Economic Opportunities Program Newsletter, April 2021
At the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, and for our many colleagues and partners, the ongoing and intertwined health, economic, and racial justice crises bring new urgency to our work to improve access to quality jobs, options to participate in business ownership, and the freedom to pursue economic opportunity. Below we share our monthly newsletter with highlights of recent work. As always, we welcome your feedback, thoughts, and partnership in advancing inclusive opportunity and an economy in which we all can thrive. Click here to subscribe.
Race and Gender Wealth Equity and the Role of Employee Share Ownership
To Build Back Better, Job Quality Is the Key
The United States has a problem too few quality jobs. This problem contributes to a variety of national ills, from low productivity to poor health, to fractured politics and divisions within society. Low job quality has disproportionately negative effects on women workers and workers of color, contributing significantly to earnings and wealth gaps across demographic groups.
In “To Build Back Better, Job Quality is the Key,” Maureen Conway (The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program), Jeannine LaPrad (Corporation for a Skilled Workforce), Amanda Cage (National Fund for Workforce Solutions), and Sarah Miller (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta) make the case that improving job quality should be a central goal of economic recovery and rebuilding efforts, and they lay out practical policy ideas toward that end. The report includes a framework illustrating the multiple dimensions of job quality and outlines the variety of institution