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The National Employment Law Project (NELP) has advocated for over 30 years on behalf of low-wage workers, the poor, the unemployed, and other groups that face significant barriers to employment and government systems of support. Several common themes connect NELPs work: ensuring that employment laws cover all workers; supporting worker organizing and alliance-building among key constituent groups working with low-wage workers; helping workers stay connected to jobs and employment benefits; and expanding employment laws to meet the needs of workers and families in changing economic conditions.

NELP was created in 1969 in response to the flood of employment-related questions posed by legal services attorneys to a clinical program at Columbia Law School. Callers wanted ideas for helping people who were working full time but not earning enough to pull their families out of poverty; were being denied slots in education and job-training programs; or who, if admitted to such programs, were being placed in low-wage, dead-end jobs instead of being trained for higher-skilled, better-paying work.

Legal services attorneys wanted to know how to help low-wage workers who were not being hired for or promoted to positions for which they were qualified; who were not receiving health care, pensions, or other benefits and whose working conditions were unhealthy and unsafe; and who were being denied unemployment benefits unfairly or exhausting their benefits long before they could find a new job.

Today, legal services attorneys and other advocates working directly with low-wage workers and the unemployedincluding community-based organizations, service providers, labor unions, and otherscall NELP with many of the same kinds of questions. In addition, advocates come forward with newer concerns that reflect changes in the U.S. economy over the past quarter century, including the declining value of the minimum wage, the shift from a manufacturing- to a service-based economy, and the tremendous growth of the contingent workforce.

Now, thanks in large part to NELP's efforts, there are tools in place to help advocates for low-wage workers effectively represent clients with employment-related problems: precedents set by NELP's legal victories; training sessions and manuals that provide step-by-step guidance on how to litigate employment-related cases; and regular conferences and publications that keep advocates up to date on the latest developments in employment law. Throughout its history, NELP has relied on proven strategies that have resulted in so much success over the years: litigation; policy advocacy; research, analysis, and technical assistance in support of organizing; and publications, training sessions, and other educational activities.