Just job creation will lift millions of people out of poverty and into the middle class, empower billions of women and young people, and help us develop a strong, secure, and robust 21st century global economy.
During times of high unemployment, Congress has never failed to provide emergency unemployment benefits to help sustain Americans out of work.
Issue Brief
Allowing extended unemployment benefits to expire not only harms those out of work and their families—it also hurts the U.S. economy.
Today's employment numbers show that investing in the middle class is helping our economic recovery.
Issue Brief
Implementing a paid leave program such as Social Security Cares would help bring the United States up to par relative to other nations’ labor standards, and it would help facilitate the dual roles of worker and caregiver that most adults will experience at some point in their lives.
As the benefits of the Recovery Act of 2009 wind down, employment is picking up in states hit hard by the Great Recession.
Video
Two executive employees at large corporations explain why workforce diversity is very important and fosters a positive work environment.
California’s Paid Family Leave insurance program has been an unqualified success, and we should extend the same benefits to all workers.
Report
Our proposed Social Security Cares Act would establish a national paid family and medical leave program as part of Social Security, providing partial wage replacement for workers across the country who temporarily need to take time off from their jobs.
Strengthening organized labor is one of the most important steps to help rebuild our middle class.
Increased union membership is associated with higher income mobility, greater upward mobility, and lower downward mobility.
A poverty-reduction strategy focusing on marriage addresses a symptom but doesn’t solve the problem.
Issue Brief
Allowing workers to enroll in either a collective defined-contribution plan or a Thrift Savings Plan would ensure all Americans have access to a quality retirement plan, significantly boosting savings and security while at the same time helping to ensure workers can retire with dignity.
Report
Social Security Cares builds on the dynamic history of Social Security reform to meet the American workforce’s changing needs as well as the recent state efforts to make sure that the program includes all workers who need access to such benefits.
By advancing the interests of the middle class in the workplace and in our democracy, unions help build and strengthen the middle class.