broad and violates federal labor law. The judge argued that the rule would treat companies as the employers of contract or franchise workers even when they lacked any “meaningful” control over their working conditions. The judge’s ruling coincides with corporations such as Amazon, Starbucks, and Trader Joe’s desire to ban the NLRB entirely due to the increase in union drives. Therefore, as corporations continue to attack agencies and rules that are meant to hold employers accountable, workers are left in the precarious positions they already find themselves against employers. 

Corporations involved  in lower-wage industries also use subcontracting arrangements that can result in degraded working conditions and less access for workers to collective action and bargaining in the form of a union. In addition, these companies retain both direct and indirect control over working conditions in various ways. For example, new technologies make it easier for employers to keep tabs on workers. These surveillance practices have detrimental effects on workers’ health and affect their ability to organize. The joint employer rule would address this issue.

Not having a joint employer rule will affect the 3.2 million temporary staffing agency jobs in the United States, an industry that is growing faster than other private sector jobs. However, workers outsourced through staffing agencies earn less than direct hires for the same jobs. In fact, staffing agency workers earn 21 percent less in manufacturing jobs, 33 percent less in security jobs, and more than 47 percent less in teaching jobs than direct hires

The franchise model and its workers would also be affected by the joint employer rule, which would hold both franchisees and franchisors accountable for workers experiencing wage theft, discrimination, unsafe work environments, and unstable schedules. The structure of the franchise model can incentivize this abuse, as in most franchise models, the franchisee pays a royalty to the franchisor linked to revenue, not profit. The franchisee must follow strict rules around operation, quality of services, and sourcing of input products, which leaves little room for profit. However, a franchisee can control labor costs, and that’s where they squeeze employees. This system can create incentives for franchise operators to violate the law to make a profit on the backs of their employees. 

The NLRB’s proposed standard for joint employer status is critical to protect workers employed by franchises and other subcontractors and ensure that labor laws are enforced. The joint employer rule would ensure workers can effectively negotiate with their corporate employers, who ultimately make massive profits from these workers and tightly control many aspects of their working conditions.

With India Heckstall
You’re Invited! Webinar on Fostering Inclusion for Black Immigrant Students at HBCUs

Join us on March 21st at 2:30 pm ET/11:30 am PT for the Belonging at HBCUs for Black Immigrant Students webinar. The webinar will feature the new report, Fostering Inclusion for Black Immigrant Students at HBCUs, which discusses the role HBCUs play in:

Providing higher education opportunities for Black immigrant students, including undocumented Black Students; and Ensuring the viability and sustainability of HBCUs serving Black immigrant students.

>>Register here

In a surprise burst of bipartisanship in late 2023, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce advanced legislation reauthorizing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). Unfortunately, the compromise bill does little to re-balance our employer-dominated workforce development system or help workers navigate a labor market in which they have little power, few protections, and limited access to family-sustaining jobs.

It is time for a new approach to workforce development policy and practice that addresses the structural challenges facing low-wage workers, particularly workers of color. As the Senate takes up the reauthorization process, federal policymakers have the opportunity to broaden the conversation around workforce development and hear from workers and their advocates about how to build a system that puts the needs of workers first.

Please join us on March 12 from 10:30 am 12:00 pm EDT for the launch of The Good Jobs Collaborative, a new policy coalition of worker advocates, researchers, and policy experts committed to crafting a new approach to workforce development—one that is worker-centered. The event will take place at New America and will feature a lively discussion with labor leaders, workforce experts, and workers on what’s gone wrong with our approach to workforce development policy and how to fix it. Lunch will be provided.

Welcome

The Good Jobs Collaborative: Background and Principles

Discussion: Labor Leaders and Workforce Development

Research: “Unleashing Worker Power: Case Studies in Building Good Jobs Beyond the Traditional Workforce System

Worker Perspectives

Concluding Remarks

The Good Jobs Collaborative includes the following organizations:

<< Back to Careers

Description

The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) seeks a senior policy analyst?to work on its Education, Labor & Worker Justice (ELWJ) team. The team is seeking an analyst with experience working in workforce development policy or job quality policy with a focus on paid family and medical leave and paid sick days policy.

About CLASP

The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) is a national, nonpartisan, anti-poverty organization advancing policy solutions that work for people with low incomes and people of color. We advocate for public policies and programs at the federal, state, and local levels that reduce poverty, improve the lives of people with low incomes, and advance racial and economic justice. Our solutions directly address the barriers individuals and families face because of race, ethnicity, low income, and immigration status.

For more than 50 years, we have kept our vision alive through trusted expertise on policy and strategy, knowledgeable and committed staff, partnerships with directly impacted people and grassroots leaders, and approaches to economic and racial justice that are bold, innovative, and inclusive.

Within our broad anti-poverty mission, CLASP is organized around five policy teams: Child Care and Early Education; Education, Labor & Worker Justice; Income and Work Supports; Immigration and Immigrant Families; and Youth Policy. We also support cross-cutting bodies of work focused on the justice system and mental health.

CLASP Values for Racial Equity

We understand that inclusion is only the first step toward fostering sustainable racial equity, in our society and within our organizational culture. At CLASP, we value the importance of including multiple perspectives in how we shape our organizational culture and engage in our policy and advocacy efforts. However, we also know that to move beyond inclusion and achieve true racial equity we must be intentional in centering and prioritizing the voices, perspectives, and lived experiences of people of color. At CLASP, racial equity is our core value and informs all aspects of our organizational culture and the way we think about and approach our policy, issue, and advocacy areas. For true and sustainable change to happen in our country, historically white-founded and white-led policy and advocacy organizations must commit to full and immersive racial equity.

About the Education, Labor, & Worker Justice Team

The Education, Labor & Worker Justice team advocates for bold, worker-centered policies to address the inequitable and unjust nature of work paying low wages, including its root causes and disproportionate impact on Black, Latinx, and Indigenous workers and other workers of color. Supporting this North Star goal are the twin strategies of creating pathways to better jobs for workers earning low wages, with a specific focus on workers of color, and improving the jobs workers currently have. To create pathways to better jobs, we advocate for accessible and equitable workforce development opportunities, including subsidized jobs, Registered Apprenticeship programs, and postsecondary education. To improve existing jobs in low-wage sectors, we work to increase worker power-including the right to organize-and advocate for specific policies that improve job quality, such as access to paid leave and sick days, fair scheduling, and more robust enforcement of current labor law.

This position is based in the Washington, D.C., office. CLASP is currently working under a hybrid office model, with the expectation that staff work in-person at least four days a month. The Education, Labor & Worker Justice team will prioritize in-person workdays that align around the team’s shared schedules and offer meaningful opportunities to engage and collaborate with co-workers.

We have a mandatory vaccine policy as a condition of employment (applicable accommodations apply).

Responsibilities:

The Senior Policy Analyst will lead advocacy and implementation strategies in one of two core ELWJ policy areas: workforce development, with a focus on equity and access to quality jobs, including those created with recent federal investments; or job quality, with a focus on paid family and medical leave and paid sick day policy and implementation.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Requirements

Compensation:

CLICK HERE TO APPLY 

CLASP offers exceptional benefits, including several health insurance options (most that currently require no employee-paid premiums). In addition, we provide the following benefits that currently require no employee-paid premiums: dental insurance, vision insurance, life insurance, short- and long-term disability insurance, and long-term care insurance. Additionally, we offer a 403(b)-retirement program with employer contributions, flexible spending accounts, and a no-cost gym onsite at our D.C. office. Finally, we provide generous vacation (four weeks in the first year), paid sick leave (three weeks annually), two personal days a year, paid family and medical leave, and paid holiday schedule.

CLASP is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and strongly encourages women and people of color to apply. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or age.

By Emily Andrews, Breanna Betts, Laura Dresser, India Heckstall, Peter Rickman, Teófilo Reyes

The Good Jobs Collaborative (GJC) is an evolving collaboration focused on transforming the nation’s workforce development system to advance economic justice, racial and gender equity, workers’ needs, and worker voice and power. Over the past year, we have identified and learned from projects where workers are improving jobs through organizing, policy work, workforce training, job restructuring, and more.

We feature three of these cases here: the Healthcare Career Advancement Program (H-CAP), a national labor-management organization; the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United, an organization of more than 65,000 restaurant worker members; and the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization (MASH), an organization of more than 1,000 service and hospitality workers.

We hope that these cases will inspire interest, innovation, and concrete policy action to build a workforce development system that centers workers, tears down inequity in our labor markets, and raises the quality of jobs for all.

View the full report 

Acknowledgments

This research report is the first in a series from the Good Jobs Collaborative, a diverse coalition that brings policy experts and worker advocates into conversation on how to build a workforce development system that is responsive to the needs of workers first. The report was originally published by New America but is a product of the coalition and cross-posted to other websites.

 

By Diane Harris and Nat Baldino

When workers in the United States experience serious illness or caregiving responsibilities, they have few places to turn. While the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) provides federal job-protected leave for certain workers, the United States remains one of the few countries that does not offer paid family or medical leave. This leaves working families with the difficult choice between financial stability and their health and well-being. The recently re-introduced Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act hopes to build on the successes of state models to establish a comprehensive and inclusive federal paid leave policy that meets the needs of workers.

>> Download report here

By Nicolas Martinez

Last night, President Biden addressed a joint session of Congress to discuss the administration’s priorities over the next year. CLASP tuned in to watch and give live updates and reactions during the speech on Twitter (X). Today, we’re reviewing some of the best moments of last night and applauding several policies that would help create a more equitable economy that helps families, workers, people of color, and young people thrive.

Here are the top highlights of what we were looking at:

The PRO Act

Since the 2023 State of the Union address, we’ve seen a notable surge in labor organizing activities, yet the increase in union membership remains virtually unchanged. Workers still face an ongoing struggle and lack the effective collective bargaining power they deserve. Current policies continue to be barriers, allowing employers to exploit and ignore workers, which impedes workers’ ability to advance tangible union contracts. CLASP urges Congress to pass the #PROAct to safeguard and empower workers. Through organizing efforts, strikes, and labor actions, workers are voicing their demands for enhanced union access, stronger labor laws, protections for gig workers, and safer workplaces. Now is the time for Congress to act.

Since the last #SOTU, we’ve seen a surge in labor organizing efforts yet virtually no increase in union membership. Harsh truth persists: even with such job growth, countless hardworking individuals continue to lack the collective bargaining power they deserve. #StateOfTheUnion

— CLASP (@CLASP_DC) March 8, 2024

“Pass the PRO Act!”#SOTU2024 https://t.co/bhy9ubqlmJ

— ‘Indi’ Dutta-Gupta (@IndivarD) March 8, 2024

“Unions built the middle class”. Yes, and we’ve turned our back on working people over the past half century: https://t.co/HX4OsU9U9f #SOTU2024

— ‘Indi’ Dutta-Gupta (@IndivarD) March 8, 2024

> Read more about CLASP’s work on worker justice

Child Tax Credit

We applaud President Biden for prioritizing the Child Tax Credit (CTC), as it serves as a pivotal tool for investing in the well-being of children and families. The program reduced child poverty by half in 2021, an unprecedented drop that should not go unnoticed. The CTC is a critical program for families dealing with financial strain, and its expansion demonstrated a commitment to the nation’s children. Every child deserves a fair start regardless of their family’s income. The CTC is an important tool for achieving economic justice and building the fundamental foundation of our nation’s economic success. National surveys that CLASP conducted show that the expanded CTC significantly helped families, and Congress made a mistake in ending the monthly payments.

The #childtaxcredit is an opportunity to invest in children and families through our tax code. When it was expanded in 2021, it dramatically reduced child poverty. @burnsideashley1 of #SOTUwithCLASP #SOTU2024 #ChildTaxCredit https://t.co/tK9z3gXwJU

— CLASP (@CLASP_DC) March 8, 2024

“No child in this country should go hungry.” – POTUS Yes, never forget the power of the enhanced #ChildTaxCredit–cutting poverty nearly in half. Let’s expand it again. #SOTU2024

— ‘Indi’ Dutta-Gupta (@IndivarD) March 8, 2024

The #ChildTaxCredit cut the child poverty rate IN HALF in 2021. It is rare to see policy have such incredible and dramatic impacts. Let’s make the #CTC expansions permanent.#SOTUwithCLASP #SOTU2024 #SOTU

— Ashley Burnside (@burnsideashley1) March 8, 2024

>>Read more about CLASP’s work on the Child Tax Credit.

Paid Leave for All

Our economy cannot move forward and prosper without care work in mind. That’s why we urge Congress to pass the FAMILY Act, because we know our economy can only flourish once we have #PaidLeaveForAll. CLASP applauds the focus on paid leave policies that enable parents to nurture their children without stress or financial strain. Families shouldn’t have to make the unthinkable choice between keeping their jobs or caring for their children and loved ones. Despite some progress through state and local policies, tens of millions of workers are left with impossible choices today. Only national policymakers can fully address these failures and shortcomings. Congress should move expeditiously to pass these bills into law.

Paid leave is crucial for families because it allows parents to bond with their new child without worrying about lost income. It’s a vital time for both parent and infant well-being. #SOTUwithCLASP #SOTU2024 #StateOfTheUnion #PaidLeaveForAll https://t.co/HZwsowB7AB https://t.co/prnV6l1sFT

— CLASP (@CLASP_DC) March 8, 2024


>> Read more about CLASP’s work on paid family and medical leave.

Reproductive Justice

The Dobbs decision has profoundly impacted individuals across the United States. Restrictions on abortion access not only endanger lives but also pose serious risks to public health. Disproportionate harm comes to people of color and people with low incomes who face systemic barriers to health care, including limited access to abortion, inadequate paid family leave and child care, and low wages. It is critical to legalize abortion, address systemic inequities, and ensure access to comprehensive reproductive health care.

It’s essential that #abortion is legal, but that’s not enough. Decades of the #Hyde Amendment and other restrictions denied people abortion care even when it was legal. #SOTU2024 #StateOfTheUnion

— CLASP (@CLASP_DC) March 8, 2024

>> Read more of CLASP’s work on reproductive justice.

 

Child Care

Ensuring access to affordable and accessible child care and early education opportunities is important for families to flourish and the economy to thrive. We must make meaningful investments to turn this necessity into reality for families nationwide. The recent implementation of the new Child Care and Development Fund final rule is a significant milestone, expected to reduce costs for 100,000 families. This step forward acknowledges the pressing need for a system that better serves the needs of families and child care providers alike, and we express gratitude to the administration for its efforts in making this progress possible.

Imagine it, #ChildCare, #ElderCare, #PaidLeave & addressing interconnected systems of care. Imagine how this will strengthen well-being, economic mobility, access to higher ed/job training, parents & caregivers having a break & peace of mind. #SOTU2024

— Alycia Hardy (@ahardyMPA17) March 8, 2024

>>Learn more about CLASP’s work on child care.

Immigration

While President Biden’s State of the Union address prioritized many critical policies that would help working families thrive, the speech made it clear that the administration will continue down a path of enforcing harmful and failed immigration policies rather than strengthen our country by supporting and welcoming immigrants. While the Biden Administration has taken some important actions to support immigrants, its consistent pattern has been one step forward and three steps back.

The policies @POTUS is championing – asylum bans, expedited removal – will only worsen the problems we’ve been facing due to our country’s decades of failed immigration policy. #StateOfTheUnion

— CLASP (@CLASP_DC) March 8, 2024

>> Read more on CLASP’s reaction to President Biden’s stance on immigration in our newest blog.

By Nonprofit Quarterly

Work requirements—or requiring people to find employment in order to access public benefits—force people to prove that they deserve a social safety net. But where did they come from, and why are they still a central part of economic policy today? This series—Ending Work Requirements—based on a report by the Maven Collaborative, the Center for Social Policy, and Ife Finch Floyd, will explore the truth behind work requirements. The three pieces in this series will explore the racist history of work requirements, the harmful narratives holding them in place, and the economic case for abolishing them.”

View the series here.

By Lorena Roque and Sapna Mehta

The Department of Labor (DOL) found that child labor violations increased in 2023: 5,800 children were employed in violation of labor law, an increase of 14 percent from the previous year and 88 percent from 2019. But this likely underestimates the prevalence of child labor across the United States, as the DOL only highlights cases known to the government and many uses of child labor go unreported.

While corporations cite “tight labor markets” and “a labor shortage” as reasons for using child labor, the more accurate reason seems to be that it increases corporations’ profit margins. Children and their families are unlikely to be aware of child labor rights or resources available to report child labor violations. In addition, children and youth from families with low incomes often experience pressure to work to support themselves and their families, increasing their likelihood to be exploited by employers.

Migrant children are significantly more vulnerable to dangerous forms of child labor. An estimated 130,000 unaccompanied minors entered the United States, with 66 percent of all unaccompanied migrant children working full-time in 2022. Children who migrate to the United States are often pressured to work in order to send remittances to their family in their home country, pay off smugglers, or help support themselves. Unaccompanied migrant children are also waiting for their immigration case to be resolved, which means they are unable to access work authorization or federal support programs due to their lack of immigration status. Research shows that unaccompanied children who are connected to lawyers and social workers are better able to navigate the legal process and integrate into their new communities, including obtaining work authorization, immigration status, and critical services like health care. Therefore, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) needs to direct more resources to legal counsel and post-release services for unaccompanied migrant children.

Child labor has had a long history in farmwork in the United States due to the original Fair Labor and Standards Act (FLSA), which excluded protections for all workers in the farmwork, agriculture, and domestic industries–including minimum wage, Social Security benefits, and overtime compensation. These exclusions disproportionately affected Black and Hispanic workers who were overrepresented in agricultural work and were intentional by design. These jobs were some of the only ones that Black and Hispanic people were allowed to have after the Great Migration. As of 2020, 78 percent of all farm workers identified as being a part of the Hispanic community.

Even today, the FLSA has a different set of standards for youth employment for workers in the agricultural sector. For example, youth must be 14 years old to hold a nonagricultural position, while youth 12 and under can work in agriculture if a parent has given written permission and if the farm is not required to pay the federal minimum wage.

In recent years there have been several deeply researched media reports on child labor. A 2023 New York Times investigative report showed the precarious working conditions migrant children endure. In July 2023, the death of a 16-year-old boy in a Mississippi poultry plant that had experienced previous fatalities drew wide coverage.11 This heightened coverage has drawn Congressional attention to the growing problem of child labor.

Astonishingly, since 2021, many state governments have encouraged the use of child labor, with at least 28 states proposing or enacting laws that loosen child labor protections.12 Arkansas enacted legislation that eliminated age verification for child labor as well as parent or guardian permission requirements, while Iowa lowered the minimum age of child care workers.

As states continue to enact laws and child labor standards that are more dangerous and negligent than the FLSA, federal legislation should prioritize child labor protections by ensuring that companies are held accountable at every step of the supply chain. This legislation should also include staffing agencies and independent contractors to ensure that all companies employing children in hazardous workplaces are held accountable for their actions.

At the federal level, policymakers have introduced several bills to address child labor, including some with bipartisan support. U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced the Preventing Child Labor Exploitation Act. This bill would combat child labor by preventing the U.S. government from signing contracts with companies that violated child labor laws or those that do business with third-party vendors that fail to address child labor infractions. The Stop Child Labor Act, introduced by Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Todd Young (R-IN), would establish new criminal penalties for repeat violations of child labor laws and increase civil penalties to a minimum penalty of $5,000 per child labor violation. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Patty Murray (D-WA), along with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-3), introduced the Children Harmed in Life-Threatened or Dangerous (CHILD) Labor Act, which would increase civil penalties for child labor violations to at least $11,000 and would also increase transparency by authorizing the Secretary of Labor to add warning labels to goods manufactured with oppressive child labor and issue a stop order to any individual who is in violation of child labor provisions.

It is also necessary to close the child labor loopholes between agriculture work and non-agricultural work. The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety (CARE Act), introduced by Rep. Raul Ruiz (DCA) would bring age and work hour standards for children working in farmwork and agriculture to the labor standards of all other labor industries.17

Below are a series of tangible legislative recommendations that policymakers should consider to combat child labor:

Migrant children continue to be exploited for economic gain in the United States. Federal legislation to protect children must include substantial increases in civil penalties for violators as well as provisions that hold companies accountable in the employment chain. The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division must dedicate more resources toward enforcement of child labor laws and compliance of those laws. Finally, including agriculture and farm workers as protected individuals under the Fair Labor Standards Act would protect children’s safety and labor rights.