Job Quality Newsletter – Reflections Beyond Labor Day

This Labor Day, we reflected on the many ways work shapes not just the lives of workers, but the well-being of families, communities, and our broader society.

Our work reminds us that the jobs we go to each day, and the time and labor we invest in them, are inextricably linked to who we are as a country and the values we aspire to uphold, including opportunity, dignity, and freedom itself.

In this edition of the Job Quality Newsletter, we learn how economic stress on parents, caregivers, and educators undermines children’s chances to thrive in school; how technological innovation too often focuses on just cost-cutting and profit without realizing its tremendous opportunity to improve work and worker safety; and how inadequate transportation infrastructure prevents people from accessing good jobs and training. And lastly, we’re reminded that true freedom will remain unfinished until we end working poverty and ensure all jobs provide fair pay, stable scheduling, and dignity at work.

Taken together, these perspectives underscore a simple truth: good jobs are essential for the well-being of workers, families, and our shared future. As we carry this year’s Labor Day reflections forward, we invite you to consider how we can all work toward building an economy where all jobs foster worker dignity, economic security, and stability, as well as a prosperous democracy and society.

When Adults Can’t Make Ends Meet, Kids Pay the Price

As children head back to school, millions will carry the hidden weight of their families’ economic stress. In this op-ed for The Hill, I explore how unstable, low-paying, and unsafe jobs for parents, caregivers, and educators undermine kids’ well-being, and I make the case that good jobs are essential for children’s success and our shared future. Read the op-ed here.

Tech is Making Workers’ Jobs More Dangerous Instead of Safer

This op-ed in Fast Company by Associate Director Merrit Stüven highlights the missed opportunity of today’s tech boom. Rather than prioritizing worker safety, companies are focusing on cost-cutting, leaving millions of workers vulnerable to hazardous conditions. Instead, she argues, we must direct innovation toward protections that provide workers with safer, higher-quality jobs. Read Merrit’s op-ed here.

To Improve Economic Opportunity, We Need Better Transit

Transportation is more than just a means of getting around; it’s about access to opportunity. In this blog, Research Associate Maxwell Johnson examines how inadequate transit traps workers in cycles of precarity and limits access to jobs. Click here to learn how communities and employers are finding solutions that open pathways to better mobility. Read Maxwell’s blog here.

Freedom’s Unfinished Work: This Independence Day, Let’s Commit To Ending Working Poverty

In this blog, Executive Director Maureen Conway highlights how working poverty undermines the nation’s promise of freedom. She warns against policy choices that erode workers’ rights and argues that true independence requires bold action to create jobs with stability, fair pay, and dignity. As we reflected on work this Labor Day, her words remind us that economic security is not only about supporting workers today, but about fulfilling America’s promise of opportunity for all. Read Maureen’s blog here.