Building an Economy for All

The Childcare Crisis Hampers Opportunity for America’s Families

In an op-ed published by Ms., Hailey Gibbs write about how a second Trump presidency could affect America’s child care crisis.

Industry Standards Boards Are Delivering Results for Workers, Employers, and Their Communities

State accomplishments demonstrate that boards work best when they have the necessary legal authority and resources.

Letter to Under Secretary James Kvaal Regarding the Incentive Compensation Ban

Along with other student, consumer, and labor advocates, the Center for American Progress sent a letter calling on the Department of Education to close a loophole in the federal ban on incentive compensation.

How Does Budget Reconciliation Work?

What are the rules of reconciliation? What is allowed in, and what is not?

Ensuring Digital Accessibility in K-12 Schools in a Technology-Driven Era

As technology advances and becomes more integral to K-12 education, school districts and policymakers must prioritize digital accessibility to enhance the educational experiences of students with disabilities and promote equity for all learners.

A Progressive Vision for Education in the 21st Century

This report encompasses key recommendations for strengthening the American education system across early childhood education, K-12 education, higher education, and workforce development.

How Attorneys Can Support The ERA’s Implementation

In an op-ed published by Law360, Kate Kelly writes about the Equal Rights Amendment and how attorneys can help support it.

Workforce Development State Strategies: A 50-State Scan of Best Practices From Recent Action

States can strengthen their workforces through fostering registered apprenticeships, establishing career pathways, providing supportive services, addressing demand in critical industries, and other measures.

Child Care Expenses Push an Estimated 134,000 Families Into Poverty Each Year

Robust public investments can lift the weight of the child care affordability crisis off the safety net’s shoulders.

Explaining Young Workers’ Support for Unions

Young workers today feel like they're starting from behind. For them, unions may be the answer to getting ahead.

The Top 5 Ways Project 2025 Would Hurt Disabled People

Project 2025 would directly harm disabled people by removing basic civil rights protections and making it harder for these individuals to access necessary resources and services.

To Fix the Affordable Housing Shortage, Policymakers Should Support Smarter Housing Policies Instead of Using Immigration to Evade Responsibility

Avoiding the real issues causing higher housing costs distracts from constructive solutions to solve America’s housing shortage.

A Trade Strategy for the Post-Neoliberal World

A progressive, pragmatic approach to trade and industrial policy can reorient global production trends and reward high-standard markets and firms, using trade to address the challenges of the 21st century.

Community Navigators Can Increase Access to Unemployment Benefits and New Jobs While Building Worker Power

Evidence from the Maine Peer Workforce Navigator program shows that workers and government can benefit from well-designed community partnerships.

Pandemic-Era Funding for Early Learning Programs Showcases One of the Most Important Investments the United States Can Make

Actions by the Biden-Harris administration and state policymakers illustrate how early learning investments are effective and necessary, paving the way for systemic changes to the country’s child care system.

What You Should Know About the 2023 Gender Wage Gap

For the first time in two decades, the gender wage gap widened significantly in 2023—and between 2022 and 2023, the wage gap increased by 1 cent for women working full time, year round, to an average of 83 cents for every dollar men made.

The State of Voting Leave

Guaranteeing paid time off from work to vote, as many states do, can reduce barriers to voting.

Lessons From K-12 Education Relief Aid To Improve Federally Funded Programs

As COVID-19-era relief funding from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund winds down, federal policymakers should look toward expanding and improving existing base programs for K-12 public education to sustain vital investments.

Americans’ Wages Are Higher Than They Have Ever Been, and Employment Is Near Its All-Time High

After adjusting for inflation, wages are higher than at any point in U.S. history, and after adjusting for age and sex, the percentage of the population that is employed is around its peak in U.S. history.

Veterans face hidden dangers in online learning

In an op-ed published by Stars and Stripes, Stephanie Hall and co-author William Hubbard explain how the third-party contractors who manage virtual higher education programs take advantage of prospective students and can even undermine their GI Bill of Rights benefits.

Leveraging Technology To Equip K-12 Students for Success

Americans Recognize Housing Affordability Crisis, Support New Policies To Fix the Market and Build More Homes

New survey data show housing affordability is a salient national issue.

Removing Barriers to Abundant, Affordable Housing

InsideSources published an op-ed from Kevin DeGood about the role that state and local governments play in America’s housing affordability crisis.

4 Lessons on Creating Good Manufacturing Jobs Through the Biden-Harris Administration’s Industrial Investments

The Biden-Harris administration's industrial investments from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act are creating U.S. manufacturing jobs and often result in high-quality union jobs, but policymakers can go further to uphold job quality on projects that receive federal investments.

In the Wake of Hurricane Helene, Congress Must Invest in Rebuilding Strong, Prosperous, and Climate-Resilient Communities

The Biden-Harris administration has rapidly mobilized disaster relief aid to Appalachia and other hard-hit areas. Congress must act quickly to deliver the funds required to rebuild communities that can prosper and withstand future climate disasters.

A worker-centered approach to policy in the era of AI

The Center for American Progress co-authored a report with the Economic Policy Institute on protecting workers in the era of artificial intelligence.

America’s Small Businesses Need a National Paid Leave Program

Guaranteeing paid leave levels the playing field for small businesses and supports a competitive, entrepreneurial economy.

The Inflation Reduction Act Lives Up to Its Name

Trevor Higgins, senior vice president of the Energy and Environment department at the Center for American Progress, filed written testimony before the U.S. House Budget Committee at a hearing on energy costs titled “The Cost of the Biden-Harris Energy Crisis.”

Using Learning Science To Analyze the Risks and Benefits of AI in K-12 Education

Before adopting AI tools, it is important that schools think critically about whether these tools will further divorce students from how their brains are primed to learn.

Building Opportunity: Expanding Housing in America by Reforming Local Land Use

Reducing regulatory barriers to housing production can unleash new supply and serve as an important complement to federal, state, and local programs that provide direct subsidies for low-income housing construction and maintenance.

Incentivizing Housing That Is Affordable, Sustainable, and Transit-Accessible

Reforming existing federal programs to expand the supply of affordable, sustainable, and transit-accessible housing will provide millions of Americans with a stable foundation for economic success.

A New Vision for Social Housing in America

The most effective way to solve America’s severe housing affordability crisis is to undertake a bold federal program of social housing construction that will deliver millions of new affordable, self-sustaining housing units located in opportunity-rich areas.

Hear From a Child Care Director: How Extreme Heat Affects Young Children

Extreme heat places a strain on child care program facilities and poses risks to children’s health, learning, and development.

Project 2025 Would Undermine Registered Apprenticeship System and Put Corporations Over Workers

Instead of weakening apprenticeships, policymakers should invest more in the existing registered apprenticeship system, which benefits workers and employers alike.

Project 2025’s Plan To Gut Checks and Balances Harms Rural America

The new authoritarian playbook would devastate rural America in many ways.

Hear From a Teacher: How Extreme Heat Affects Student Learning

In rural and low-income communities, inadequate school infrastructure fails to protect students from extreme heat, negatively affecting student attendance, engagement, and achievement.

Project 2025 Is Already a Reality in Many States

Here are examples of how some states are already working to implement the extreme policies outlined in Project 2025.

Lower Costs Through Better Competition

Please join the Center for American Progress for an event featuring FTC Chair Lina Khan and Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) about protecting consumers and preserving competition.

WIOA Turns 10: The Next Decade of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act

Hear From a Pediatrician: How Extreme Heat Endangers Children’s Health and What We Can Do About It

Dr. Debra Hendrickson, clinical professor of pediatrics and author of The Air They Breathe, explains the risks extreme heat and climate change pose to children's health and the actions parents, communities, and policymakers can take to protect them.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Must Be Adequately Funded To Preserve Economic Data and Improve Americans’ Financial Security

Accurate U.S. Census Bureau data are essential to understanding how Americans are doing financially; a lack of proper investment puts it at risk.

Building the Future: Innovative Solutions to the U.S. Housing Crisis

Please join the Center for American Progress for a half-day summit on housing policy.

Tracker: Student Loan Debt Relief Under the Biden-Harris Administration

The Biden-Harris administration has delivered historic levels of student debt relief by fixing broken programs and fulfilling promises to borrowers who had been left behind.

How Joy and Belonging Can Help Underrepresented Students Succeed in STEM

Fostering joy and belonging in STEM has the potential to open doors for underrepresented students in both STEM education and the STEM workforce.

The Trump Tax Cuts Led to Record-Low, Not High, Revenues Outside of a Recession

Federal revenues lag far behind pre-tax cut budget projections.

Project 2025’s Tax Plan Would Raise Taxes on the Middle Class and Cut Taxes for the Wealthy

The far-right extremist playbook would immediately raise taxes for the middle class by thousands of dollars while also pushing for long-term changes that could raise taxes by $5,900.

What Comes Next for the Equal Rights Amendment?

Three-fourths of U.S. states have ratified the amendment, and many argue it is the 28th Amendment to the Constitution; Women’s Equality Day serves as a reminder of the amendment’s importance.

States want to reduce qualifications for teachers. That’s a huge mistake.

Paige Shoemaker DeMio writes in MSNBC about why teachers should be treated as trained professionals.

Project 2025’s Plan To Gut Checks and Balances Harms Parents

The new authoritarian playbook would devastate parents in many ways.

Reauthorizing the CFTC: Stakeholder Perspectives

Alexandra Thornton testifies on the CFTC before the House Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development.

Project 2025’s Plan To Gut Checks and Balances Harms American Workers

The new authoritarian playbook would devastate American workers in many ways.

CAP Comments on the CFTC’s Event Contracts Proposal

The Center for American Progress submitted a comment letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on the agency’s event contracts proposal.

Project 2025’s Plan To Gut Checks and Balances Harms the American People

The new authoritarian playbook would devastate Americans in many ways.

Project 2025 Would Cut Access to Overtime Pay

Project 2025 would make eligibility for overtime—also known as time-and-a-half pay—more confusing for workers to navigate and easier for employers to abuse.

The Economic Status of Single Mothers

Original Center for American Progress analysis shows that single mothers in the United States face economic insecurity, including high poverty rates and low incomes, that could be alleviated by strengthening the social safety net and advancing policies to support women in the workforce.

New Student Debt Relief Policies Fix Broken Promises and Benefit Borrowers Most in Need

The Biden-Harris administration proposed new regulations that would bring the share of student loan borrowers across the country who receive full or partial relief to about 3 in 4, targeting those who are the most likely to struggle repaying their debt.

Self-Employed Workers’ Access to State Paid Leave Programs in 2024

This issue brief explains the availability of state paid family and medical leave programs for self-employed workers in the United States.

Fact Sheets: The Harmful Effects of Project 2025, by State

These fact sheets provide insight into how Project 2025 would affect people in states across the country.

Raising the Retirement Age for Social Security Would Cut Benefits by Thousands of Dollars Each Year

Far-right plans, endorsed by Project 2025’s authors, to increase the full retirement age would cut benefits for nearly three-quarters of Americans and threaten low- and moderate-income workers with economic insecurity once they leave the workforce.

Reducing Housing Burdens While Creating a Longer-Term Affordable Housing Solution

The nation’s housing affordability crisis can be softened in the near term through multiple production efforts to create a sustainable, affordable housing infrastructure for generations to come.

Converting Vacant Office Space Into Housing

The adaptive reuse of underutilized office buildings, if paired with government support and comprehensive planning, might be a valuable tool in many local markets for addressing the vast need for more—and more affordable—housing.

How States and Districts Can Close the Digital Divide To Increase College and Career Readiness

To ensure that all students are college and career ready, policymakers and educators must focus their attention on closing the digital divide.

New Samsung Semiconductor Plant in Taylor, Texas

An investment by Samsung, spurred by funding from the CHIPS and Science Act, will create a new semiconductor plant in Taylor, Texas, to complement the company’s previous investment in chips in Austin, Texas.

City of Las Vegas GreeNVision Reconstruction of Stewart Avenue

This grant provides funding for the city of Las Vegas to reconstruct Stewart Avenue to be easier and safer to traverse and access.

New York Castleton-on-Hudson Bridge Restoration

This investment provides funding to restore one of the most economically significant bridges in the country, currently in deep disrepair, so that it can remain in use for another 65 years.

Project 2025’s Elimination of Title I Funding Would Hurt Students and Decimate Teaching Positions in Local Schools

Project 2025 would decimate more than 180,000 teacher positions and negatively affect the academic outcomes of 2.8 million vulnerable students across the country.

Why the crypto industry doesn’t want to be regulated by the SEC

In an op-ed published in The Hill, Alexandra Thornton explains why the crypto industry is pushing so hard to be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The Minimum Wage Is a Poverty Wage

The federal minimum wage has lost the ability to keep workers out of poverty; but this November, voters in multiple states will have the chance to ensure better wages.

AGOA Reauthorization Offers an Opportunity for Expanded Commitments to Development, Labor, and Climate in Sub-Saharan Africa

Congress faces a critical opportunity to support workers in the United States and Africa while diversifying supply chains and protecting the climate by authorizing a strengthened African Growth and Opportunity Act next year.

Industrial Policy To Reduce Prescription Generic Drug Shortages

Policy interventions, including large-scale private-public partnerships, are key to reducing prescription drug shortages and averting patient harm.

Public Officials Should Use Their Bully Pulpit To Support Worker Organizing and Bargaining

Pro-worker policymakers should use public and private rhetoric to support organizing campaigns and ensure government spending creates high-quality union jobs.

Project 2025 Would Exploit Child Labor by Allowing Minors To Work in Dangerous Conditions With Fewer Protections

The elimination of protections for young workers, if enacted, would lead more children to work in dangerous workplaces such as factories and slaughterhouses—as well as increase the likelihood of injuries and death—to the benefit of greedy corporations.

Sen. Ted Cruz’s No Tax on Tips Act Does Little for Low- and Moderate-Wage Workers But Opens Door to Tax Abuse by Wealthy

This legislation may sound like pro-worker tax reform, but it’s just more of the 2017 tax law’s empty promises for workers and giveaways for the wealthy.

4 Ways Unions Make Our Economy and Democracy Stronger

Unions raise wages for workers, reduce inequality, increase voter turnout, and advance middle-class interests; policymakers should make strengthening unions a top priority.

A Progressive Prescription for U.S.-China Trade

U.S.-China relations will shape the 21st century, and no issue will be more consequential than trade.

Testimony Before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

Emily Gee testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions about improving affordability for Americans.

Op-ed: Airport service workers demand better support in the workplace. It’s time we listen

Karla Walter published an op-ed in Crain’s New York Business arguing for why airport service workers under the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey deserve better workplace standards.

Project 2025 Would Allow Financial Disaster To Bolster Wall Street’s Bottom Line

New CAP analysis gauges the potential effects of a present-day financial disaster on workers and the economy if a far-right plan to put short-term gains for Wall Street above long-term prosperity for American families is successful.

Any Budget Deal Should Preserve Parity

As Congress renegotiates the budget levels for fiscal year 2025, it should match every additional dollar of defense investment with an equal amount of nondefense spending.

LGBTQI+ Americans Deserve—and Need—Inclusive Paid Leave

LGBTQI+ Americans are particularly harmed by the lack of national paid leave program—and have much to gain from comprehensive, inclusive paid leave.

The 2017 Tax Bill’s Pass-Through Deduction Largely Favors the Wealthy and Encourages Gaming of the Tax Code

Congress should reject attempts to extend the 2017 tax bill’s costly pass-through deduction.

The Inflation Reduction Act Still Reduces the Deficit

Higher clean energy tax credit costs mean they are working better than expected.

Project 2025 Would Eliminate Head Start, Severely Restricting Access to Child Care in Rural America

If enacted, the elimination of Head Start would undermine economic growth and exacerbate inequalities among families with young children.

Project 2025 Would Increase Costs, Block Debt Cancellation for Student Loan Borrowers

The radical Project 2025 policy agenda for student loan repayment would multiply costs for borrowers, increase defaults, and end existing programs that allow borrowers to earn cancellation.