Large employers can increase their entry level wages and all other wages accordingly. They can also provide pay equity, ample sick and personal days, and access to quality childcare and preschool. Additionally, large employers should ensure that health benefits have little to no coinsurance or deductibles and copays. They should Read more…
Large employers need to pay a livable wage for each local area and address the high cost of living in various areas. Large employers can also integrate support for their employees such as health care clinics onsite, English Language Learner classes, other educational classes and incentives, childcare onsite, sick child Read more…
Large companies can help combat poverty by investing in all levels of workforce development to accelerate job growth and access to jobs while providing access to career technical training and industry-specific apprenticeships. Large companies may be more equipped to provide childcare services within their establishment or partner with childcare providers Read more…
While a simple answer might be to say that large employers should pay higher wages, I think it is more important that they work to reduce the same barriers that policy needs to work on reducing. Employers can do much better in developing talent acquisition strategies that do not penalize Read more…
Most people would be very surprised to discover that in the state of California today, 90 of the 100 fastest growing occupations ban people with a past conviction. A statistic like that underscores just how difficult it is for the eoght million people in our state living with a past Read more…
Public-private partnerships are key – and so is sectoral targeting. There are many industries worthy of support, particularly those like advanced manufacturing, construction, and health care that provide strong pathways to the middle class. But many poor people are not in those sectors yet and we must look to see Read more…
When the Business Roundtable announced in September 2019 a change in its Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation to include workers, suppliers, and communities in addition to shareholders, it was an acknowledgement that persistent income inequality and poverty will put pressure on the long-term prospects of the member companies. Read more…
Retraining is best done by the employers who know exactly what skills their workplaces need. The employee who has been downsized and is no longer young is at great risk of falling below the poverty level. Large employers can be incentivized by government matching a percentage of salaries they offer Read more…
We need an economic development strategy to welcome homebuilders back to the state of California (and implement it). We can plan for all the transit-oriented housing the state desires in order to satisfy climate change rules, but if builders won’t build it because of cost, regs and litigation proliferation, then Read more…
Offering living-wage compensation packages and benefits including child care, health care, and retirement savings are important tools that employers can provide to allow employees to compensate for high cost of living in SoCal. Employers can also partner with local nonprofits and government to help support, expand, and connect their employees Read more…
Large employers can pay their workers enough not to live in poverty. Large employers can provide the benefits that workers need to survive and incentivize or offer education opportunities for upward mobility within the workplace. They can also hold those employers that cheat their workers, commit wage theft or circumvent Read more…
Large employers can work with public schools and community colleges to sponsor extension or adult-education classes to teach skills that align with available jobs in the communities in which the businesses are located. They can also offer scholarship funding for the type of certification classes that are needed to qualify Read more…
1) We need to look more deeply into the so-called gig economy, as well as the meaning and implications of a broader and more insidious utilization of deep artificial intelligence and its impact on the low-income, low-skilled workforce. 2) Large employers should reconsider where they set up shop, keeping an Read more…
Employers should learn to say no and oppose some of the more absurd state regulations. Too often California business has sought to accommodate regulators and not challenge them. This puts companies in an impossible position to create jobs that might alleviate poverty.
Stop playing nicely with candidates and public officials who are working overtime to make it impossible to conduct business. Refuse and shame all corporate welfare. Insist on top-quality education.
Large employers should increase wages for the lowest paid of their workforce; adopt down-payment assistance programs for longer-term workers and work to locate jobs in communities with lower housing costs that more closely match their wage scales. They can also advocate for affordable housing in those communities where they already Read more…