National Employment Law Project

Finance & Administration Assistant

Manny Mercado
emercado@nelp.org
(212) 285-3025 x310
New York City Office

Biography
Manny Mercado joined NELP in 2010 as Finance and Administration Assistant. Prior to joining NELP, he managed Odyssey Capital, a property management and entrepreneurial enterprise; and served as accountant for Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment for eleven years. He is a graduate of Pace University, where he was student government treasurer and president of Alpha Chi Epsilon Fraternity. With over fifteen years of accounting and business experience, it is his privilege to contribute his efforts and be part of the NELP family.

Education
B.B.A., Pace University

Policy Analyst

Michael Evangelist
mevangelist@nelp.org
(734) 274-43330 x159
Michigan Office

Biography
Michael joined NELP in 2010. As a member of the Economic Adjustment Initiative and Unemployment Insurance teams, his work includes research, analysis, and advocacy in support of state and federal programs for jobless workers as well as unemployment insurance reform. Prior to joining NELP, he was a policy analyst at the Center for Economic Progress in Chicago where he advocated on behalf of low-income workers for progressive federal tax policies and savings incentives. Michael became interested in social justice issues while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine.

Education
M.P.P, University of Michigan
B.A., University of Notre Dame

Managing Director, Finance & Administration

Patricia J. Kozu
pkozu@nelp.org
(212) 285-3025 x307
New York City Office

Biography
Pat Kozu joined NELP in 2010. Prior to joining NELP, she was Vice President, Finance and Administration at the F.B. Heron Foundation. Previously, she held senior operations, finance and marketing positions at other nonprofit organizations, corporations, and Internet services companies. She serves on the boards of the Center for Urban Community Services and the Center for Effective Philanthropy. She volunteers as a mentor to Baruch College students.

Education
B.S., University of Washington
M.S., New York University
Associate Professional Certificate, New York University

Pro Bono Attorney

Andriette Roberts, Pro Bono Attorney
intern3@nelp.org
212-285-3025, ext 322
New York City Office

Area of Expertise
Unemployment Insurance

Biography
Andriette joined NELP in 2009, where she conducts legal research on state and federal unemployment policies and writes about federal legislation for unemployedworkers.org.

Education
J.D., Hofstra University School of Law
B.A., Clark Atlanta University

Minimum Wage Campaign Coordinator

Jen Kern, Minimum Wage Campaign Coordinator
jkern@nelp.org
(202) 887-8202 x364
Washington, D.C. Office

Areas of expertise
Minimum Wage and Living Wage · Campaign Assistance

Biography
Jen recently joined NELP to coordinate work on building a campaign to increase the federal minimum wage. Jen’s background is in providing technical assistance and support to labor and community organizers for grassroots organizing campaigns around worker justice issues. For 15 years, Jen worked in the national office of ACORN, including ten years as the director of ACORN’s Living Wage Resource Center, which served as a clearinghouse for the national living wage movement and provided direct organizing support for the campaigns driving the effort. Immediately before joining NELP, Jen spent a year and a half at American Rights at Work on the campaign to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, working to coordinate workers’ rights organizing strategies with state consultants, labor leaders, and allies on the state and national levels.

Education
B.A., Grinnell College

Staff Attorney

Michelle Natividad Rodriguez
mrodriguez@nelp.org
(510) 663-5705
Oakland, California Office

Areas of expertise
Criminal Records and Employment

Biography
Michelle joined NELP in 2010. She currently works on eliminating unfair barriers to employment of people with criminal records. Before joining NELP, Michelle was a Senior Staff Attorney at Public Advocates, a non-profit legal advocacy organization, where she advocated for low-income communities and people of color primarily in the area of educational equity.

Education
J.D., Columbia Law School
B.A., University of Texas at Austin

Policy Analyst

Rebecca Dixon, Policy Analyst
rdixon@nelp.org
(202) 887-8202, ext. 363
Washington, D.C. office

Areas of Expertise:
Unemployment Insurance

Biography
Rebecca joined NELP in 2010. She is an experienced policy analyst whose work includes research, analysis, and advocacy in support of state and federal unemployment insurance reform. Prior to joining NELP, she worked as a policy analyst for the Mississippi Economic Policy Center where her focus was unemployment insurance and family economic security.

Education
J.D., Duke University School of Law
M.A., Duke University
B.A., Duke University

Staff Attorney

Haeyoung Yoon
hyoon@nelp.org
(212) 285-3025 x315
New York City Office

Areas of Expertise
Immigrants and Work · Wage and Hour Protections · Enforcement of Workplace Standards

Biography
Haeyoung Yoon joined NELP in 2010. Prior to joining NELP, she was Executive Director of CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities and taught at the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the New York University School of Law. She has litigated on behalf of immigrants and low-wage workers to enforce labor standards and civil rights. She has also worked with worker centers and community groups for legislative and policy changes.

Education
J.D., City University of New York, School of Law
M.A., Harvard University
B.A., Barnard College, Columbia University

Policy Analyst

Christine Riordan
criordan@nelp.org
(212) 285-3025 x302
New York City Office

Areas of Expertise
Labor Market Research and Unemployment Insurance

Biography
Christine joined NELP in 2008, where she conducts analysis on unemployment and job trends, and researches state and federal unemployment insurance policies. Prior to joining NELP, she worked as a labor researcher at NYU Wagner and as a labor organizer with UNITE HERE.

Education
M.U.P., Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University
B.A., University of California, Los Angeles

Program Assistant

Alona Sistrunk
asistrunk@nelp.org
(202) 887-8202 x365
Washington, D.C. Office

Biography
Working out of NELP's Washington, DC office, Alona performs basic research and provides administrative support for the Executive Director and the Federal Advocacy Project.

Education
B.A., Howard University

Staff Attorney

Madeline Neighly
mneighly@nelp.org
(510) 663-5707
Oakland, California Office

Areas of expertise
Criminal Records and Employment

Biography
Madeline joined NELP in 2009. She works on eliminating unfair barriers to employment of people with criminal records.

Education
J.D., University of California, Berkeley School of Law
B.A., University of California, Berkeley

NELP 2009 Unemployment Insurance Reform Conference

On December 7-8, 2009, leaders from 40 states came together in Washington DC to build on the successes of the Recovery Act, and to chart an agenda for immediate and long-term policy agenda to benefit jobless workers. See below for informative materials from the conference, starting with video highlights that lay out the federal agenda for job creation and unemployment benefit reforms.

Thea Lee, AFL-CIO on the need for Job Creation for the Unemployed

Maurice Emsellem, NELP on the Federal Unemployment Insurance Agenda for 2010

From Rapid Response to Reemployment:
Robert Bower, Massachusetts AFL-CIO: Rapid Response
Louis Jacobson, Hudson Institute: Better Policies for Jobless Workers
Lynn Minnick, NELP:From Rapid Response to Reemployment: Better Policies for Jobless Workers

Challenging Employer Abuses that Cheat Workers and Trust Funds:
Deborah Chalfie, Change to Win: Change to Win: The American Dream for America’s Workers
Thomas Crowley, US Department of Labor: Employee Misclassification & Unemployment Insurance Audits
Joe Walsh, Iowa Workforce Development: Dealing with Uncooperative TPAs
Handout: Backgrounder: Worker Misclassification Cheats Everyone (Deborah Chalfie, Change to Win)

UI Administrative Infrastructure:

Honoring the Promises of Timely Payment of Benefits:
George Wentworth, NELP: Honoring the Promise of Timely Payment of UI Benefits
Handout: Honoring the Promises of Timely Payment of Benefits-Court Documents (Cynthia Rice, California Rural Legal Assistance)

Building a 21st Century Infrastructure:
Jim Garner, Kansas Department of Labor: Meeting the Needs of UI Claimants in “The Great Recession”
Joseph Vitale, National Association of State Workforce Agencies: Building a 21st. Century UI Infrastructure and Service Delivery System

Improving Access to State UI Benefits:
Nancy Dunphy, New York Department of Labor: NYS Practices to Reach Low Wage Workers

I was laid off in 1998. I was the manager of a new recycling yard in Prescott Valley, Az. I have run out of extensions and I am 2 months behind on my rent. My last check was for 170.00 in mid Feb. I was making around 400 a week at my job, and expected more as the business grew, so the 192 a week unemployment checks were less than half of my wage.
Have I been looking for work?..Of course I have!..any job, even McDonalds, would pay far better than unemployment...there are just no jobs here right now.
I have been forced to put my car up for sale which will make it even harder to find work!..
If a new extension doesn't come soon, I will be in a tent with a sick wife. I am 57 years old and my wife is 59 and homelessness at our age would not only be very hard, it would likely kill my wife.
I really don't know what to do at this point...I am recycling aluminum cans and we are living on about 40 dollars a week that this provides, plus food stamps....
We are only paying 350.00 per month for our small rental,
this includes utilities, so we are definitely not living beyond our means!..How do I tell my sick wife that we are losing the little that we have.
I have worked on ranches, in construction, managed 2 recycling yards, and cooked in restaurants. I never believed that a hard working, willing man would ever be in the situation we are now in.

Unemployment Insurance Modernization Coordinator & Policy Analyst

George Wentworth, Unemployment Insurance Modernization Coordinator & Policy Analyst
gwentworth@nelp.org
(860)257-8894
Wethersfield, Connecticut Office

Areas of expertise
Unemployment Insurance – Enforcement of Workplace Standards

Biography
George Wentworth joined NELP in September, 2009 after 35 years of service with the Connecticut Department of Labor (CTDOL). As Director of Program Policy, he served as General Counsel to the Labor Commissioner for 20 years. In that role, George oversaw the development of all legal policy within the agency, supervised the agency’s in-house legal staff, coordinated regulatory activities and interpreted a wide range of workplace statutes. He served as chief drafter of Connecticut’s unemployment insurance (UI) eligibility regulations and has provided training and policy guidance to the agency’s adjudicators.

Education
J.D., University of Connecticut School of Law
B.A., St. Bonaventure University

Conference Logistics

THE CONFERENCE SITE

The conference will be held at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) School of Law. The campus can be easily reached by the Red Line off of the Van Ness-UDC Station.

Click here for directions to UDC

Click here for Metrorail map

Click here for the conference agenda with detailed campus map

HOTEL

We reserved 50 rooms at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, DC, at reduced rates. Call the Omni Shoreham Directly (202) 234-0700 to make your reservation. To take advantage of the reduced rates, you must reference the National Employment Law Project (NELP) when making your reservation (note: reduced rates are not assured after October 15). The Omni Shoreham is a union hotel located on 2500 Calvert Street NW (at Connecticut Ave.), off of the Woodley Park/Zoo/Adams Morgan stop on the Red Line. It is two train stops away from UDC, where the conference will be held. The distance is also walkable (1.5 miles).

Click here for the hotel website

Click here for map and directions to the hotel

TRAVEL

Conference participants are responsible for making their own travel arrangements. The Omni Shoreham Hotel is 8 miles from Reagan National Airport and 30 miles from Dulles International Airport.

Wage Conference 2009

Reclaiming Our Wages:
A Conference on Organizing, Public Policy and Workers' Rights

November 6-7, 2009, University of the District of Columbia School of Law, Washington D.C.

Across the country, millions of workers are routinely paid less than the minimum wage, denied overtime pay, and retaliated against for speaking up. In the face of weak enforcement, growing numbers of employers ignore even the most basic laws governing wages. Making matters worse, some of these laws exclude the most vulnerable workers from protection, and immigration threats are increasingly being used to discourage workers from reporting violations and to stifle organizing efforts. These trends hurt workers, responsible employers, and the economy as a whole.

On November 6-7, 2009, the National Employment Law Project convened a two-day conference in Washington D.C., where more than 200 advocates from across the country discussed the ground-breaking ways in which they are working to expand wage and hour protections and strengthen enforcement. The conference highlighted recent organizing victories and promising policy models, and provided an opportunity for groups to strategize future work at both the local and federal level. It brought together diverse groups - immigrant worker centers and other community-based organizations, unions, faith-based groups, legal and policy advocates, applied researchers, and state and local government officials - all working to ensure the right to fair pay.

Agenda: Click here for the final agenda and here for the conference's steering committee.

Participant list: Click here for the full participant list, and here for presenter biographies.

Conference materials: Conference presentations and materials will be uploaded to NELP’s Wage and Hour Clearinghouse (www.just-pay.org); membership is free for non-profits.

For any questions, contact Telesh Lopez, conference coordinator at: wageconference@nelp.org, or at 212-285-3025, ext. 311.

This conference was generously supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the General Service Foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, and the Solidago Foundation.

newsroom_test

NELP is frequently quoted in the media as an expert resource on a wide range of workplace issues. NELP experts are available to provide insights, analysis and data to the press. In addition, NELP disseminates new research and updates on policy developments. To be added to NELP's press list please email tim@berlinrosen.com.

Press Inquiries

For press inquiries only, please contact Tim Bradley at Berlin Rosen Communications at 646-452-5637 or tim@berlinrosen.com.*

Unemployment Insurance or Criminal Records: Maurice Emsellem, emsellem@nelp.org or (510) 663-5700.
Immigrants and Work: Rebecca Smith, rsmith@nelp.org or (360) 534-9160.
Wage Standards and Subcontracted Work: Cathy Ruckelshaus, cruckelshaus@nelp.org or (212) 285-3025 x 307.
Minimum and Living Wages: Paul Sonn, psonn@nelp.org or (212) 285-3025 x 351.
Research on Low Wage and Unregulated Work: Annette Bernhardt, abernhardt@nelp.org or (212) 285-3025 x 350.

* Worker inquiries should be directed to nelp@nelp.org or 212-285-3025.

WebSlips: NELP’s Web Request Page

1. Uploading a new document to the web (and posting associated "New at NELP")
1. a. Urgent Documents: Click here if the document needs to be uploaded within 1-6 hours. This form will also allow you to submit a New at NELP announcement for your document.
2. b. Non-Urgent Documents: Click here for non-urgent documents, which are uploaded twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This form will also allow you to submit a New at NELP announcement for your document.
2. Posting an announcement on “New at NELP” (without new document upload)
1. Click here to post an announcement on New at NELP that does not involve a new document – for example, an announcement that links to a document already up on our website, or to another website (e.g. conference agenda). For an announcement that involves uploading a new document, choose one of the options under #1 above.
3. Adding or modifying text on a NELP web page

In order to change existing website text or add new text, follow these steps:
1. a. Copy the existing text from the webpage into a Word document.
2. b. Make your changes or additions in that document using redlining (the "track changes" function in Word)
3. c. Click here to send the document to the web team with the subject header “Web Request,” and make sure to give us the link for the webpage that you are modifying.
4. Reporting errors on our website, such as missing documents, broken links, etc.
1. Click here to email the web team with the subject header "Web Error."
To Contact NELP's Web Team on any other issue, email all of us:
Andy, Annette, and Bukola

The site is for informational purposes only and does not provide legal advice

Materials on this website are published by NELP to provide visitors with free information regarding the laws and policies described. However, this website is not designed for the purpose of providing legal advice to individuals. Visitors should not rely upon information on this website as a substitute for personal legal advice. While we make every effort to provide accurate website information, laws can change and inaccuracies happen despite our best efforts. If you have an individual legal problem, you should seek legal advice from an attorney in your own state. If you have a suggestion or corrections, contact us at nelp@nelp.org.

Technical Support Request

Technical Support Request From

Changing Workforce / Changing Economy

intro text coming soon..

Chapter 1 - Low-wage Worker Access

Chapter 2 - Access for Women and Working Families

Chapter 3 - Eligibility for Nonstandard Workers

Chapter 4 - Build Income Security

Chapter 5 - Maximize Training Opportunities

Chapter 6 - Financing for Long-term Solvency

Chapter 7 - Accessibility and Fair Administration

Unregulated Work in the Global City

By Annette Bernhardt, Siobhan McGrath and James DeFilippis

Unregulated Work in the Global City was motivated by a simple premise: the many laws on the books to protect the working poor mean little if they are not enforced. Over three years of intensive research, we documented a city where jobs pay less than the minimum wage, and sometimes nothing at all; where employers do not pay overtime for 60-hour weeks, and deny meal breaks that are required by law; where vital health and safety regulations are routinely ignored, even after injuries occur; and where workers are subject to blatant discrimination, and retaliated against for speaking up or trying to organize.

Our research suggests that unregulated work is not confined to isolated, short-lived cases of exploitation at the fringe of the city's economy. Instead, the report finds that the systematic violation of federal, state and local law is threatening to become a way of doing business in major low-wage industries. It identifies the types of laws that employers are violating, the business strategies that result in violations, the workers who are most affected, and the policy changes that are needed to renew the promise of workplace protections. The report focuses on New York City, but we are convinced that the conditions it describes exist throughout the American economy.

Download the full report: click here

Download individual industry profiles:

Great Lakes Economic Revitalization Summit

Under construction

NELP Announces Merger with Brennan Center’s Economic Justice Project

Over the past year, the National Employment Law Project and our allies have begun to sense a new window of opportunity. Increasing economic anxiety and the growth of a progressive economic policy and organizing infrastructure have created the most significant opening in decades for new action to restore our nation's promise of economic opportunity and to protect working families in an era of globalization.

While we are excited about this historic moment, we also know that taking advantage of it requires capacity that matches opportunity. That is why I am delighted to announce that NELP is merging with the Economic Justice Project of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School . Bringing the Brennan Center team into NELP greatly expands our capacity to deepen ties with grassroots and national partners, promote a broader and more comprehensive policy agenda, and strengthen our advocacy for low-wage and unemployed workers in Washington , the states and local communities.

The Brennan Center 's Economic Justice Project is led by two of our movement's leading thinkers, Dr. Annette Bernhardt and Paul Sonn. Paul is nationally recognized as a preeminent legal strategist for the living wage movement. By bringing his unparalleled expertise into NELP, the merger will enable us to integrate the Brennan Center 's crucial efforts to raise the wage floor into our broader employment agenda. Similarly, Annette is one of the nation's leading researchers and policy experts on issues related to low-wage and unregulated work. She will play an incomparable role in nurturing NELP's further development into a well rounded research and policy organization. They, along with the additional staff they bring with them into NELP, will enrich our work enormously.

Over the months and years ahead, the expanded NELP will take a comprehensive approach to the core problems of the 21st century labor market. Our agenda will include:

Restoring the wage floor through minimum wage advocacy at the federal, state and local levels;

Improving enforcement of workplace protections for the nation's most vulnerable workers, including immigrants and low-wage workers;

Promoting the creation of good jobs through accountable development;

Strengthening the social insurance systems designed to assist unemployed and displaced workers and boost economic growth; and

Reducing arbitrary barriers that curtail job opportunities for millions, including persons with criminal records.

In pursuing these goals, we will continue to use the strategy that has been a trademark of both organizations: policy innovation backed up by legal analysis and economic research, done in close partnership with community-based, state and national allies and government reformers.

With the added scale that the merger brings to NELP, we are positioned to become an even stronger voice for working families in every forum - from the media to the legislative arena to grassroots organizing campaigns. NELP's staff and board of directors are tremendously excited about what we will be able to accomplish with our new colleagues in the years ahead. I look forward to talking with you, our partners, in the coming months, as we develop plans for helping our nation seize this opportunity for change.

Sincerely,

Christine L. Owens
Executive Director

NELP Newsletters

NELP in the Media

“Low-Paying Jobs on the Rise,” The Takeaway, September 1, 2010

“Supporters back bump in New Haven's living wage,” New Haven Register, September 1, 2010

“New Job Means Lower Wages for Many,” New York Times, August 31, 2010

“Record number in government anti-poverty programs,” USA Today, August 30, 2010

“Jobless hit as expiring subsidies put COBRA out of reach,” Daily News Journal, August 27, 2010

“Making Career Development Pay,” New York Times, August 25, 2010

“Tier 5: Sen. Stabenow Introduces Bill To Help The 99ers,” Huffington Post, August 5, 2010

“A growing pile of debt for state unemployment insurance programs,” Stateline, August 4, 2010

“99 Weeks Later, Jobless Have Only Desperation,” New York Times, August 3, 2010

“Unemployment extension 101: how health care is affected,” Christian Science Monitor, July 29, 2010

“Grassley: Iowa failed to seek more jobless aid,” Des Moines Register, July 29, 2010

“Sanchez unveils bill ensuring minimum wage for home care workers,” The Hill, July 29, 2010

“The Value Of Extending Unemployment Benefits,” NPR, July 22, 2010

“Congress Extends $34 Billion Jobless Benefits Package,” Bloomberg, July 22, 2010

“Unemployment benefits: Why Obama keeps pushing to extend them,” Christian Science Monitor, July 20, 2010

“Obama increases heat on GOP over jobless benefits,” Tribune Papers, July 19, 2010

“Sussex County man joins Obama to urge restoration of unemployment benefits,” Bergen Record, July 19, 2010

“Long-term unemployed fear loss of jobless benefits,” USA Today, July 15, 2010

“Voters Say To Hell With Deficit Reduction, Help The Unemployed,” Huffington Post, July 15, 2010

“Delay in benefits extension hurts the unemployed,” Florida Times Union, July 15, 2010

“Should Congress Extend Unemployment Benefits?,” Michigan Messenger, July 14, 2010

“Senate may extend federal jobless benefits next week,” McClatchy, July 13, 2010

“U.S. June budget deficit $68 billion: Treasury,” MarketWatch, July 13, 2010

“End of Census, and for Many, End of Job,” New York Times, July 12, 2010

“Unemployed need support from Congress,” Kansas City Star / McClatchy, July 12, 2010

“Jobless benefits extension is mired in political bickering,” The Tennessean, July 12, 2010

“Jim McDermott: Unemployment Standoff 'A Class Warfare Issue',” Huffington Post, July 2, 2010

“Jobs report delivers mixed signals,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 2, 2010

“Jobless rate drops to 9.5 percent; economy loses 125,000 jobs,” The Hill, July 2, 2010

“Blocking Unemployment Benefits Hurts Job Seekers,” CBS Evening News, July 1, 2010

“The Current State Of Unemployment Benefits,” NPR, July 1, 2010

“22 Days After Congress Cut Unemployment Insurance, Still No Movement,” Washington Independent, June 23, 2010

“Fund Debt Fans Fears of Spike in Taxes,” Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2010

“Thousands in state squeezed as clock runs out on jobless aid,” Boston Globe, June 23, 2010

“States fear strain as feds curb spending,” Arizona Republic, June 21, 2010

“Fate of COBRA subsidy extension in limbo,” The Hill, June 20, 2010

“Doctors, the unemployed squeezed by Congress's inaction,” MarketWatch, June 18, 2010

“The culprits in the jobs bill failure: Snowe, Collins, Ben Nelson, Lieberman,” Daily Kos, June 18, 2010

“Senate Democrats dismantling aid package due to deficit,” Washington Post, June 16, 2010

“Looking for work? Unemployed need not apply,” CNN Money, June 15, 2010

“Senate Democrats Looking To Cut $25 Per Week From Unemployment Checks,” Huffington Post, June 15, 2010

“Stress of long-term unemployment takes a toll on thousands of Jerseyans who are out of work,” Star Ledger, June 13, 2010

“Obama faces rare defeat on health help for jobless,” Associated Press, June 12, 2010

“Democrats Push Health-Insurance Subsidies For Jobless To Be Added To Tax Bill,” Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones, June 11, 2010

“A New Jobs Bill Is More Than Justified,” The Nation, June 11, 2010

“How to Get a Job After a Year (or More) Out of Work,” US News & World Report, June 10, 2010

“Congress takes long weekend, lets jobless benefits hang,” McClatchy, June 10, 2010

“Making Sense of the Jobless Claims Numbers,” New York Times’ Economix blog, June 10, 2010

“Senate tweaks jobs bill, adds Medicaid funding,” MarketWatch, June 9, 2010

“Senate pushes enhanced Medicaid payments to states,” The Hill, June 9, 2010

“Some specifics on the long-term unemployed,” LA Times’ Money & Co blog, June 8, 2010

“Unemployment Benefits Are More Important Than Deficit Reduction, Say 3/4 Of Voters,” Huffington Post, June 7, 2010

“Growing ranks of long-term jobless face tough odds,” Associated Press, June 6, 2010

“Crush of new claims for jobless program creates bottleneck,” McClatchy, June 4, 2010

“Why the May Jobs Report is Better—and Worse—Than it Looks,” US News & World Report, June 4, 2010

"Thousands of S.C. residents could lose jobless benefits after bill stalls in Senate," Greenville, June 2, 2010

“An unemployment insurance balancing act,” Stateline, June 1, 2010

"NY state law would protect domestic workers," Marketplace, June 1, 2010

"Congressional Democrats downshift on spending, cut provisions to jobs bill," Washington Post, May 29, 2010

"House renews jobless benefits, but checks still may be delayed," LA Times, May 28, 2010

"House passes downsized jobs bill," Politico, May 28, 2010

"Deficit Eclipses Jobs In Congress: 'Nickel-And-Diming The Most Fragile People," Huffington Post, May 28, 2010

"House extends jobless benefits, tax breaks," MarketWatch, May 28, 2010

“Check It Again,” New York Times (Editorial), May 27, 2010

“Democrats Retreat From Class Warfare,” Huffington Post, May 27, 2010

“Jobless benefits dwindle as lawmakers dither,” CNN Money, May 27, 2010

“Tier 5: Pelosi Says No To More Weeks Of Unemployment Benefits,” Huffington Post, May 27, 2010

“Jobs Bill Stuck in House, Economists Say UI Is Key to Rebooting Economy,” AFL-CIO Now blog, May 27, 2010

“Big Corporations Lobby Against Bill Extending Jobless Benefits Because It Closes Their Tax Loopholes,” Think Progress, May 26, 2010

“Another fight over jobless benefits looms in Congress,” McClatchy, May 25, 2010

“Without extension, thousands in R.I. could lose jobless benefits June 2,” Providence Journal, May 25, 2010

“Tax breaks, job benefits on tap in Congress,” MarketWatch, May 24, 2010

“1.2 million unemployed may lose federal benefits,” MarketWatch, May 24, 2010

“Living-wage debate gets broader, louder,” Crain’s New York Business, May 23, 2010

“Senate Set For Another Unemployment Fight: 'Congress Cannot Screw This Up Again',” Huffington Post, May 21, 2010

“Extra benefits fail to halt tide of long-term jobless,” The Tennessean, May 21, 2010

“On-The-Job Training While Unemployed,” NPR, May 19, 2010

“Wage Law Enforcement State Trend: Illinois Becomes Most Recent State to Crack Down on Wage Theft,” Progressive States Network, May 18, 2010

“When should jobless benefits end?,” Orlando Sentinel, May 17, 2010

“Blurred lines between employees, contractors can complicate taxes,” Modesto Bee (McClatchy), May 11, 2010

“Groups lining up to stop employment practices they say are abusive to workers,” Pittsburg Post Gazette, May 9, 2010

“Recovery phase,” Akron Beacon Journal (Editorial), May 9, 2010

“Jobs and jobless both on rise,” Pittsburg Post Gazette, May 8, 2010

“Funding Crisis for Unemployment Programs Begs Reform,” Washington Independent, May 7, 2010

“Jobless benefits need long-term help,” Marketplace, May 6, 2010

“Pesa el récord criminal a la hora de emplearse,” La Opinion, May 3, 2010

“‘99ers’ dread future without jobless benefits,” Los Angeles, April 30, 2010

“Tier 5: Congress Sends Mixed Signals About Adding More Weeks Of Unemployment Benefits,” Huffington Post, April 30, 2010

“Long-Unemployed Texas Man Scores Job, Dodges Eviction,” Huffington Post, April 30, 2010

“How to Survive in New York On $0 A Day,” City Limits, April 30, 2010

“No solution on jobs fund crisis,” Times Argus, April 30, 2010

“A 99-week limit for jobless benefits,” Marketplace, April 29, 2010

“How long should we help the unemployed?", CNN Money, April 23, 2010

“We Can’t Tell You Why,” New York Times (Editorial), April 21, 2010

“Labor experts across U.S. eyeing Georgia Works program,” McClatchy, April 18, 2010

“Jobless man displaying sign of the times,” Houston Chronicle, April 18, 2010

“California's jobless rate hits high of 12.6% in March,” LA Times, April 17, 2010

“Obama signs extension of jobless benefits,” LA Times, April 16, 2010

“Unemployment rises in 24 states,” CNN Money, April 16, 2010

“Jobless lose benefits while parties blame each other,” McClatchy, April 15, 2010

“Bill to restore jobless aid clears Senate hurdle,” Reuters, April 15, 2010

“Home care service sued over pay practices,” Crain’s NY Business, April 15, 2010

“Three Suits Claim Labor-Law Violations,” NY Times’ City Room, April 14, 2010

“U.S. Senate Moves Toward Passage of Jobless Benefits Extension,” Business Week, April 13, 2010

“Jobless Aid Provisions Clear Procedural Hurdle In Senate,” Huffington Post, April 12, 2010

"Bill to extend jobless benefits faces Senate showdown," The Washington Post, April 12, 2010

“Congress Plays Politics With Unemployment Insurance,” Newsweek blog, April 12, 2010

“Millions of unemployed may never recover,” Seattle Times, April 12, 2010

“Unemployment to run out for many Floridians if Congress doesn't pass extension,” Florida Times Union, April 12, 2010

“28,500 in S.C. face benefits cutoff,” The State, April 12, 2010

“Is another extension coming?,” South Florida Sun Sentinel, April 12, 2010

“Thousands in Indiana to lose jobless benefits without extension of federal unemployment,” Associated Press, April 11, 2010

“Congress' delay on benefits leaves unemployed scrambling,” McClatchy, April 9, 2010

“33 states out of money to fund jobless benefits,” CNN/ CNN Money, April 9, 2010

“States running out of jobless funds,” MSN Money, April 9, 2010

“Jobless checks halt while Congress is on leave,” Houston Chronicle, April 9, 2010

“Fed loans fund states' jobless benefits,” UPI, April 9, 2010

“Initial jobless claims increase unexpectedly,” Associated Press, April 8, 2010

“Jobless in Mass. will still get aid,” Boston Globe, April 8, 2010

“States Exhausting Unemployment Funding,” Washington Independent, April 8, 2010

“Long-term jobless rate at new high,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 8, 2010

“State’s jobless benefits fund in nation’s top 10,” Spokesman Review, April 8, 2010

“The Labor Department Wakes Up,” New York Times (Editorial), April 7, 2010

“Laws put squeeze on freelancers,” Boston Globe, April 7, 2010

“Union Wage Push Meets Resistance,” City Limits, April 7, 2010

“Unemployment benefits expire as Congress debates extension,” LA Times, April 6, 2010

“9,200 in Bay State lose access to jobless benefits,” Boston Globe, April 6, 2010

“Bunning, Dems trade shots over expired jobless benefits,” The Hill, April 5, 2010

“More Than 200,000 Could Lose Unemployment Benefits This Week,” Huffington Post, April 5, 2010

“Census project adds to the job picture when it counts,” LA Times, April 5, 2010

“Jobless rate holds at 9.7% despite payroll gains,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 3, 2010

“Extended jobless benefits end Monday,” UPI, April 3, 2010

“More than 200,000 to lose jobless benefits Monday with Congress out,” The Hill, April 3, 2010

“March jobs report shows growth,” CNN Money, April 3, 2010

“Freelancing beats the alternative for many,” LA Times, April 2, 2010

“Employers added most jobs in 3 years in March,” Associated Press, April 2, 2010

“Workers sickened at pork plant still wait for compensation,” Minnesota Public Radio, March 31, 2010

“Jobless payments going plastic,” Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2010

“Jobless benefits to slip away for thousands in R.I.,” Providence Journal, March 30, 2010

“Dems see backlash coming for GOP after unemployment block,” The Hill, March 29, 2010

“Is any work better than no work? Not for unemployment benefits,” Christian Science Monitor, March 29, 2010

“Will Congress Extend Unemployment Benefits Beyond 99 Weeks?,” Huffington Post, March 29, 2010

“Still time to fix lapse in jobless benefits,” Associated Press, March 27, 2010

“Republicans fight extension of jobless pay,” Los Angeles Times, March 27, 2010

“Jobless Benefit Expiration To Affect Thousands -Labor Group,” Dow Jones, March 26, 2010

“Thousands to lose jobless benefits April 5,” CNN Money, March 26, 2010

“Jobless Aid Programs To Lapse While Congress Takes A Break,” Huffington Post, March 26, 2010

“Republican Coburn Blocks Jobless Benefits Extension,” Bloomberg, March 26, 2010

“Hilda Solis: Labor's New Sheriff,” The Nation, March 25, 2010

“Senate Plays Game Of Chicken With Unemployment Benefits,” Huffington Post, March 25, 2010

“Senate delays vote on 30-day federal unemployment benefit extension,” MLive, March 24, 2010

“Jim Bunning To Get Another Chance To Block An Unemployment Benefits Extension: Will He Take It?,” Huffington Post, March 24, 2010

“Unemployment Extension Takes Backseat To Health Care,” Huffington Post, March 23, 2010

“Jobless benefits' future debated,” Rockford Record Star, March 20, 2010

“Florida jobs agency says feds keep bulk of program funding,” South Florida Sun Sentinel, March 17, 2010

“Joblessness up in Virginia, but fewer get benefits,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 17, 2010

“Jobless benefits put Wisconsin in hole,” Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, March 15, 2010

“Payback time: State must nail sleazy bosses who steal their workers' wages,” Daily News, March 15, 2010

“Workzone: Temp jobs not leading way to permanent ones,” Pittsburg Post Gazette, March 15, 2010

“NY's layoffs get longer,” New York Post, March 14, 2010

“Job seekers outnumber openings by 10-to-1 ration in South Carolina,” Greenville News, March 14, 2010

“A Move to Protect Low-Wage Workers,” New York Times’ City Room, March 12, 2010

“Congress has a job to do for workers,” San Gabriel Valley, March 11, 2010

“NM job seekers don't have to disclose crime record,” Associated Press, March 9, 2010

“U.S. Senate Set to Vote on Plan to Extend Unemployment Benefits,” Bloomberg, March 9, 2010

“Are unemployment benefits no longer temporary?,” Washington Post, March 9, 2010

“Office that handles jobless benefits in Florida not meeting standards,” Orlando Sentinel, March 8, 2010

“Bunning's stand prompts rallies from both sides,” State Journal (KY), March 4, 2010

“Unemployment Rate Stayed Steady in February,” ABC News, March 5, 2010

“5 Things to Know About February's Jobs Report,” US News and World Report, March 5, 2010

“Jobs Numbers Better Than Expected,” WBUR, March 5, 2010

“Most UI Recipients Should Receive Checks As Normal Despite Jim Bunning's Obstruction,” Huffington Post, March 3, 2010

“Unemployment benefits: Jim Bunning relents, Senate passes extension,” Christian Science Monitor, March 3, 2010

“GOP's Bunning relents, OKs action on jobless bill,” Associated Press, March 2, 2010

“200,000 To Lose Unemployment Benefits This Week,” Huffington Post, March 2, 2010

“Stalemate holding up jobless benefits,” USA Today, March 2, 2010

“Nation's Unemployment Programs Running Out of Money,” ABC News, March 2, 2010

“Who's Affected by Senate Squabbling? A Long List,” AOL News, March 2, 2010

“One Senator Holds Up Bill, in New Level of Gridlock,” Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2010

“Bunning refuses to back down,” McClatchy, March 2, 2010

“Bunning's stand prompts rallies from both sides,” State Journal (KY), March 2, 2010

“Jim Bunning delays vote; unemployed face first week without check,” Christian Science Monitor, March 2, 2010

“Jobless benefits bill again blocked as lone senator objects,” MarketWatch, March 2, 2010

“Senator relents, allows vote on stopgap funding,” McClatchy, March 2, 2010

“Finding a job taking longer in this downturn,” South Florida Sun Sentinel, March 2, 2010

“Outside Bunning's Lexington office an angry protest and counter-protest,” Lexington Herald Leader, March 2, 2010

“Politics as usual, but this time, the unemployed pay the price,” Las Vegas Review-Journal (Opinion), March 2, 2010

“Anger grows as Bunning rebuffs even GOP pleas on benefits bill,” McClatchy, March 2, 2010

“Bunning Objects To Extending Unemployment Insurance AGAIN,” Huffington Post, March 1, 2010

“Must-pass bills falter in unpopular Congress as Dems blame Republicans,” The Hill, March 1, 2010

“Senate Remains Deadlocked On Jobless Benefit Extension Bid,” Dow Jones Newswire, March 1, 2010

“Extended jobless benefits start ending,” CNN Money, February 28, 2010

“Federal jobless benefits out of reach,” UPI, February 28, 2010

“Heller not bound by political correctness,” Las Vegas Sun, February 28, 2010

“Workers wait on promise of jobs as Obama agenda stalls on Hill,” Washington Post, February 27, 2010

“Some job seekers don't have to disclose record,” Associated Press (NM), February 27, 2010

“Jobless benefits extension uncertain as program funding ends Sunday,” Pittsburgh Tribune Review, February 27, 2010

“Thousands face loss of jobless benefits,” Orlando Sentinel, February 27, 2010

“Jim Bunning Repeatedly Blocks Unemployment Benefits Extension, Tells Dem 'Tough Shit',” Huffington Post, February 26, 2010

“Time runs out for jobless,” Albany Times Union, February 26, 2010

"Senate Inaction Jeopardizes Unemployment Benefits,” Associated Press, February 26, 2010

“Senate Republican Blocks Jobless Benefit Extension,” Bloomberg, February 26, 2010

“Unemployed worry about loss of extended benefits,” Pittsburg Post Gazette, February 26, 2010

“1.2M jobless could lose benefits Sunday,” UPI, February 26, 2010

“GOP senator holds up jobless-benefits extension,” Seattle Times, February 26, 2010

“Advocate: Unemployment extension “dead” for this week; Payments likely to lapse,” Orlando Sentinel, February 26, 2010

“Unemployment benefits for 1.2 million Americans could expire Sunday,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 26, 2010

“Extension move fails,” South Florida Sun Sentinel, February 26, 2010

“State Workforce Agencies: Thank Congress If You Lose Your Unemployment Benefits Next Week,” Huffington Post, February 25, 2010

“State Unemployment Funds Under Pressure,” Fox Business, February 25, 2010

“Senate passes jobs bill 70-28,” MLive.com, February 24, 2010

“FACTBOX-Job-creation efforts in U.S. Congress,” Reuters, February 24, 2010

“Unemployment extension waiting for Senate action,” Orlando Sentinel, February 24, 2010

“In Spending Debate, Local Officials Split With Washington GOP,” Washington Independent, February 23, 2010

“U.S. Senate could pass a jobs bill this week,” Reuters, February 23, 2010

“Senate eyes 15-day jobless benefit extension,” CNN Money, February 22, 2010

“Extend Unemployment Insurance Now,” The Nation, February 22, 2010

“Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs,” New York Times, February 21, 2010

“20 unemployed vie for every one NYC position,” New York Post, February 21, 2010

“One million could lose jobless benefits in March,” CNN Money, February 19, 2010

“A Jobs Bill Too Small for the Task,” Washington Independent, February 18, 2010

“Ind. House panel approves delay in tax hike,” Associated Press, February 17, 2010

“Deadline for Congress,” Akron Beacon Journal, February 17, 2010

“Rep. Kurt Schrader on ending unemployment benefits,” Oregonian, February 17, 2010

"Group says jobless Nevadans will lose benefits if Congress doesn’t act,” Las Vegas Sun, February 15, 2010

“Culver urges extension of unemployment benefits,” Iowa Independent, February 15, 2010

“Republican senator objects to one-week extension of unemployment benefits,” MLive.com, February 15, 2010

“Unemployment Benefits Could Run Out Soon,” KCBS, February 14, 2010

“Congress Warned Not to Forget Long-Term Unemployed,” Washington Independent, February 12, 2010

“State agencies prepare to send out unemployment benefit expiration letters next week,” MLive, February 12, 2010

“Nearly 900K Californians could lose unemployment benefits by July,” Seattle Post Intelligencer’s Get to Work blog, February 12, 2010

“Congress Leaving Unemployment Benefits Extension To The Last Minute,” Huffington Post, February 11, 2010

“Jobs bill advances ... or does it?,” CNN Money, February 11, 2010

“Senate jobs bill: What's missing,” CNN Money, February 10, 2010

“Storm dumps snow on Mid-Atlantic, closing airports and government,” Christian Science Monitor, February 10, 2010

“Labor Violations in Congress and in NY Streets,” Village Voice, February 9, 2010

"In Congress, it's decision time on long-term unemployment benefits," Washington Post, Feb. 9, 2010

“Unemployment taxes slam businesses,” CNN Money, February 9, 2010

“Lawmakers lash out at EDD,” Sacramento Bee, February 9, 2010

“Unemployment to peak this summer, Florida top economist says,” South Florida Sun Sentinel, February 9, 2010

“Long-term unemployed still wait for recovery to arrive,” USA Today, February 8, 2010

“Job losses shadow drop in unemployment rate,” Greenville News, February 6, 2010

“What a 9.7 Percent Unemployment Rate Means,” US News & World Report, February 5, 2010

“Countdown to a new job ... 211 days,” CNN Money, February 5, 2010

“Congress Needs To Extend Unemployment Benefits -- Again,” Huffington Post, February 5, 2010

“Unemployment Rate Drop Is Good News But It's Likely To Rise Again,” Huffington Post, February 5, 2010

“Some NYers' unemployment benefits set to expire,” Crain’s New York Business, February 5, 2010

“Jobless rate falls, masking negative statistics,” Pittsburg Post Gazette, February 5, 2010

“Catch the city’s wage thieves,” Daily News, February 3, 2010

“Tennessee considers reducing unemployment pay,” The Tennessean, February 3, 2010

“Wage Theft in NYC,” WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show, February 2, 2010

“How did dozens of illegal immigrants end up shoveling snow at Gillette?,” Providence Journal, January 31, 2010

“California got (phone) wires crossed on jobless help in 2009,” Sacramento Bee, January 31, 2010

“Legislation would reduce debit card fees on jobless benefits,” Macomb Daily News, January 30, 2010

“New York's Hidden Crime Wave,” Huffington Post, January 29, 2010

“Unemployed for six months or more – and still looking for a job,” Christian Science Monitor, January 29, 2010

"Report: Most Low-Wage Workers Are Cheated of Pay," New York Times, January 28, 2010

"Labor-law violations seen costly for city workers," Crain's New York Business, January 28, 2010

"Millions to Lose Unemployment Insurance," Center for Media and Democracy, January 26, 2010

"Visa-fraud probe: Workers feel 'so disposable',” Orlando Sentinel, January 23, 2010

"Payroll taxes increase for many employers across the US," USA Today (Propublica), January 20, 2010

“VEC working through weekend to process extension of jobless benefits,” Richmond Times Dispatch, January 15, 2010

"Feds Say Unemployed Waiting Too Long For Benefits," NPR, January 10, 2010

"US Job Losses in December Dim Hopes for Quick Upswing," New York Times, January 9, 2010

"Long-Term Unemployment Is Becoming The Norm," Huffington Post, January 8, 2010

"Job cuts totaled 85000 last month, dashing expectations," Christian Science Monitor, January 8, 2010

“20 million Americans collected jobless benefits at some point in the year,” Associated Press, December 31, 2009

“Jobless Claims Fall Unexpectedly as Layoffs Ease,” Associated Press, December 31, 2009

“Middle Tennesseans may see bump in unemployment aid,” The Tennessean, December 24, 2009

“Add good credit to the list of job requirements,” New Jersey Star Ledger, December 22, 2009

“California's jobless rate drops to 12.3%,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 19, 2009

“Senate passes extension of unemployment deadlines,” Miami Herald, December 19, 2009

“Strains Felt in Health Coverage for Jobless,” New York Times, December 17, 2009

“Jobless benefits key for Ohioans,” Columbus Dispatch, December 17, 2009

“Unemployment Benefits Extension Passed By House, Senate May Follow On Friday,” Huffington Post, December 16, 2009 Quotes

“House to vote on $167 billion in jobs measures,” CNN Money, December 16, 2009

“Jobless Floridians encounter delays in getting extended unemployment benefits,” St Petersburg Times, December 16, 2009

“Unemployment's Costs, Fiscal and Emotional,” The Takeaway, December 15, 2009

“Answers About Unemployment Benefits: Part 4,” New York Times’ Ask an Expert, December 11, 2009

“State speeds up payments to 121,000 long-term jobless Californians,” Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2009

“Creating more jobs is 'Job No. 1',” News-Press, December 10, 2009

“President Obama crafts strategies to create jobs; pros and cons,” USA Today, December 9, 2009

“We have to spend to create jobs,” Philadelphia Daily News, December 9, 2009

“Claims That Employers at the Kingsbridge Armory Can't Pay a Living Wage Don't Add Up,” Huffington Post , December 9, 2009

“Jobless aid ends for 84,000 in state if Congress delays,” Arizona Republic, December 9, 2009

“A Plea to Congress on Jobless Benefits,” New York Times, December 8, 2009

“Extension sought for jobless benefits,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 8, 2009

“Congress urged to extend emergency jobless benefits,” McClatchy, December 8, 2009

“Extended unemployment checks slow to arrive,” Columbus Dispatch, December 8, 2009

“En riesgo beneficios por desempleo,” La Opinion, December 8, 2009

“State Unemployment Commissioners Implore Congress To Reauthorize Benefits Extensions,” Huffington Post, December 7, 2009

“Answers About Unemployment Benefits: Part 3,” New York Times’ Ask an Expert, December 7, 2009

“Must-pass bills pile up as days wind down,” Associated Press, December 6, 2009

“80,000 Floridians still waiting for jobless checks,” Orlando Sentinel, December 6, 2009

“Answers About Unemployment Benefits: Part 2,” New York Times’ Ask An Expert, December 4, 2009

“The New Working Reality,” Newsweek, December 4, 2009

“Ahead of the Bell: Jobless Claims,” Associated Press, December 3, 2009

“Former Employers More Likely To Allege Misconduct By Laid-Off Workers Than In Past Recessions,” Huffington Post, December 3, 2009

“State leaders explore job creation,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 3, 2009

“Bill would extend Michigan jobless pay 6 more weeks,” Detroit News, December 3, 2009

“Recession worsens woes for black workers,” MSNBC.com, November 30, 2009

“With 400,000 jobless, New Yorkers experiencing extreme unemployment,” New York Daily News, November 29, 2009

“Health perks for the unemployed,” CNN money, November 25, 2009

“Jobless benefits rules are tough to untangle,” MSNBC.com, November 23, 2009

“Criminal charges rare in cases like Atalissa,” Des Moines Register, November 23, 2009

“Congress can’t forget needs of unemployed,” Tuscaloosa News, November 22, 2009

“Employer tax hike is lawmakers' fault,” St Petersburg Times, November 21, 2009

“Ranks of long-term unemployed are at record levels,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 21, 2009

"Jobless Benefits Will Expire Unless Congress Acts," The New York Times, November 19, 2009

“Ahead of the Bell: Jobless claims,” Associated Press, November 19, 2009

“Extended U.S. jobless aid rise clouds labor picture,” Reuters, November 19, 2009

“One Million Will Lose Unemployment Benefits In January Unless Congress Acts,” Huffington Post, November 19, 2009

“12,000 Nevadans qualify for extension of jobless benefits,” Las Vegas Sun, November 19, 2009

“Jobless benefits could end for many in January,” Associated Press, November 18, 2009

“1 million jobless face benefits loss in January,” CNN Money, November 18, 2009

“Jobless Tennesseans won't get as many extra benefits,” The Tennessean, November 18, 2009

“Unemployment Benefits,” Fox 5 NY, N

NELP’s 2008 Great Lakes Economic Revitalization Summit

Economic Revitalization. Manufacturing Renewal. Shared Prosperity. These are the common challenges facing progressive leaders in the manufacturing heartland stretching from Western New York to Eastern Iowa. This webpage gathers resources addressing these challenges developed by our partners and guests concerned with building an economy that works for low-income and middle class families in this region and across the U.S.

As part of this effort, we invited labor representatives, public officials, workforce and economic development practitioners, and policy experts to join us for an economic revitalization summit to share best practices and explore shared regional solutions on April 17, 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Participating staff from policy organizations included National Employment Law Project, Policy Matters Ohio, Keystone Research Center, Fiscal Policy Institute, Steel Valley Authority, Progressive States Network, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Economic Policy Institute, Brookings Institution, Apollo Alliance, and Center on Wisconsin Strategies. Labor representatives from Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio attended, as did workforce and economic development public officials from Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York.

This webpage includes summit presentations, related presentations provided to us by other experts, and valuable links to resources that address the key questions facing economic policymakers today: How do we keep and develop good jobs that will support middle class families?

Click here for our Summit Agenda.

Rapid Response, Peer Networks, Early Warning Programs and Layoff Aversion

Many states in the region are working to implement better practices in the core workforce development programs, including more effective rapid response, using peer networks and labor management committees. Many states in this region and elsewhere are interested in expanding beyond these core dislocated worker programs by establishing early warning networks and layoff aversion programs based upon the model developed by Pennsylvania's Steel Valley Authority. Presentations from the conference included Federal Requirements and Best Practices in Rapid Response and SVA Early Warning Networks and Layoff Aversion.

Manufacturing Revitalization and Retention

The conference included presentations by Stephen Herzenberg, Keystone Research Center, Bob Baugh, Director of AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, Dan Swinney, Center for Labor and Community Research, and economist Sue Helper, of Case Western, author of a recent Economic Policy Institute paper on manufacturing policy.

Regional Cooperation on Federal Issues and Economic Development

A goal of many summit participants and policy partners is to increase communication and cooperation among manufacturing states in the Great Lakes region. Topics for potential cooperation include: (1) working with other states in our region to develop and promote a federal manfacturing and regional economic development agenda, (2) developing better information and data on regional supply chains, labor markets, and firms to assist states and the region in grappling with these issues, and (3) increasing the use of best practices in workforce and economic development with better information sharing and cooperation among states in the region. To explore these and other emerging regional issues, several conference participants have agreed to continue working together on these topics.

For more information regarding our follow up efforts, contact Andy Stettner, Deputy Director, National Employment Law Project at astettner@nelp.org.

See also our work in the area of economic and workforce development, including additional publications and links of interest to those concerned with economic revitalization.

Close the Gaps in the Unemployment Insurance system

Extended Jobless Benefits

Normal state unemployment benefits are capped at 26 weeks of assistance. During tough economic times, the federal government steps in to provide extended benefits to long-term unemployed workers who need additional assistance to find jobs. Federal jobless benefits are vital to helping jobless workers and their families avoid the severe economic distress that comes with long-term unemployment.

When the economy slips into recessions, federal extended benefits circulate hard cash into local economies where local businesses lose customers due to job loss. In fact, economists have found that extended unemployment benefits provide one of deliver one of the strongest dollar-for-dollar stimulus of any government responses to recessions.

During the “Great Recession” of 2009, the spotlight has been on federal extended benefits. Please look to the right column for NELP’s latest information on extended jobless benefits.

NELP’s web portal www.unemployedworkers.org provides extensive information for workers and the latest NELP advocacy initiatives to improve the extended benefits program in the states and in Congress.

For updates on NELP’s Fall 2009 Campaign to Extend Jobless Benefits Visit: http://www.unemployedworkers.org/sites/unemployedworkers/index.php/benefits

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Maurice Emsellem, memsellem@nelp.org.

Modernizing Unemployment Insurance—The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Signed by President Obama into law in February 2009, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes a number of bold new initiatives that respond to the unprecedented hardship facing jobless workers, including a temporary increase in the amount of UI benefits, new provisions to provide for extended jobless benefits and new help to workers who lose their health care when they are laid off. A key portion of the legislation is the Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act (UIMA), which would go a long way to fill the gaps in the unemployment safety net while also helping to jump start the economy.

The UIMA provides substantial financial incentives for the states ($7 billion) to close the major gaps in the unemployment program that deny benefits to large numbers of hard-working families. In addition, the measure provides $500 million in necessary funding for state agencies to better serve the record numbers of workers now applying for unemployment benefits and seeking to navigate today's challenging job market.

The workforce has changed fundamentally since the unemployment program was created in 1935. Today's labor market is largely made up of low-wage, part-time and women workers, and many more workers find themselves unemployed for much longer periods of time due to globalization and the loss of manufacturing jobs. However, the unemployment insurance program has not kept pace with these new realities of today's economy. The UIMA responds to this critical challenge by rewarding states that adopt innovative and successful eligibility reforms, thus providing benefits to more than 500,000 workers a year who are now falling through the cracks of the unemployment program.

Over the past decade, more than half the states have adopted the innovative policies that qualify for incentive funding under the UIMA. Thus, the UIMA is especially well positioned to build on the momentum in the states to modernize the nation's unemployment safety net. In addition, the UIMA goes a long way to stimulate the economy because unemployment benefits provide $2.15 in economic growth for every dollar in benefits spent by workers and their families on housing, groceries and other basic necessities. Thus, the UIMA will foster both lasting positive reforms and boost the nation's economy to help prevent a more prolonged and deep recession.

State Legislative Updates

NEW December 2, 2009 NELP report documents the unprecendented wave of Unemployment Insurance Reforms fuled by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
June 18, 2009 NELP report documents the unprecedented wave of Unemployment Insurance Reforms fueled by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
April 22, 2009 NELP testifies in congress, documenting major progress implementing stimulus funded improvements in the states

Learn More about the UIMA
Read NELP's fact sheet on the Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act
Understand how to rebut false assertions by Governors Jindal and others about the UIMA

Take Action in Your State to Implement the UIMA
Introduce legislation in your state implementing the UIMA (Updated February 18, 2010)
Find out what your state needs to do to comply with the UIMA

Learn About Other Key Provisions of the ARRA

(Updated June 7, 2009) Learn how your state can provide additional weeks of extended benefits through new provisions of the ARRA

Concise guide to all the ARRA's unemployment provisions
Read NELP's press release summarizing the key elements of the ARRA
Visit Families USA to learn about new assistance to workers seeking health care through COBRA

US Department of Labor Guidance on UI Modernization and other ARRA Provisions
UI Program Letter 27-09 (January 29, 2010) “Continued Availability of UC Modernization Incentive Payments”
UI Program Letter 04-10 (December 23, 2009)“ Extension of Temporary Provisions - Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008, Federal Additional Compensation, and Extended Benefits”
UI Program Letter 14-09 (November 30, 2009)"Special Transfers for Unemployment Compensation Modernization and Administration and Relief from Interest on Advances"
UI Program Letter 12-09 (May 4, 2009)"Extended Benefits Program – Temporary Changes made by the Assistance for Unemployed Workers and Struggling Families Act"
UI Program Letter 11-09 (January 4, 2010) "New Temporary Federal Additional Compensation Program"

Broad Spectrum of Groups Support the UIMA
Read about the broad support for UI modernization
Women's advocates strongly support modernization
Governors support the Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act

Editorial pages support UI modernization

“Unemployment Insurance Deal is Good for Business,” Baltimore Sun, March 1, 2010 (editorial)
“Not Working: State Response to the Unemployed,” Philadelphia Daily News January 13, 2010 (editorial),
"Right Approach to State Aid," The New York Times, March 1, 2009 (editorial)
"What Part of ‘Stimulus' Don't They Get?" New York Times, Feb. 24, 2009 (editorial)
"The Governors and Handouts" The Baltimore Sun, February 24, 2009(editorial)
"Take the Stimulus Money," Charleston Post and Courier, February 24, 2009 (editorial)

UIMA in the News
“Democrats Aim to Boost Benefits,” Journal Gazette, February 18, 2010
“Unemployment Insurance: Updating Virginia’s System” Richmond Times Dispatch, February 17, 2010
“Va. Senate Favors Accepting Stimulus Jobless Funds,” Richmond Times Dispatch, February 10, 2010
“Stimulus Funds for Jobless?,” Omaha World Herald, February 8, 2010
“House OKs Change to Reap $20M in Federal Stimulus Money,” Salt Lake Tribune, February 8, 2010
“Unemployment Benefits Extended to Those Whose Spouse Relocates,” Denver Post, January 31, 2010
“Fed Money Available for Ala. Unemployed,” Birmingham Business Journal, January 29, 2010
“Labor Sec.: $4.1 Billion in Unemployment Funds Still Unclaimed,” WCSC Charleston (NBC Affiliate),
“Benefits for Everyone,” Baltimore Sun, January 26, 2010
“Changes in Jobless Benefits Would Qualify R.I. for Federal Aid,” Providence Journal, January 20, 2010
"Panel Votes to Put California Bill on the Fast Track," Los Angeles Times, March 5, 2009
"Schwarzenegger Agrees to Federal Conditions to Bolster Unemployment Fund," LA Times, February 25, 2009
"Stimulus Bill Would Bestow New Aid to Many Workers" New York Times, Feb. 14, 2009
"Recession Exposes Holes in Jobless Benefits System," Associated Press, February 9, 2009
"Recession Exposes Holes in Jobless Benefits System," Associated Press, February 9, 2009
"Stimulus would bring welcome relief to California," Los Angeles Times, January 28, 2009
"Not your grandfather's workforce, but it's still his unemployment insurancesystem,"Salem (OR) News, January 24, 2009
"States urged to help more jobless workers," Stateline.org, January 21, 2009

Support NELP

Why NELP?

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) is dedicated to improvingconditions for workers across America and to protecting working families from the vagaries of the global economy. Since NELP's government funding was eliminated in 1994, we have depended on the generosity of foundations,individual and institutional donors. Your donations will enable NELP to:

· restore the minimum wage to its historic level - and make sure every worker is paid what they are due;

· ensure that millions of jobless workers access the income support and retraining they need to get back on their feet;

· push for model policies that raise the quality of jobs throughout our economy, and;

· eliminate barriers to employment opportunities faced by individuals with criminal records, immigrants and others locked out by discriminatory laws and practices.

How to donate

The National Employment Law Project is a 501(c)(3) organization, and contributions to NELP are deductible to the full extent of the law. Please donate generously to NELP by clicking here or by sending a check to:

National Employment Law Project
75 Maiden Lane,
Suite 601
New York,NY 10038

Make a cy-pres award to NELP:
In recent months, several law firms have designated unclaimed workers'rights judgments to NELP to keep fighting the underlying issues at stake intheir cases. To learn more about making a cy pres award to NELP and its National Wage and Hour Clearinghouse, please click here.

Don't just take our word for it:
"Millions of low wage workers suffer from substandard wages, unstable employment or mistreatment at their jobs. By securing core employmentprotections, NELPis at the forefront of efforts to help low income families succeed in the workplace." Peter Edelman, Georgetown University LawCenter

"With the help of NELP we were able to negotiate an unemployment bill that protected eligibility and increased benefits significantly at a time when ourfund was insolvent." Herb Johnson, Missouri AFL-CIO State Labor Federation

"Immigrants perform indispensable work for the economic and culturalwealth throughout the nation, but face blatant abuse every day. NELP provides the legal expertise that immigrant organizing groups need to effectively defend the labor and human rights of our communities. In this relationship, NELP has aprofound sense of respect for the decisions that workers and their organizersmake." Pablo Alvarado, National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Thank you

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A staff member will follow up with you shortly.

Get Updates

NELP advances workers' rights by partnering with people like you – individual workers, policymakers, unions, community groups, worker centers, legal advocates, state public policy advocates, government agencies and immigrant rights organizations – who have a shared concern for the rights of worrkers. So, get involved!

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We also host a variety of e-mail discussion groups aimed at lawyers, researchers, and other advocates working in our fields:

Immigrant Employment Rights Discussion Group: Protecting the employment and labor rights of immigrant workers in low-wage industries.
Subscribe to Listserv: nelp-immigemplrights-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Contact NELP: immigrant@nelp.org, nonstandard@nelp.org

UI Advocates Discussion Group: Promoting unemployment insurance (UI) reform benefiting low-wage workers, women, and part-time workers, including discussions of state-based advocacy strategies, tactics, and resource needs.
Subscribe to Listserv: nelp-uiadvocates-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Contact NELP: unemployment@nelp.org

Criminal Records Discussion Group: Reducing barriers to employment of people with conviction histories, with a focus on federal, state, and local policy reforms and strategies to enforce civil rights and consumer protection laws that apply to criminal background checks.
Subscribe to Listserv: nelp-criminalrecords-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

WIA Advocates: Discussing the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), job training, rapid response, and dislocated worker programs, including Trade Adjustment Assistance.
Subscribe to Listserv: nelp-wiaadvocates@yahoogroups.com

Employment Rights Discussion Group: Fostering communication among legal services advocates for low-wage workers.
Subscribe to Listserv: nelp-employmentrights-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

National Wage & Hour Clearinghouse
For more information, please visit: http://www.just-pay.org.
Contact NELP: wagehour@nelp.org

Jobs

Policy Research Associate (Economic Justice) - August 2010 - NELP is seeking a policy research associate to help forge a research and policy agenda in support of campaigns to fight wage theft, raise the minimum wage, create good jobs, and make economic development more accountable. This position offers an unusual opportunity to join a dynamic team of national leaders advocating for immigrant and low-wage workers in partnership with coalitions of grassroots organizers. The position is based in New York City and requires substantial relevant experience and at least an M.A.

Policy Research Assistant (Unemployment Insurance) - August 2010 - NELP seeks a quantitatively oriented policy research assistant to conduct applied and campaign research that will support efforts to reform and strengthen the unemployment insurance safety net program. The major responsibility of the policy research assistant will be to compile, analyze, and present publicly available data to support NELP’s research and advocacy goals.

Web and Campaign Associate (Unemployment Insurance) - August 2010 - The National Employment Law Project and our campaign website www.unemployedworkers.org seek a web-savvy social change activist to support NELP’s efforts to inform and mobilize jobless workers and community groups about unemployment benefits and related programs. NELP will accept applicants who can work on site in our New York City, Oakland, California or Washington, DC offices.

Internships

2011 Summer Legal Internships (Economic Justice) –September 2010 – The National Employment Law Project is currently accepting applications from interested law students for our 2011 Summer Legal Internship Program. In support of campaigns to fight wage theft, enforce workplace protections, raise the minimum wage, create good jobs, and make economic development more accountable, legal interns will perform legal research and writing in support of policy advocacy, litigation, and community education, and will assist in drafting manuals and articles for publication.

TAA Coordinator

Lindsay Webb, TAA Coordinator
lwebb@nelp.org
(734) 369-5615
Ann Arbor, Michigan Office

Areas of expertise
Dislocated Worker Programs (Trade Adjustment Assistance)

Biography
Lindsay Webb joined NELP in 2006, where she advocates for dislocated workers in the manufacturing sector in the Midwest. Her experience with the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program began at the United Auto Workers Legal Department, where she worked as a law clerk filing TAA petitions for certification and helping to organize post-certification worker rights and responsibilities meetings. Lindsay also serves as an elected member of the Toledo City Council.

Education
J.D., University of Toledo College of Law
B.A., University of Toledo

Dislocated Worker Facilitator

Lorene Randall, Dislocated Worker Facilitator
lrandall@nelp.org
(810) 265-5596
Ann Arbor, Michigan Office

Areas of Expertise
Economic and Workforce Development

Biography
Lorene joined NELP in 2008 after working with AFL-CIO Michigan Human Resources Development Inc. as a Peer Counselor assisting with TAA/TRA. As a Training Specialist she worked with various unions assisting with leadership development and diversity training. She is involved with Flint Area Churches Together and other grassroots organizations. Her goal is to ensure that workers are equipped with knowledge and training for the future.

Education
Graduate: Wayne State School of Labor and Michigan State University School of Labor and Industrial Relations

Policy Analyst

Diana Polson, Policy Analyst
dpolson@nelp.org
212-285-3025 ext 353
New York City

Areas of expertise
Labor Market Research

Biography
Diana Polson joined NELP in 2008 with the rest of the Economic Justice team from the Brennan Center for Justice. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at CUNY Graduate Center with a particular focus on low-wage work, poverty and new forms of community-labor organizing. Previously, Diana has been an organizer around economic justice issues and has provided research assistance for both a study on comparative working time policy and the use of human rights in New York City. At NELP, she is the Survey Project Coordinator for a study on the growth of workplace violations in low-wage industries in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Education
M.A., CUNY Graduate Center
B.A., University of Virginia

Workforce Development Specialist

Lynn Minick, Workforce Development Specialist
lminick@nelp.org
(317) 838-9220
Indianapolis, Indiana Office

Areas of expertise
Economic and Workforce Development · Rapid Response and Economic Dislocation Services

Biography
Lynn Minick joined NELP in 2006, after working for nearly 20 years promoting workforce development and training initiatives with the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute and the Indiana AFL-CIO Labor Institute for Training. Since joining NELP, he has participated in NELP's Economic Adjustment Initiative, focusing on dislocated workers in Midwest states suffering from layoffs in the auto industry. Lynn collaborates with these states to promote innovative models of rapid response, including layoff aversion, and to increase access to training and other services provided by the Trade Adjustment Assistance program and the Workforce Investment Act. He was a member of the International Association of Machinists for over 33 years and is currently a member of the NELP Staff Association, NOLSW, UAW, LOCAL 2320.

Education
Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (toward B.A.)

Selected Publications

·    What to Do When the Layoff Notice Arrives (AFL-CIO Working for America Institute: 2002)

·    Helping Government Help Dislocated Workers (AFL-CIO Working for America Institute: 2002)

·    What Every Union Leader in the Building Trades Needs to Know About the Workforce Investment Act (Connections, AFL-CIO Working for America Institute: 2002)

·    Basics: Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (AFL-CIO Working for America Institute: 2001)

Equal Justice Works Fellow

Sarah Leberstein, Equal Justice Works Fellow
sleberstein@nelp.org
(212) 285-3025 ext. 313
New York City Office

Areas of expertise
Care Giving Workforce

Biography
Sarah joined NELP in 2008 on a two-year Equal Justice Works fellowship. Sarah works with community based organizations, worker centers and unions to enforce and expand labor rights for home health care, domestic, and child care workers. Prior to law school she worked as an organizer for the Service Employees International Union.

Education
J.D., Fordham Law School
B.A., Wesleyan University

Staff Attorney

Tsedeye Gebreselassie
tgebreselassie@nelp.org
(212) 285-3025 ext. 314
New York City Office

Areas of expertise
Economic and Workforce Development

Biography
Tsedeye joined NELP in 2008. She works on researching and promoting policy tools that create good jobs. Prior to law school, she worked as an organizer for New York’s Working Families Party.

Education
J.D., New York University School of Law
B.A., Brown University

Staff List

Christine L. Owens, Executive Director
Areas of expertise: Living Wage & Minimum Wage • Labor Market Research • Workplace Equity

Andrew Stettner, Deputy Director
Areas of expertise: Labor Market Research • Unemployment Insurance

Annette Bernhardt, Policy Co-Director
Areas of expertise: Labor Market Research • Enforcement of Workplace Standards • Immigrants and Work • Economic and Workforce Development

Maurice Emsellem, Policy Co-Director
Areas of expertise: Criminal Records and Employment • Unemployment Insurance

Catherine Ruckelshaus, Legal Co-Director
Areas of expertise: Immigrants and Work • Enforcement of Workplace Standards • Nonstandard Workforce • Wage and Hour Protections

Paul Sonn, Legal Co-Director
Areas of expertise: Minimum Wage and Living Wage • Economic and Workforce Development

Patricia J. Kozu, Managing Director, Finance & Administration

Rick McHugh, Staff Attorney & Midwest Coordinator
Areas of expertise: Dislocated Worker Programs (Trade Adjustment Assistance) • Unemployment Insurance • Minimum Wage and Living Wage

Rebecca Smith, Coordinator, Immigrant Worker Justice Project
Areas of expertise: International Human and Labor Rights • Immigrants and Work • Enforcement of Workplace Standards • Unemployment Insurance

Judy Conti, Federal Advocacy Coordinator
Areas of expertise: Unemployment Insurance • Criminal Records and Employment • Enforcement of Workplace Standards • Civil Rights

Rebecca Dixon, Policy Analyst
Areas of expertise: Unemployment Insurance

Tsedeye Gebreselassie, Staff Attorney
Areas of expertise: Economic and Workforce Development

Jen Kern, Minimum Wage Campaign Coordinator
Areas of expertise: Minimum Wage and Living Wage • Campaign Assistance

Sarah Leberstein, Equal Justice Works Fellow
Areas of expertise: Care Giving Workforce

Lynn Minick, Workforce Development Specialist
Areas of expertise: Economic and Workforce Development • Rapid Response and Economic Dislocation Services

Madeline Neighly, Staff Attorney
Areas of expertise: Criminal Records and Employment

Michelle Natividad Rodriguez, Staff Attorney
Areas of expertise: Criminal Records and Employment

Lorene Randall, Dislocated Worker Facilitator
Areas of expertise: Economic and Workforce Development

Christine Riordan, Policy Analyst
Areas of expertise: Labor Market Research • Unemployment Insurance

Michael Evangelist, Policy Analyst

Lindsay Webb, TAA Coordinator
Areas of expertise: Trade Adjustment Assistance • Dislocated Worker Programs

George Wentworth, Unemployment Insurance Modernization Coordinator & Policy Analyst
Areas of expertise: Unemployment Insurance • Enforcement of Workplace Standards

Haeyoung Yoon, Staff Attorney
Areas of expertise: Immigrants and Work • Wage and Hour Protections • Enforcement of Workplace Standards

Deborah Buchanan-Taylor, Librarian/Receptionist

Bukola Ashaolu, IT Systems Manager

Alona Sistrunk, Program Assistant

Manny Mercado, Finance & Administration Assistant

Steffan Samlal, IT Assistant

Federal Advocacy Coordinator

Judith M. Conti, Federal Advocacy Coordinator
jconti@nelp.org
(202) 887-8202, ext. 354
Washington, D.C. office

Areas of Expertise
Unemployment Insurance · Criminal Records and Employment · Enforcement of Workplace Standards · Civil Rights

Biography
Judy joined NELP in 2007 after spending seven years as the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the D.C. Employment Justice Center, a legal service provider devoted to workplace justice in the D.C. metropolitan area. Judy has developed NELP’s presence in D.C., working to bring the expertise and experience of NELP and its allies to the halls of Congress and relevant agencies. She has lobbied on issues of income security, job training for workers who have lost jobs due to globalization, and the needs of workers who have criminal records serving as a barrier to full employment. Before joining NELP, Judy’s work has been widely recognized with awards from the American Bar Association, the Washington Area Women’s Foundation, the Hispanic Bar Association of D.C., and the Echoing Green Foundation.

Education
J.D., College of William and Mary
B.A., Williams College

Coordinator, Immigrant Worker Justice Project

Rebecca Smith, Coordinator, Immigrant Worker Justice Project
rsmith@nelp.org
(206) 324-4000
Seattle, Washington Office

Areas of expertise
International Human and Labor Rights • Immigrants and Work • Enforcement of Workplace Standards • Unemployment Insurance

Biography
Rebecca Smith joined NELP in 2000, after nearly 20 years advocating for migrant farm workers in Washington State. At NELP, she has worked with state advocates to modernize state unemployment insurance programs, promoting reforms to fill the gaps in the program denying benefits to women and families. She has also worked to apply international human rights laws to help protect immigrant workers in the United States, and with immigrant worker organizing groups to enforce U.S. labor laws. She has testified before Congress and several state legislatures and published on these issues. In 2003, she received the United Farm Workers of America’s Aztec Eagle Award, in addition to the Golden Door Award from Northwest Immigrants' Rights Project in 1999 and special recognition by the Foreign Minister of Mexico for her work on behalf of undocumented workers before the Interamerican Court of Human Rights.

Education
J.D., University of Washington Law School
B.A., Washington State University
B.A., University of Washington

Selected Publications

·   “Human Rights at Home: Human Rights as an Organizing and Legal Tool in Low Wage Worker Communities,” Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (2007)

·   “Solutions, Not Scapegoats: Abating Sweatshop Conditions for All Low-Wage Workers as a Centerpiece of Immigration Reform,” New York University Journal of Legislation & Public Policy (2007)

·   “Low Pay, High Risk: State Models for Advancing Immigrant Workers’ Rights,” New York University Review of Law & Social Change (2004)

·   “Interamerican Court of Human Rights Amicus Curiae Brief: The United States Violates International Law When Labor Law Remedies are Restricted Based on Workers’ Migrant Status,” Seattle Journal for Social Justice (Spring/Summer 2003)

Staff Attorney & Midwest Coordinator

Rick McHugh, Staff Attorney & Midwest Coordinator
rmchugh@nelp.org
(734) 369-5616
Ann Arbor, Michigan Office

Areas of expertise
Dislocated Worker Programs (Trade Adjustment Assistance) · Unemployment Insurance · Wage and Hour Protections · Living and Minimum Wages

Biography
Rick McHugh joined NELP in 2000. Before joining NELP, he represented low-income workers seeking to access their government benefits as a legal services attorney, and he was a lawyer for the United Auto Workers, where he represented laid-off workers seeking to access unemployment benefits and Trade Adjustment Assistance. At NELP, he has successfully worked with advocates in the Midwest and other states to improve the state unemployment insurance programs. In 2005, he established the Economic Dislocation Initiative serving Midwest states suffering from major layoffs in the auto industry. He has testified before Congress and several state legislatures and published a number of articles on the unemployment insurance program and other worker rights issues.

Education
J.D., University of Michigan School of Law
B.A., Wabash College

Selected Publications

·    Getting Certified for Trade Adjustment Assistance: A Guide for Unions, Workforce Agencies, and Community Groups (National Employment Law Project: 2005)

·    “Unemployment Insurance and Voluntary Quits: How States' Policies Affect Today's Families,” Clearinghouse Review (May-June 2003)

·    Laid Off and Left Out: Part-Time Workers and Unemployment Insurance Eligibility (National Employment Law Project: 2002)

·    “Recognizing Wage and Hour Issues on Behalf of Low-Income Workers,” Clearinghouse Review (September-October 2001)

Legal Co-Director

Paul K. Sonn, Legal Co-Director
psonn@nelp.org
(212) 285-3025 x.351
New York City Office

Areas of expertise
Minimum Wage and Living Wage · Economic and Workforce Development

Biography
For fifteen years Paul has worked on new approaches for promoting living wage jobs. His work has been profiled in the New York Times Magazine, the Nation, and the New York Law Journal. From 1999-2008, he was co-director of the Economic Justice Project at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. From 1994-1999 he was a Skadden Fellow and then assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Education
J.D., Yale Law School
A.B., Dartmouth College

Selected Publications

Government Paves the Way: A Decent Work Agenda for the Obama Administration, American Prospect (Sept. 21, 2009)
Restoring the Minimum Wage for America’s Tipped Workers (2009)
The Road to Responsible Contracting (2009)
“New Directions for the Living Wage Movement,” in The Gloves Off Economy, Cornell Univ. Press (2008)

Legal Co-Director

Catherine Ruckelshaus, Legal Co-Director
cruckelshaus@nelp.org
(212) 285-3025 ext. 306
New York City Office

Areas of expertise
Immigrants and Work · Enforcement of Workplace Standards · Wage and Hour Protections · Nonstandard Workforce

Biography
Cathy Ruckelshaus joined NELP in 1995, after working for the Employment Law Center in San Francisco. For over 20 years, she has litigated and advocated for policy reforms promoting the workplace rights of immigrant and non-standard workers (part-time, temporary and subcontracted workers), enforcement of wage and hour and workplace laws, and anti-discrimination and family and medical leave laws. She has litigated class action lawsuits in state and federal court and authored several amicus briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Courts of Appeal. In 2003, she was honored by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York for successfully litigating on behalf of New York City’s immigrant workers, and in 1989 she was a Skadden Fellow.

Education
J.D., Stanford Law School
B.A., Princeton University

Selected Publications

·   “Labor’s Wage War,” Fordham Urban Law Journal (2008)

·   “Solutions, Not Scapegoats: Abating Sweatshop Conditions for All Low-Wage Workers as a Centerpiece of Immigration Reform,” New York University Journal of Legislation & Public Policy, (2007)

·   “Down by Law: New Ideas for Defeating Sweatshops,” New Labor Forum (Spring/Summer 1999)

·   “Enforcing Fair Labor Standards in the Modern American Sweatshop: Rediscovering the Statutory Definition of Employment,” UCLA Law Review (1999)

·   The Family & Medical Leave Act: An Advocate’s Guide (National Employment Law Project: 1996)

Policy Co-Director

Maurice Emsellem, Policy Co-Director
emsellem@nelp.org
(510) 663-5700
Oakland, California Office

Areas of expertise
Unemployment Insurance · Criminal Records and Employment

Biography
Maurice Emsellem joined NELP in 1991, after working for the Legal Aid Society in New York City. At NELP, he has worked on collaborations with organizers and advocates that have successfully modernized state unemployment insurance programs, created employment protections for workfare workers, and reduced unfair barriers to employment of people with criminal records in state laws and in city hiring practices. He has testified before Congress and numerous state legislatures, promoting innovative policy reforms. He was a Soros Justice Senior Fellow in 2004 and a Stanford Public Interest Law Mentor in 2003.

Education
J.D., Northeastern University School of Law
B.A., University of Michigan

Selected Publications

Innovative State Reforms Shape New National Economic Security Plan for the 21st Century (National Employment Law Project: 2006)
"The Challenge of Employment in the Era of Criminal Background Checks," in The Gloves Off Economy: Workplace Standards at the Bottom of America's Labor Market, Cornell Univ. Press (2008)
"Easing Downward Mobility," Tompaine.com (March 8, 2007)
“Work Reform: The Other Side of Welfare Reform,” Stanford Law & Policy Review (Winter 1998)

Policy Co-Director

Annette Bernhardt, Policy Co-Director
abernhardt@nelp.org
(212) 285-3025 x 350
New York City Office

Areas of expertise
Labor Market Research · Enforcement of Workplace Standards · Immigrants and Work · Economic and Workforce Development

Biography
Annette Bernhardt co-directed the Economic Justice Project at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, which merged with NELP in 2008. She coordinates NELP’s policy analysis and research support for campaigns around living wage jobs, enforcement of workplace standards and accountable development. A leading scholar of low-wage work, she has helped develop and analyze innovative policy responses to the changing nature of work in the United States. She has published widely in journals such as the American Journal of Sociology, the American Sociological Review, and the Journal of Labor Economics, among others. She received Princeton University’s Richard A. Lester Prize for the Outstanding Book in Labor Economics and Industrial Relations and Cornell University’s Center for the Study of Inequality Distinguished Book Award, among others.

Education
Ph.D., University of Chicago
B.A., Barnard College

Selected Publications

·   The Gloves-Off Economy: Workplace Standards at the Bottom of America's Labor Market (co-edited, Cornell University Press, 2008)

·   “The State of Worker Protections in the United States: Unregulated Work in New York City,” International Labour Review (co-authored, 2008)

·   “Bad Service Jobs: Can Unions Save Them? Can They Save Unions?” in Justice on the Job: Perspectives on the Erosion of Collective Bargaining in the United States (co-authored, 2006)

·   What Do We Know About Wal-Mart? An Overview of Facts and Studies for New Yorkers, Brennan Center for Justice (co-authored, 2005)

·   Low-Wage America: How Employers are Reshaping Opportunity in the Workplace, Russell Sage Foundation (co-edited, 2003)

·   Recession and 9/11: Economic Hardship and the Failure of the Safety Net for Unemployed Workers in New York City, Brennan Center for Justice (co-authored, 2003)

·   Why Privatizing Government Services Would Hurt Women Workers, Institute for Women’s Policy Research (co-authored, 2002)

·   Divergent Paths: Economic Mobility in the New American Labor Market, Russell Sage Foundation (co-authored, 2001)

Deputy Director

Andrew Stettner, Deputy Director
astettner@nelp.org
(212) 285-3025 ext. 303
New York City Office

Areas of expertise
Labor Market Research · Unemployment Insurance

Biography
Andrew Stettner joined NELP in 2002 and became Deputy Director in 2007. He is an experienced policy advocate and analyst who served as the Executive Director of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice before joining NELP. At NELP, Stettner has published extensive empirical research on unemployment and worked on successful unemployment insurance reform initiatives at the national and state level. Stettner is a graduate of Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute.

Education
M.P.P., Georgetown University
B.A., Columbia University

Selected Publications
·   Down But Not Out, Reviving the Promise of Unemployment Insurance in New York State (National Employment Law Project: 2006)

·   Clearing the Path to Unemployment Insurance for Low-Wage Workers (National Employment Law Project: 2005)

·   The Rising Stakes of Job Loss: Stubborn Long-Term Joblessness Amid Falling Unemployment Rates (National Employment Law Project/Economic Policy Institute: 2004)

·   “Unemployment Insurance and Bias Against Families,” The Challenge (May-June 2003)

Executive Director

Christine L. Owens, Executive Director
cowens@nelp.org
202-887-8202, ext. 304 (Washington, DC Office)
212-285-3025 (New York Office)

Areas of Expertise
Living Wage & Minimum Wage · Labor Market Research · Workplace Equity

Biography
Christine Owens joined NELP as its Executive Director in January 2008. Over her long career as a workers’ rights advocate, she has held a variety of public interest and public sector positions advancing employment rights and opportunities for women, people of color and low wage workers. In 1997, she joined the national AFL-CIO as a senior policy analyst specializing in workplace equity issues, and in 2001, was appointed Director of Public Policy. At the AFL-CIO, she worked closely with NELP and numerous national and grassroots economic policy and worker advocacy groups, along with national unions and state labor federations, to promote reforms such as minimum wage and living wage hikes, pay equity for working women, and state UI coverage expansions. Before joining the AFL-CIO, she founded and ran the Workers Options Resource Center, which coordinated the efforts of a broad-based coalition of national and community organizations to win the 1996 federal minimum wage increase.

Education
J.D., University of Virginia
B.A., College of William and Mary

Selected Publications

· The Wal-Mart Tax: A Review of Studies Examining Employers’ Health Care Cost-Shifting (AFL-CIO: 2005)

Industry Studies and Other Labor Market Research

Finding ways to support good jobs means that we need to understand industries - their economics, their employers and their workers. We partner with allies to conduct in-depth research on industries such as restaurants, hotels, retail, grocery stores, construction, taxis, and others.

Winning Construction Jobs for Local Residents: A User's Guide for Community Organizing Campaigns lays out a step-by-step strategy for creating and keeping high-quality construction jobs for local residents, especially women and people of color.
Behind the Kitchen Door: Pervasive Inequality in New York's Thriving Restaurant Industry, a study conducted by the Restaurant Opportunity Center of New York (ROC-NY) in collaboration with NELP and other research organizations. We also contributed to a follow-up report: Dining Out, Dining Healthy: The Link Between Public Health and Working Conditions in New York City's Restaurant Industry.
Is Your Gourmet Grocery a Sweatshop? A Report on Working Conditions at Upscale Groceries in New York City, a report analyzing working conditions in New York City's gourmet groceries, conducted in collaboration with New York Jobs with Justice and Queens College Labor Resource Center.
What Do We Know About Wal-Mart?, a report collating research on the company's wages, benefits, compliance with workplace laws, cost to the taxpayer, and impact on local economies.
Chart Book on Wages, Operating Costs, and Cost of Living for Taxicab Drivers in New York City, an analysis of wages and fare increase proposals in New York City's yellow cab industry, prepared for the New York Taxi Workers Alliance.
Moving Hotels to the High Road: Strategies That Help Workers and Firms Succeed, a report on innovative practices in the hotel industry, prepared jointly with the Center on Wisconsin Strategy. For an analysis of the role that unions play in the hotel industry, see The Coffee Pot Wars: Unions and Firm Restructuring in the Hotel Industry.

Other Labor Market Research:

We also focus on analyzing long-term trends in the U.S. labor market; our research has examined topics such as firm restructuring and changes in the organization of work, trends in job security and upward mobility, and factors driving the growth of low-wage service jobs. Recent examples include:

When Work Doesn't Pay: The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in New York State, a study that highlights the true cost of low-road employment practices and short-sighted economic development strategies. (This study replicates public cost reports for California, Illinois and Wisconsin.)
In addition to policy reports, our research is disseminated through conference presentations and academic articles and books, including The Gloves-Off Economy:Workplace Standards at the Bottom of America's Labor Market, Low-Wage America: How Employers Are Reshaping Opportunity in the Workplace, and Divergent Paths: Economic Mobility in the New American Labor Market, co-authored/co-edited by NELP's policy co-director, Annette Bernhardt.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Annette Bernhardt, abernhardt@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Organizations providing national research on low-wage labor markets include:

State groups interested in collaborating on policy research can be found by searching the Economic Analysis Research Network (EARN)

In New York City, organizations providing applied labor market research include:

Research on Unemployment

The nature of unemployment has changed in recent decades. In the past, unemployment was typically caused by temporary layoffs after which workers would return to their jobs, or at the least, their same occupation. Today, the unemployed are often forced to leave their previous occupation and re-orient their careers as they struggle to find scarce quality job openings. Workers need more time to search for work and upgrade their skills, and as a result the duration of unemployment has increased significantly. Longer spells of unemployment correspond with greater economic hardship. NELP has conducted extensive research on long-term joblessness, including our report on the rising stakes of job loss and a major survey of unemployed workers' experiences.

Moreover, in good times and bad, unemployment is part and parcel of the career path of many low-wage workers, as firms churn through employees and as family needs conflict with jobs that don't provide time off for illness or sick children. NELP has documented these dimensions of unemployment as part of our effort to close the gaps in the unemployment insurance system.

NELP researchers monitor the status of employment and unemployment in the economy, including same-day analyses of the Labor Department's monthly employment situation release and weekly and monthly unemployment insurance claims reports. NELP's direct experience working with the unemployed and the unemployment insurance program gives us a unique analytic perspective. In addition, NELP publishes in depth reports that examine the changing nature of joblessness, and staff frequently testify in Congress about unemployment.

See also our policy work on Federal Extended Benefits and Unemployment Insurance, and the helpful statistics section of www.unemployedworkers.org.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Andrew Stettner, astettner@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Research on the Growth of Unregulated Work

Low-wage labor markets in the United States have undergone substantial changes during the last decade. In industries ranging from construction and food manufacturing to grocery stores, restaurants, janitorial services and home health care, new forms of work organization have generated labor practices that are effectively beyond the reach of government regulation -- what we call "unregulated work.” In these jobs, workers routinely face violations of minimum wage and overtime laws, unsafe working conditions, discrimination, and retaliation for speaking up or trying to organize.

Advocates and policy makers have lacked reliable data on the magnitude of the problem, the industries that are the biggest culprits, and the workers who are most affected. The resulting information vacuum has significantly hampered policy responses, whether at the federal, state or local level. In response, the National Employment Law Project is partnering with researchers, legal advocates and community groups to document this labor market trend. Using a mix of new research tools, including both quantitative and qualitative methods, these collaborations have generated original data and analysis on what is effectively a world of work without laws.

A Landmark Survey of Workplace Violations in America’s Largest Cities

NELP collaborated with the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois-Chicago and the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UCLA on an ambitious worker survey with the goal of obtaining accurate and statistically representative estimates of the prevalence of workplace violations. In 2008 we surveyed 4,387 workers in low-wage industries in the three largest U.S. cities: Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. Using an innovative and rigorous methodology developed by Cornell University sociologist Douglas Heckathorn, we were able to reach vulnerable workers who are often missed in standard surveys, such as unauthorized immigrants and those paid in cash.

The result is a landmark survey that offers, for the first time, a window into the current state of worker protections in urban low-wage labor markets, where millions of workers are subject to severe and widespread violations of employment and labor laws.

To view the national report, click here: Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers: Violations of Employment and Labor Laws in America’s Cities
To view the New York City report, click here: Working Without Laws: A Survey of Employment and Labor Law Violations in New York City

The Gloves-Off Economy: Workplace Standards at the Bottom of America’s Labor Market

Increasing numbers of employers are breaking, bending or evading long-established laws and standards designed to protect workers, from the minimum wage to the right to organize. In 2008, labor scholars, academics, advocates and several NELP staff members joined forces to examine this “gloves-off” economy, in the first comprehensive analysis of this problem and the creative solutions being explored in communities and industries across the United States.

For more details on the edited book, click here: The Gloves-Off Economy: Workplace Standards at the Bottom of America’s Labor Market
For an accessible summary of the book, click here: Confronting the Gloves-Off Economy: America's Broken Labor Standards and How to Fix Them

Unregulated Work in the Global City: A Profile of 13 Industries

From 2003 to 2006, we conducted intensive field research in New York City to better understand unregulated work, including 330 interviews with employers, workers, legal services providers, community groups and government officials, as well as secondary analysis of industry and government datasets. Our in-depth research report includes detailed findings, policy recommendations, and an appendix of 13 industry profiles.

For more information on the research project and the resulting report and industry profiles, click here: Unregulated Work in the Global City: Employment and Labor Law Violations in New York City

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Annette Bernhardt, abernhardt@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, No Jobs: Labor Markets and Informal Work in Egypt, El Salvador, India, Russia, and South Africa, Global Policy Network
Hopeful Workers, Marginal Jobs: LA's Off-The-Books Labor Force, Economic Roundtable
On the Corner: Day Labor in the United States, by Abel Valenzuela, Nik Theodore, Edwin Melendez, and Ana Luz Gonzalez
Behind the Kitchen Door: Pervasive Inequality in New York City’s Thriving Restaurant Industry (WIEGO)
Home is Where the Work Is: Inside New York’s Domestic Work Industry (WIEGO)

Transportation Worker Background Checks

In the effort to identify terrorism risks after the September 11^th attacks, Congress instituted a new system of criminal background checks in the nation's transportation industry. A progression of federal mandates has been put in place to screen the millions of workers employed in the aviation, maritime and ground transportation industries.

Like most background checks, many of these screening policies fail to provide basic protections to limit abuse of the process. For example, they often fail to consider the age and seriousness of offenses, and do not allow workers to demonstrate rehabilitation. Overbroad exclusions unfairly deny employment to individuals who present no security risk and deprive the transportation industry of qualified workers.

However, the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) of 2002, which mandated that all port workers go through a background check to obtain the newly-required Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC), includes several significant protections that go much further than most federal background checks to create a more fair and accurate screening process. Specifically, the MTSA:

Imposes more reasonable limits on the age and seriousness of the offenses that may disqualify an individual from the required security clearance; and

Provides for a "waiver" process that takes into account evidence of rehabilitation, as well as an appeal process that allows workers to challenge inaccuracies in their background check that lead to initial disqualification.

NELP is the nation's foremost authority on the rights of workers subject to the new federal background checks for port workers and truck drivers. We are playing a leading role in promoting similar procedures as a model for all federal and state criminal background checks. In addition, NELP is partnering with port security officials, port truck drivers, longshore workers,and many of the unions representing these workers to help ensure that workers take full advantage of their rights when they apply for the TWIC card by:

Publishing A Scorecard on the Post-9/11 Port Worker Background Checks

Producing A Worker's Guide to the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) Application, Appeal and Waiver Process

Preparing "Know Your Rights" materials in several languages

Successfully representing numerous workers who were initially denied a TWIC card by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) (the agency implementing the TWIC program)

Testifying before Congress on proposed reforms to make the TWIC process more fair and accurate for workers and their employers.

For more information about our work in this area, please contact Madeline Neighly, mneighly@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Employment Rights of Workers with Criminal Records

Workers with a criminal record - even a minor record dating back many years- often have a difficult time finding employment, especially given theproliferation of criminal background checks. For example, a major survey of LosAngeles employers found that over 60% of employers would "probably not" or "definitely not" be willing to hire an applicant with acriminal record.

Although employers may (to varying legal degrees) consider a worker'scriminal history as part of the application process, employers often fail tocomply with a range of federal and state laws that provide fundamental protections against abuse of criminal backgroundchecks. As a result, far too many hard-working people are wrongly denied employment, often in growing industries with serious labor shortages.

Of special importance, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)has concluded that because African American and Latino workers are arrested and convicted more often than whites, hiring policies that exclude workers with acriminal record may discriminate in violation of Title VII of the Civil RightsAct of 1964. In addition, the nation's federal consumer protection law (theFair Credit Reporting Act) requires accuracy in background checks conducted by private screening firms, and mandates that employers provide a copy of background check reports to workers before any adverse employment decision is taken.

In partnership with community groups and legal advocates, NELP has initiateda new program to enforce these critical employment protections by:

· Making presentations to regional EEOC offices, workforce development specialists, public defenders,unions and other key organizations to help spread the word about civil rightsand consumer rights protections.

· Educating employers about the EEOC's Title VII standards that apply to people of colorwho are denied employment based on an arrest or conviction record.

· Offering legal assistance in special cases to workers who want to enforce theiranti-discrimination rights by filing Title VII discrimination complaints withthe EEOC.

For more information about our work in this area, pleasecontact Madeline Neighly, mneighly@nelp.org, or Peggy Stevenson, pstevenson@nelp.org

Other key resources:

· CommunityLegal Services of Philadelphia

· Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

· Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

City Hiring Initiatives

In cities across the country, record numbers of people with a criminal record are now struggling to turn their lives around and get a fair shot at employment in their communities.

Taking on this challenge, cities such as Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco and St. Paul have created a more fair application process, so that people who have a criminal record are judged on the merits of their skills and experience, not just their criminal history. Opening up city hiring policies in this way is a critical first step toward convincing private employers to do the right thing and give proper consideration to job applicants with a criminal history.

These cities have created a more fair and efficient screening process by removing the question on their job applications which asks about an individual's criminal record, and instead waiting until the final stages of the hiring process to conduct a criminal background check. As a result, workers are encouraged to apply for city and county jobs, and government employers are able to access a broad applicant pool of workers best qualified for the job.

Working in partnership with local officials and advocates, NELP has been at the forefront of this effort to create model city hiring standards that promote employment of people with a criminal record. Expanding on these innovative policies, NELP has played a critical role by:

Documenting the growing number of city and county hiring reforms as part of a comprehensive resource that also includes all official city and county policies, local expert contacts, press stories, campaign material, and more.

Providing intensive assistance to city human resources officials and local advocates to help navigate the legal and technical issues necessary to develop new hiring policies.

Gathering data and other helpful background information to evaluate the local hiring policies and make recommendations for improvement.

For help in developing similar initiatives in new cities, please contact Maurice Emsellem, emsellem@nelp.org.

See also our work on Economic and Workforce Development policies, which can be leveraged to increase employment opportunities for workers with criminal records.

Other key resources:

Federal and State Policy Reforms

Especially since September 11th, more federal and state laws have imposed broad new mandates denying employment to large numbers of qualified workers who have a criminal record. While criminal background checks can be necessary to protect public safety and security, often these new laws go too far in prohibiting current workers and new applicants from working in growing industries with labor shortages, like health care and trucking.

For example, many occupational screening laws impose a lifetime barrier to employment for anyone with a felony criminal record, no matter the age or seriousness of the offense and without taking into account any evidence of rehabilitation. In addition, criminal background checks for employment routinely rely on records that are inaccurate or seriously out-of-date without providing basic protections for workers to verify and correct their records.

NELP is a leader in the effort to create model federal and state laws that protect public safety and security while also ensuring more fair and accurate criminal background checks by:

Testifying in Congress and in the states to place reasonable limits on the age and seriousness of disqualifying offenses and include special "waiver" procedures allowing workers to prove they have been rehabilitated.

Promoting reform of employment-based criminal background checks generated by the FBI to protect the millions of workers whose FBI records have not been updated to show that their arrests have been dismissed and to prevent the FBI from reporting petty juvenile and adult crimes. (H.R. 5300)

Educating and assisting workers to take full advantage of key worker protections in federal and state occupational screening laws.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Maurice Emsellem, emsellem@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Health and Safety for Immigrant Workers

Immigrant workers in the United States often labor in difficult and dangerous jobs. As a result, they have higher rates of workplace injuries and fatalities in industries such as agriculture, manufacturing, industrial laundries and nail salons. Workplace fatalities among foreign-born workers, particularly in the construction industry, have been growing at a time when the rate of fatalities for all workers has actually been declining.

Many of the tragic accidents that befall immigrant workers are preventable. Barriers such as language, fear of exposure to immigration authorities, and lack of attention to safety by their employers are among the obstacles immigrant workers face in keeping themselves safe on the job.

NELP works with community groups, legislators and lawyers to help provide a safe workplace for all workers.

Through training and strategic intervention in court cases, we ensure that immigration status does not keep workers from accessing workers' compensation. We highlight the real solutions - creative, community-based approaches to workplace safety - such as:

Participatory research projects where workers define the hazards on their jobs for themselves - see Home is Where the Work Is (on the domestic service industry); On the Corner (day labor); and Glossed Over, Health Hazards Associated with Toxic Exposure in the Nail Salon Industry.
Popular education curricula that encourage workers to share both experiences and solutions, such as one carried out by New Labor in New Jersey, and the Farm Worker Health and Safety Institute in Florida.
Training peer educators as "promotores de salud", as has been done in the farm worker community.
Passing and then monitoring legislative solutions such as the Meatpacker Bill of Rights, and the follow-up study Dignity on the Line, by Nebraska Appleseed.

See also our work in the areas of Immigrant Workers' Rights and Remedies and Enforcement of Workplace Standards.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Rebecca Smith, rsmith@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Human Rights Campaigns

Worldwide, millions of immigrants who have left their home countries in search of work are subject to officially-sanctioned discrimination and unredressed workplace abuses. Protection of basic workplace rights for immigrant workers is eroding in the United States, despite a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that "the migratory status of a person can never be a justification for depriving him of the enjoyment and exercise of his human rights, including those related to employment." Industries across our economy, including farm work, domestic work, day labor, home health care and the hospitality industry, benefit from labor law exemptions that leave many workers behind.

In this climate, NELP believes that using a human rights framework and message is a key tool for ensuring that immigrant workers achieve equal treatment in the United States. We collaborate with grassroots community groups, immigrant rights organizations and academics to shine an international light on disenfranchised workers within the U.S., and on the organizations that support their campaigns for equality.

Several workers' rights campaigns in the U.S. owe their success to their use of a broader human rights message - such as United Workers of Baltimore's historic human rights campaign on behalf of workers at Camden Yards, and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' anti-slavery campaigns in Florida.

NELP's work in this area begins in communities, where our workers' rights curriculum has shown that human rights principles resonate powerfully. In addition:

We have litigated on behalf of immigrant workers in international bodies, including in the landmark 2003 Inter-American Court of Human Rights decision establishing that all workers are entitled, as a matter of human rights, to equal protection of labor laws.
Our reports have provided analysis and real life stories to international treaty monitoring bodies, including reports to the UN's Committee on Migrant Workers, Human Rights Committee and Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Our human rights work links the overarching frame of human rights law to existing campaigns of those locked out of labor law protections - and, in turn, brings together the campaigns of individual industries under the umbrella of universal, inalienable rights. Examples are New York's Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights Campaign, the Restaurant Opportunities Center's attempts to stop discrimination in the restaurant industry, and community efforts in Arizona by the National Day Labor Organizing Network affiliate to stop illegal raids against day laborers.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Rebecca Smith, rsmith@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
US Human Rights Network
American Civil Liberties Union Human Rights Project
Platform on International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants
December 18
U.S. NGO responses to the U.S. 2007 Combined Periodic Reports to the International Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
CERD Concluding Observations, February 2008
Juridical Condition and Rights of the Undocumented Migrants, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, September 17, 2003
Report of U.S. Civil Society Organizations and Advocates in Response to the United States of American Second and Third Periodic Report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, 87^th Sess., July 2006

Immigrant Workers’ Rights and Remedies

Immigrant workers, especially the undocumented and short-term guestworkers, face enormous obstacles in their efforts to enforce workplace rights. These workers are often their family's only source of support in a world of poverty and injustice. They arrive in the US isolated by language, culture and geography. And their immigration status can be used as a club by unscrupulous employers who wish to take advantage of them.

A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling resulted in a storm of litigation around the country that has left our system of workplace protections in tatters. For example, undocumented workers are not entitled to compensation when they are fired in violation of their right to organize a union on the job. In some states, the right to workers' compensation has been curtailed for undocumented workers. And in at least one state (New Jersey), undocumented workers have no recourse for on-the-job discrimination.

The 180,000 low-wage temporary guestworkers in our country face equally steep barriers, arriving in the country in debt to labor recruiters and traffickers who often lie to them about what they will find here. These workers, frequently housed in isolated labor camps and denied by law the right to change jobs, fall victim to forced labor and labor trafficking.

Through litigation, policy design and support for organizing campaigns, NELP has been a national leader in developing strategies that support the rights of all workers, whether born in the U.S. or abroad. We do so out of the conviction that if labor rights are extinguished for some, those rights are degraded for all. And that if employers who violate labor laws get a free pass, then we only create a larger underground economy, which in the end hurts us all.

NELP's approach has several prongs:

We provide policy models for states agencies to establish a clear firewall between immigration and labor law enforcement, as has been done by the New York Attorney General, the California Legislature, and the Washington State Human Rights Commission.
We provide support to advocates seeking to keep immigration status out of the courtroom through legal analysis, training and intervention in key cases -- such as our amicus brief in Rivera v. NIBCO, and our manual, No Free Pass to Harass: Protecting the Rights of Undocumented Immigrant Women Workers in Sexual Harassment Cases.
We advocate for equal labor rights for guestworkers, as in our comments as part of the Low Wage Immigrant Worker Legal Network opposing changes to the H2B guestworker system that would reduce government oversight of the program.
We offer support and advice to organizing campaigns where immigration status might be used to retaliate against workers, or is being used to hold up settlement.
We make certain that immigrant workers have the identity tools they need to open bank accounts, drive cars and pay their taxes.

See also our work in the areas of Worksite Immigration Enforcement and No-Match , Human Rights Campaigns, Immigrant Workers' Health and Safety, and Enforcement of Workplace Standards. In addition to the resources listed here, NELP hosts the password-protected National Wage and Hour Clearinghouse at http://www.just-pay.org/.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Rebecca Smith, rsmith@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

NLRB General Counsel, Procedures and Remedies for DiscriminatesWho May Be Unauthorized Aliensafter Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. (Jul. 19, 2002)
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Rescission of Enforcement Guidance on Remedies Available to Undocumented Workers Under Federal Employment Discrimination Laws (Jun. 27, 2002)
U.S. Department of Labor, Application of U.S. Labor Laws to Immigrant Workers: Effect of Hoffman Plastic decision on laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division.
Southern Poverty Law Center, Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States(2007)
American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations
American Rights at Work
National Immigration Law Center

Worksite Immigration Enforcement and No-Match

In poll after poll, the American public supports real immigration reform that brings undocumented workers out of the shadows. But public policy is pursuing an "enforcement only" approach - costly and disruptive worksite raids that separate families and criminalize workers. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities disrupt organizing campaigns and undermine workers' exercise of their labor rights. Immigrants are penalized, rather than protected as victims of labor violations.

At the same time, attempts to require employers to verify workers' immigration status through flawed federal databases are on the rise. Twelve states now require employers to use the error-prone "E-Verify" system. The result is that law-abiding employers are confused by government rules and initiatives, which encourage them to use error-filled data systems to determine their employees' immigration status. And unscrupulous employers are finding ways to manipulate the system to deport workers who complain about labor violations.

NELP responds with the following strategies:

We work with U.S. citizens and immigrant workers to challenge proposals to turn Social Security "no-match" letters into an immigration enforcement tool -- by bringing workers' stories of abuse to the public eye, and by advising employers, unions and workers on the proper response to these letters.
We advise advocates on strategy when ICE enforcement follows assertion of workplace rights -- as in a recent court order in New Orleans, where day laborers detained after making a minimum wage complaint were certified for U-visas as victims of crime.
We work to ensure that the existing firewall between immigration enforcement and labor law enforcement, intended to keep ICE out of labor disputes, is honored.
We work with advocates and community groups to ensure that state policymakers understand that employer sanctions in general, and electronic verification in particular, are not a fix to our broken immigration system.
We highlight for policymakers the myriad studies that have documented the confusion, discrimination, and misuse that results from reliance on flawed databases to verify immigration status.

See also our work in the areas of Immigrant Workers' Rights and Remedies , State and Local Anti-Immigrant Legislation, and Enforcement of Workplace Standards. In addition to the resources listed here, NELP hosts the password-protected National Wage and Hour Clearinghouse at http://www.just-pay.org/.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Rebecca Smith, rsmith@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

US Department of Labor and Immigration and Naturalization Service, Memorandum of Understanding to Enhance Worksite Enforcement Sanctions and Labor Standards
California Immigrant Policy Center, Resources on Rapid Response
Low-Wage Immigrant Worker Coalition, Stop No-Match website
National Immigration Law Center, Social Security no-match letter toolkit
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Over-Raided, Under Siege: US Immigration Laws and Enforcement Destroy the Rights of Immigrants

State and Local Anti-Immigrant Legislation

In recent years, cities and states around the country have proposed hundreds of bills targeting undocumented workers - denying them compensation for injuries, making it criminal for them to work, or sanctioning employers who hire them. In a worsening economy of job loss, rising health care costs and the mortgage crisis, some state and local governments have turned to these bills as a misguided attempt to fix our broken immigration system. But such policies overlook the real problems affecting all workers: employers who fail to pay a decent wage and provide a safe workplace, and enforcement systems that are failing to shut down violations of labor laws. In addition, these policies also raise serious constitutional questions.

Since the first days of this phenomenon in 2005, NELP has been working to help activists and lawmakers understand the real issues in our economy and in labor law coverage and enforcement. NELP's More Harm than Good helps re-frame the debate and provides policy models for real reform, supporting our allies in developing state legislation to protect immigrant and US-born workers alike:

We offer legislative models that combine fair laws with robust enforcement, such as Connecticut's law that punishes employers who don't carry workers' compensation, Illinois' Employee Classification Act, and the Illinois Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act, restricting employers from using the federal E-Verify employment verification system.
We document how communities are affected by anti-immigrant legislation in terms of implementation costs, litigation costs, and real human costs.
We provide fact sheets that help state advocates critique anti-immigrant proposals.
We collect and disseminate studies that document immigrants' contribution to our economy and culture, including those from Arizona, Chicago, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Oregon, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Rebecca Smith, rsmith@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Litigation

Because government enforcement resources are limited, private lawsuits brought by workers and advocates are a key component of our nation's system for enforcing workplace standards. NELP brings and supports strategic wage and hour litigation in a range of industries including garment, janitorial, home health care, delivery services, and retail.

In partnership with workers centers and unions, NELP has engaged in direct co-counseling on a range of wage and hour cases supporting organizing drives and industry reforms. These include a successful class action case brought on behalf of home health care workers not paid for the time spent traveling between households in Pennsylvania, and a range of cases for cafeteria and retail workers required to work off the clock and through meal and rest breaks.
NELP has used its expertise in subcontracting and independent contractors in most of the leading circuit cases establishing joint employer relationships in the FLSA, and in major litigation involving independent contractor relationships. The broad scope of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and most state wage-and-hour laws means that more employers should be held responsible for unpaid wages, including joint employers and subcontractors. In addition, too many employees are called "independent contractors" by their employers and deemed outside of the protection of wage and hour rules. We also promote model litigation in these areas via the National Wage Hour Clearinghouse, and provide technical assistance to practitioners.
Garment, day labor, retail, construction, agriculture, home health care and janitorial jobs are among the lowest-paying in our country, and are also seeing growing wage and hour violations. These jobs are dominated by immigrant workers often afraid to come forward to complain of underpayment. NELP brings direct litigation and assists others around the country bringing lawsuits in these under-enforced jobs dominated by immigrant workers.

Leading NELP-supported Joint Employer and Independent Contactor Decisions:

Lopez v. Silverman, 14 F. Supp.2d 405 (SDNY 1998), holds for the first time that a garment manufacturer is responsible for the unpaid wages of its contractors.
Ansoumana et al v. Gristede's Operating Corp., 201 F.R.D. 81 (SDNY 2001) and 255 F. Supp.2d 184 (SDNY 2003), approves "hybrid" class action and FLSA opt-in class and finds joint employer liability for minimum wage and overtime violations by retail stores hiring immigrant delivery workers via labor brokers.
Zheng v. Liberty Apparel, 355 F.3d 61 (2d Cir. 2003), finds garment manufacturer jointly responsible for unpaid wages of its subcontractor's workers.
Reyes v. Remington Seed Co., 495 F.3d 403 (7^th Cir. 2007), finds seed corn company responsible for unpaid wages of its farm labor contractor's workers.
Coverall North America v. Com'r of Div. of Unemployment Ins., 447 Mass. 852 (MA. S.J.C. 2006), finding immigrant janitorial "franchisees" eligible for unemployment insurance.

See also our work in the area of Immigrants and Work.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Cathy Ruckelshaus, cruckelshaus@nelp.org.

Industry Strategies

Violations of core worker protections are growing in low-wage industries across our economy, ranging from home health care and restaurants to domestic work and day labor. But the types of violations involved vary depending on the industry's economics, workforce, and employment structure.

As a result, NELP often designs industry-specific strategies to address workplace violations. We partner with immigrant worker centers and unions to develop targeted solutions to ensure that workers in these critical front-line jobs are paid properly and treated fairly.

NELP is currently targeting four low-wage industries:

Domestic Work: Many workers in private households, including domestic workers and home health care workers, are exempted from basic workplace protections such as minimum wage and overtime rules. NELP works to promote new state protections for these workers who fall through the cracks in federal rules, and to enforce existing state and federal laws when they are violated.
Home Health Care and Child Care Workers: Some employers illegally misclassify household workers as "independent contractors" in an attempt to evade their legal obligations to their employees. In several states, NELP has partnered with unions and community groups to enforce workplace standards regardless of an employer's misuse of the "independent contractor" label. We have also closed archaic loopholes that exclude these workers from minimum wage protections.
Day Labor: Day laborers experience some of the highest rates of workplace violations in the country, and they encounter substantial barriers to enforcing the laws in place to protect them. NELP has teamed up with worker centers and legislators around the country to respond to this problem by designing model day labor protection legislation and promoting its passage.
Restaurants and Food Service: The restaurant industry is notoriously difficult to monitor, even as minimum wage and overtime violations become more common. In response, NELP works with community groups and worker centers to raise labor standards for restaurant workers - including those who earn tips - and helps design state and local policies to improve the enforcement of workplace protections.

See also our work in the area of Industry Studies and Other Labor Market Research and Research on the Growth of Unregulated Work.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Cathy Ruckelshaus, cruckelshaus@nelp.org, Rebecca Smith, rsmith@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Independent Contractor Misclassification and Subcontracting

Growing numbers of employers call their employees "independent contractors" and subcontract key functions to other companies in order to side-step responsibility for minimum wage and other worker protections. Because U.S. employment and labor laws assign responsibility and rights to "employers" and "employees," employers seek to evade workplace rules through two devices: (1) they call their "employees" "independent contractors," and (2) they insert subcontractors between themselves and their employees. When these tactics succeed, construction workers, day laborers, home health aides, janitors and many others find themselves without workplace protections.

NELP is a leading expert on independent contractor evasions and improper use of subcontracting arrangements, and works with allies to end abuse of these rules, which harm workers, state and federal treasuries, and responsible employers alike.

At the federal level, NELP is working to promote federal bills aimed at independent contractor abuses. Three separate pieces of federal legislation are pending, to strengthen the federal tax code's treatment of employers who misclassify workers as independent contractors and to create tighter recordkeeping rules. NELP helped to strategize and develop these proposed policies, drawing on progress made at the state level to fight independent contractor abuses.
NELP researches and reports on state legislative, administrative and executive activity around the growing problem of independent contractor misclassification. States are on the forefront of addressing this problem, by commissioning studies to document violations and losses to the state coffers, issuing Executive Orders that establish inter-agency task forces, and passing laws to close the loopholes. NELP's Summary of State Independent Contractor Reforms is one recent example.
NELP promotes state agency enforcement and private litigation aimed at subcontracting abuses by holding "joint employers" accountable for workplace standards violations. NELP helps state agencies identify strategic practices and draft regulations to tighten definitions of responsible employers. NELP also engages in direct litigation and amicus and appellate support in wage-and-hour joint employer cases, including recent circuit cases to find joint employer liability in the Second, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits.
NELP's Subcontracted Work Initiative brought together unions, academics and practitioners from a wide variety of job sectors for two national conferences to study the mechanisms of subcontracting in garment, agriculture, janitorial, hospitality, health care and other jobs, and generated a report with policy recommendations for reform.

See also our work in the area of Government Enforcement of Workplace Rights and Litigation.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Cathy Ruckelshaus, cruckelshaus@nelp.org.

Other Key Resources:

Catherine K. Ruckelshaus, Testimony on Independent Contractor Misclassification to the House Committee on Education and Labor, March 27, 2007.
National Alliance for Fair Contracting
United Brotherhood of Carpenters

Support for Wage Campaigns by Worker Centers and Unions

Across the country, immigrant worker centers and unions are using employer violations of minimum wage and overtime laws to organize workers and transform industries. These community-based campaigns are on the rise because growing numbers of low-wage and immigrant workers are being denied overtime and meal breaks, paid less than the minimum wage, and forced to work off the clock without pay.

For more than a decade, NELP has supported this dynamic movement by co-counseling in litigation, assessing state and federal wage laws, and providing technical assistance.

NELP supports:

Workers centers in their collaborations with state and federal departments of labor. NELP-supported collaborations in Chicago, New York and California have used government partnerships to advance workers' rights in industries such as day labor, construction and restaurants. These partnerships enhance state agencies' ability to do their job while providing worker centers with access to much-needed government power against workplace violations. By partnering with public agencies, worker centers leverage their own scarce resources and enable them to make a difference in workers' lives.
Unions and worker centers in their efforts to collect data on workplace standards violations to help identify high-violation jobs that could be targets for campaigns, agency investigation, or private lawsuits. NELP has been at the forefront of conducting research on high-violation jobs in the restaurant, day labor and domestic work sectors.
The production and dissemination of worker-friendly educational materials, to get the word out about labor standards and how to enforce them. NELP drafts and disseminates bilingual "know-your-rights" guides for day laborers, domestic workers, and for workers seeking to use local small claims court systems to stop wage abuses. NELP's Rights Begin at Home, Protecting Yourself as a Domestic Worker has been adapted for domestic worker groups in New York, California, and Illinois.
Unions and worker centers engaged in direct litigation against target employers who flout the basic minimum standards. NELP co-counsels and assists these lawsuits against home health care companies, delivery and retail establishments, and garment manufacturers, among others.

See also our work in the area of Government Enforcement of Workplace Rights and Litigation.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Cathy Ruckelshaus, cruckelshaus@nelp.org, Rebecca Smith, rsmith@nelp.org, Laura Moskowitz, lmoskowitz@nelp.org, or Raj Nayak, rnayak@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

National networks of worker centers pursing wage theft campaigns include Domestic Workers United, Interfaith Worker Justice, National Day Labor Organizing Network, and Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. See also Janice Fine, Worker Centers: Organizing at the Edge of the Dream (Cornell U.P.: 2005).
Labor unions around the country are also focusing on wage theft. For a listing, see Catherine K. Ruckelshaus, Labor's Wage War, 35 Fordham Urb. L.J. 373 (2008).

Strengthening Government Enforcement of Wage Laws

Because violations of minimum wage and overtime laws are growing in low-wage industries across the country, government must play an active role in protecting workers and ensuring that they are paid the money they are owed. But while our nation's economy and our workplaces have changed fundamentally in recent decades, our federal and state government enforcement efforts have largely failed to keep pace. The United States Department of Labor and most state labor departments still focus on investigating individual claims, using their scarce resources to tackle low-impact smaller cases.

NELP and our allies work with state agencies at every level of government to modernize outdated enforcement strategies and pursue more strategic, proactive enforcement. We help agencies design enforcement plans that not only address individual claims but also send a strong signal to employers that it is unacceptable to violate minimum wage and overtime laws. In the process, we level the playing field for employers who play by the rules and pay workers the wages they are owed.

In particular, NELP pursues several concrete strategies for reforming the way that government agencies enforce wage-and-hour laws:

Overhauling state labor departments: We lead coalitions of community groups, worker centers, legal advocates, and labor unions in pursuing key reforms to improve the way that state labor departments enforce existing wage-and-hour laws, for example, through recommendations to the New York State Department of Labor.
Strengthening state enforcement authority: We help community groups and state enforcement agencies around the country design and propose legislation to enhance their tools for enforcing important worker protections. See especially our report, Justice for Workers: State Agencies Can Combat Wage Theft.
Modernizing federal enforcement strategies: We develop reforms for the United States Department of Labor, drawing on best practices from state labor departments and proven legislative reforms.
Encouraging community collaborations: We build bridges between state agencies and community groups, worker centers, and labor unions so that the agencies can take advantage of these "eyes and ears" on the ground to better target resources and understand industry practices.
Designing enforcement strategies for attorneys general: We advise state attorneys general - states' chief legal officers - on best practices for pursuing meaningful wage-and-hour investigations for workers most in need of protection.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Cathy Ruckelshaus, cruckelshaus@nelp.org .

Other Key Resources:

Jennifer Brand, Adding Labor to the Docket: The Role of State Attorneys General in the Enforcement of Labor Laws (2007)
New York State Department of Labor, Investigation Marks New Proactive and Systemic Approach to Rooting Out Violations (2008)
United States Department of Labor, 1999-2000 Report on Initiatives (2001)
National networks of worker centers that engage government agencies on wage theft campaigns include Domestic Workers United, Interfaith Worker Justice, National Day Labor Organizing Network, and Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
Labor unions around the country are encouraging government enforcement efforts as well. For a listing, see Catherine K. Ruckelshaus, Labor's Wage War, 35 Fordham Urb. L.J. 373 (2008)

One City/One Future: Redefining Economic Development in New York City

Across the nation, cities are exploring new strategies for ensuring that economic development delivers the good jobs, affordable housing and livable communities that local residents need. In New York City, NELP partnered with the Pratt Center for Community Development and New York Jobs with Justice on a major coalition-based policy initiative to make economic development more equitable and accountable. This coalition, called One City/One Future, recently released its landmark policy blueprint providing a roadmap for how the city can rebalance its approach to economic development to share the benefits of growth more broadly.

Strong Growth But Widening Inequality

Like many cities, New York has seen strong and sustained growth since the 1990's. Unfortunately, that same growth has also fueled an intensifying level of inequality that is undermining the city's social and economic fabric. The number of working poor continues to grow alongside an unprecedented concentration of wealth. Those who can afford rents displace those who cannot. Some neighborhoods shoulder the city's environmental burdens, while others benefit from the creation of new open spaces. And race-based inequality and segregation persist.

Publicly-sponsored economic development, while a key engine of growth, has too often contributed to these trends. Whether in the form of large subsidized projects or the more standard incentive packages for private developers, economic development continues to create low-wage jobs in a high-cost city; to escalate real estate prices, thus driving out manufacturers, small businesses, and affordable housing; to strain an aging and inadequate infrastructure; and to take place without meaningful community input and planning.

A Blueprint for Growth That Works for All New Yorkers

To respond, NELP and its allies launched the OneCity/One Future initiative in 2004. This collaboration brought together more than 100 civic leaders, neighborhood advocates, community development organizations, labor unions, local development corporations, environmentalists, and others to chart a new course for making economic development work for all New Yorkers.

Our focus is on reorienting the city's economic development programs to focus on leveraging New York's comparative advantage as a "strong growth" city to deliver good jobs and services in diverse, livable, and affordable communities. Maintaining our city's economic engine is essential, but it should be done within a social contract that promises to share prosperity, reduce inequality, increase opportunity, and fully involve all stakeholders in determining the city's future.

After an intensive research and policy development process, in early 2009, One City/One Future released its landmark policy blueprint for reforming economic development in New York, and brought together hundreds of community advocates, labor leaders, elected officials and others for a release forum promoting this vision of equitable and accountable growth.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Annette Bernhardt, abernhardt@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Midwest Economic Adjustment Initiative

Midwestern states, especially Ohio and Michigan, face continued and significant job losses due to the ongoing restructuring of automotive and other manufacturing firms. Addressing economic dislocation and plant closings is a significant challenge for impacted workers, their communities, and state and local agencies.

NELP is promoting best practices for responding to major layoffs, particularly strategies funded through the "rapid response" program of the federal Workforce Investment Act. We support the use of state rapid response teams, labor or community/management committees, and peer networks to assist impacted workers. These practices are critical in connecting impacted workers to employment and related services. NELP provides resources that describe the nuts and bolts of developing effective rapid response policies to assist workers and communities, including this detailed overview of best practices in rapid response.

But manufacturing decline is not inevitable. States can use their rapid response dollars and other state resources to assist distressed firms and avoid layoffs altogether, through layoff aversion strategies like employee ownership or market conversion. More broadly, NELP advocates for renewal of the manufacturing sector as a key part of an innovative economy that provides shared prosperity and addresses major challenges such as alternative energy and climate change.

To promote best practices on adjustment policies and spur a more coordinated approach to the challenges facing the Midwest, NELP has hosted two major gatherings of regional experts:

NELP's 2008 Great Lakes Economic Revitalization Summit: Progressive leaders in the manufacturing heartland stretching from Western New York to Eastern Iowa face common challenges in achieving economic revitalization and manufacturing renewal. This webpage gathers resources for building an economy that works for low-income and middle class families in this region and across the U.S.

NELP's 2006 Michigan Economic Dislocation Summit: This summit brought together best practices for serving dislocated workers from a range of states including North Carolina, Minnesota, Illinois and Pennsylvania, in an effort to promote innovative policies throughout the region.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Lynn Minick, lminick@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Working for America Institute provides many resources on worker training, high road economic development, advanced manufacturing, and sector strategies.
The Steel Valley Authority in Pittsburgh has been a national leader in developing layoff aversion and early warning networks.
The North Carolina Rural Development Center includes many resources, including research papers, interesting links, and materials about North Carolina's response to globalization.
The Center on Wisconsin Strategy provides policy models on many issues related to manufacturing and economic revitalization in the Midwest.

Trade Adjustment Assistance

Globalization and trade policies have resulted in the loss of millions of good jobs in the United States. The promise of the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance program (TAA) is for displaced workers to receive assistance to mitigate the damage of job loss and to help them obtain the skills needed to compete for good jobs in today's economy.

TAA does constitute one of the most complete packages of worker assistance available. Offering up to two years of training and unemployment benefits, TAA gives dislocated workers in the U.S. a chance to complete a meaningful training course while providing for their basic expenses. In addition, TAA provides a tax credit that pays for up to 65 percent of the costs of continuing health care.

However, the TAA program falls short of its promise. Eligibility for benefits is limited to groups of workers who work at a facility that has successfully petitioned the federal government to prove that its job cuts were directly related to trade. Access to the program is constrained by major eligibility restrictions, and the funding for retraining is capped by Congress. Furthermore, TAA is marked by serious implementation challenges for states that operate the federally-funded program.

NELP has focused on state implementation of TAA since 2005, and advises community groups and unions about how to file successful TAA petitions. NELP also advocates at the federal level for major changes in the TAA program that would make it a more powerful tool for addressing the impact of globalization in the economy. We incorporate the lessons we've learned at the state level to the national debate over the reauthorization of the TAA program, as laid out in our congressional testimony on TAA reform priorities.

NELP has published a TAA Certification Manual that takes community groups and unions step-by-step through the process of getting certified for Trade Adjustment Assistance with concrete examples.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Rick McHugh, rmchugh@nelp.org

Other key resources:

Download the U.S. Dept. of Labor TAA petition form in English or Spanish
U.S. Department of Labor Website on Trade Adjustment Assistance: This website has background information on TAA for workers and allows you to track the status of your TAA petition online.
Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms: This website has information on Trade Adjustment Assistance for firms, a separate TAA program that provides assistance for domestic manufacturing firms hurt by imports.

Good Food and Good Jobs for Underserved Communities

Low-income neighborhoods in cities across the country face a chronic shortage of stores selling healthy, affordable food - and a chronic shortage of good jobs. Rising commercial rents have led supermarkets to close down, creating "food deserts" where residents must shop at bodegas, gas stations and other outlets that provide low-quality food and jobs that pay poverty wages.

NELP is partnering on a pilot program in New York City that will bring quality supermarkets with living wage jobs to underserved communities. Together with a working group of policy experts from allied organizations, we are investigating how city policy tools - including land use controls, the planning process, subsidies and other incentives - can be leveraged to bring more stores offering good food and good jobs to needy neighborhoods. We anticipate that this project will become a campaign next year, and serve as a highly-watched demonstration project for other cities across the country.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Paul Sonn, psonn@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Job Standards for Economic Development

Millions of working Americans today spend their careers in fast-growing service industry jobs such as building security, retail, food services and hotels. But these occupations, which represent a growing share of our economy because they cannot be outsourced, generally provide very low wages and benefits, leaving working families and communities struggling. High road employers like the retail giant Costco, unionized hotel chains in Las Vegas and San Francisco, and the janitorial industry in cities like New York and Chicago, however, have shown that they can operate competitively while providing living wages and benefits.

Policymakers are now exploring new strategies for shifting more employers in these industries towards a high wage, high productivity model. The tools they are using range from the government procurement system to the municipal economic development process. By including job standards as a key part of economic development and procurement programs, communities are beginning to ensure that growth produces the good jobs their residents need.

NELP is a key ally for policymakers and advocates in this emerging field - developing new policy models, providing legal analysis, and advising on realistic job standards. Our work in this area includes:

Job Standards for Federal Programs: NELP is working with allies to show how federal government spending can be used to shift more industries towards providing better wages and benefits. Federal purchasing and incentive programs comprise a significant portion of the economy, financing millions of jobs across the nation. Through approaches like living wage standards and "best value" bid evaluation systems that recognize the benefits to both taxpayers and working families when businesses invest in their workforces, federal spending can incentivize more employers to provide family-supporting wages and benefits.
Job Standards for Local Programs: NELP advocates for incorporating job standards into city economic development programs to ensure that growth delivers the living wage jobs that local communities need. Over the past decade, cities have established job standards for individual economic development projects by negotiating "community benefits agreements" with developers. Cities are now looking to extend this approach by making job standards a key component of all new economic development. In New York, where one city incentive program now includes job standards, NELP is helping make the case for extending them to all city-linked development.
Industry-Targeted Job Standards for Development: NELP is helping cities explore living wage laws targeted towards key low-wage industries as a new strategy for upgrading low-wage jobs. In 2006, we helped Chicago lawmakers develop a living wage for the fast-growing "big box" retail industry, but the measure was vetoed by Mayor Richard Daley. In the years since then, Washington, D.C. has adopted the nation's first living wage for the building security industry, successfully transforming poverty wage jobs into positions paying $11.51 per hour as of 2008, plus solid benefits. Los Angeles and Emeryville, California have enacted similar living wage laws for hotel industry jobs in their communities. NELP provides assistance to cities and advocates seeking to replicate this important new approach.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Paul Sonn, psonn@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Unemployment Insurance Financing

The strength of a state's unemployment insurance program is dependent on stable and reliable funding. The best systems save surpluses when the economy is growing in order to pay benefits during tough times when benefits are needed the most.

The UI program is based on a built-in system that generates revenue from employer payroll taxes to cover the cost of state UI benefits. The system must collect enough revenue to pay benefits during recessions so that the state is not forced to borrow from the federal government, or worse, cut UI benefits to workers. In recent years, however, many states have moved dangerously away from sound principles of UI financing. Rather than build up their unemployment trust fund reserves in good economic times, states have significantly cut UI payroll taxes, which compromises the ability of the program to grow in order to meet the needs of today's workers. On average, U.S. employers now pay just $280 per worker a year to cover state benefits, and $56 per worker in federal UI taxes to pay for federal extended unemployment benefits and state administration of the UI program.

NELP is a leading source of expertise to help evaluate the financing of state UI programs and make recommendations for reform to strengthen a state's UI financing system. NELP's 2008 report evaluates the status of UI trust funds at a time when the economy is facing another recession and describes key standards to measure the solvency of state UI programs.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Rick McHugh, rmchugh@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

State Reports and Statistics

States make most of the key decisions that determine which workers will collect UI benefits, how much they receive, and how well the program is funded. The result is significant variation from state to state. For example, in some states less than one in five workers collect UI benefits, while in others more than half do, because of strong support for the program. Regionally, however, there is often more consistency because of interstate competition and other factors, with some regions in the U.S., like the South, much less likely to have strong UI programs.

Useful and reliable statistics measuring the adequacy of the state UI programs play a significant role in debates at the state level to reform the system. NELP is a leading resource for UI statistics helping state advocates, policymakers, researchers and the press evaluate state UI programs, make comparisons with other states, and develop meaningful recommendations for reform.

State Statistics Chartbook: NELP produces an annual UI chartbook comparing the states and the regions of the country on several basic measures to help evaluate the adequacy of the UI program.

Northeast (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)
Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin)
South (Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia)
West (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming)

Individual State Analyses: NELP has also issued separate state reports and shorter analyses evaluating UI programs in more than half the states.

State Legislation Updates: NELP has tracked state UI legislation for more than a decade, as documented by legislative updates issued perdiodically:

State UI Statistics are available on the following bases:

For more information on our work in this area, or for help with UI statistics in your state, contact Andrew Stettner, astettner@nelp.org.

Federal Policy Initiatives

The unemployment insurance program is the nation's first line of defense against a recession, helping to boost the economy and serve communities hardest hit by job losses. While the states play the lead in setting program rules, the federal government also has a critical role in establishing minimum standards for the states and ensuring that the funding is there to pay for federal extended benefits when necessary.

With the help of our state partners, NELP works to leverage the federal role in the unemployment insurance program to expand access to benefits and strengthen the program to serve the fundamental national interests it was designed to protect.

Modernizing Unemployment Insurance-The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which made historic changes to the unemployment program. The act provided federal incentive awards to states that expand access to benefits to low-wage, women, and part-time workers and the long-term unemployed. If enacted, the bill would help another 500,000 workers collect jobless benefits every year and provide needed funding for the states to better run their basic UI services, and additional extended benefits and health care coverage for the jobless. Click here to check NELP's campaign to fully implement the stimulus bill.
Extended Jobless Benefits: The growing problem of long-term joblessness means that today's workers rely more and more on federal extended unemployment benefits when their basic 26 weeks of state assistance runs out. NELP has been a leader in successful efforts to temporarily extend jobless benefits during the past two recessions and to fix the permanent federal program of extended benefits. NELP's website for jobless workers [www.unemployedworkers.org] provides helpful resources and details on the latest initiatives to extend federal jobless benefits.
Disaster Unemployment Assistance: Federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) benefits provide federal benefits to workers who lose their livelihood because of a disaster but who do not qualify for state unemployment benefits (such as the self-employed and individuals who were recently hired). NELP was at the forefront of the effort to help deliver DUA benefits to hundreds of thousands of workers left jobless after Hurricane Katrina and the September 11th attacks, while also advocating for major improvements to the program in Congress.

See also our UI research page for more information on long-term joblessness and extended benefits.

For more informationon our work in this area, please contact Maurice Emsellem, emsellem@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Filling the Gaps in the Unemployment Safety Net

Unemployment is a reality of most workers' careers - for example, a recent government report found that 85 percent of experienced workers have had at least one spell of unemployment in their careers. Low-wage workers are particularly hard hit by unemployment and are twice as likely to experience joblessness as their higher-wage counterparts. With unemployment so prevalent, our economy counts on unemployment insurance benefits to smooth out the unexpected hardships that hit workers and their families when they lose their jobs. These benefits enable workers to escape temporary poverty and lasting financial hardships caused by job loss.

Unfortunately, outmoded eligibility rules mean that benefits are out of reach for many unemployed workers. In particular, state UI programs, which determine most of the rules that govern eligibility for benefits, have left low-wage workers, women and part-time workers struggling to qualify for the program. Other growing segments of the workforce also fall through the cracks, including temporary workers, older workers and immigrant workers.

NELP is the nation's leading resource for states to identify the major gaps in their UI programs, while also providing the empirical research and legal analysis necessary to identify the best options for reform. Over the last decade, for example, more than half the states have significantly modernized their UI programs with intensive support from NELP.

NELP's manual, Changing Workforce, Changing Economy: State Unemployment Insurance for the 21st Century, is the go-to resource for short summaries of all the leading reforms (and accompanying model legislation) to help states modernize their UI programs. In addition, NELP has produced numerous fact sheets and research reports on key state policy reforms to close the gaps in the UI program for:

Low-Wage Workers: Low-wage workers are unfairly denied benefits in many states that still fail to allow workers to count all of their latest earnings when they apply for benefits rather than adopting the "alternative base period." (Fact Sheet / Research Report)
Part-Time Workers: Part-time workers, often women with family responsibilities, are far more likely to qualify for UI benefits when states do not require them to look for full-time work in order to qualify for UI benefits. (Fact Sheet / Cost Estimate / Research Report Estimate)
Women Workers: Women workers often leave work for compelling family reasons, such as the loss of child care, and many states have reformed their UI laws to help workers balance their demanding work and family responsibilities. (Fact Sheet / Research Report)
Domestic Violence Survivors: Many states have taken significant steps to provide UI benefits to domestic violence survivors who are often forced to quit their job in order to protect themselves and their children. (Fact Sheet / Cost Estimate / Research Report)
Temporary Workers & Independent Contractors: The new "non-standard" workforce of temporary workers and those who are routinely misclassified by their employers as independent contractors often lose out on unemployment benefits, but that is changing in a growing number of states that have taken steps to ensure they qualify. (Fact Sheet / Research Report)
Older Workers: In today's economy workers are employed well into their 60s, which has led many states in recent years to reform their UI laws to provide adequate jobless benefits to older workers who also are living on social security or a pension. (Fact Sheet)
Immigrant Workers: Many documented immigrants are eligible for unemployment benefits but, depending on their status, can lose out on unemployment compensation unless they know their rights. (Fact Sheet)

For more information contact:

West Coast and Southwest States: Maurice Emsellem (emsellem@nelp.org) or Rebecca Smith (rsmith@nelp.org)
Midwest States: Rick McHugh, rmchugh@nelp.org
Northeast and Southeast States: Andrew Stettner, astettner@nelp.org

Other key resources:

The General Accountability Office, especially its recent report
Legal Momentum
The Advisory Commission of Unemployment Compensation (1996) recommended many key changes to the UI program

NELP Board of Directors

Elaise L. Fox
President, United Food and Commercial Workers, AFL-CIO, Local 1657
Birmingham, Alabama

Lilia Garcia-Brower
Executive Director, Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund
Los Angeles, CA

James Haughton
Community Activist, Fight Back
New York, New York

Jonathan Hiatt, Esq.
Chief of Staff and Executive Assistant to the President, AFL-CIO
Washington, D.C.

Lucille Logan
Community Activist, Northeast Area Community Action Council
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Walter M. Meginniss, Jr. (Treasurer)
Attorney, Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss
New York, New York

Jim Sessions (Acting Chair)
East Tennesse Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice
Knoxville, Tennessee

Thomas Weeks, Esq.
Executive Director, Ohio State Legal Services Association
Columbus, Ohio

Cathy Wilkinson
Minimum Wage and Workers’ Rights Campaign Community Activist
Wheeling, West Virginia

Newsroom

Press Inquiries

For press inquiries only, please contact Tim Bradley at Berlin Rosen Communications at 646-452-5637 or tim@berlinrosen.com.*

Unemployment Insurance or Criminal Records: Maurice Emsellem, emsellem@nelp.org or (510) 663-5700.
Immigrants and Work: Rebecca Smith, rsmith@nelp.org or (206) 324-4000.
Wage Standards and Subcontracted Work: Cathy Ruckelshaus, cruckelshaus@nelp.org or (212) 285-3025 x 307.
Minimum and Living Wages: Paul Sonn, psonn@nelp.org or (212) 285-3025 x 351.
Research on Low Wage and Unregulated Work: Annette Bernhardt, abernhardt@nelp.org or (212) 285-3025 x 350.

* Worker inquiries should be directed to nelp@nelp.org or 212-285-3025.

NELP Press Resources

Living Wage Laws

Since the early 1990s, more than 140 municipalities across the country have enacted living wage laws to restore the wage floor at the local level. Living wage laws establish wage standards for businesses that receive contracts or subsidies from local governments. They provide a practical way for cities to ensure that public dollars generate quality jobs for local residents. With wage rates ranging from $9 to $13 per hour and higher, living wage laws raise the minimum wage closer to a level that allows low-income workers to meet their families' basic needs. Most living wage laws also create incentives for employers to provide health care by providing wage credits for employers who do so.

NELP has provided extensive legal and policy support for the living wage movement, including:

Providing legal support to dozens of living wage campaigns in cities ranging from New York to Atlanta to Sacramento;
Helping to defend living wage laws (St. Louis, Berkeley, Hudson County) and encourage their enforcement (Buffalo, Hayward);
Developing a model living wage law as a resource for local advocates and policymakers;
Publishing a report examining the impact of living wage laws on city budgets, and another report projecting the effects of the New York City Living Wage Law for the city's businesses and working families.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Paul Sonn, psonn@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Citywide Minimum wage

Building on the success of the living wage movement, cities searching for ways to help the working poor have begun to enact broad new laws to raise the minimum wage at the local level. Unlike living wage laws, which only cover businesses that receive contracts or public subsidies from cities, these citywide minimum wage laws are more comprehensive in that they cover most or all employers in a city. The minimum wage levels under these laws are often higher than the state and federal minimum wages.

NELP works with local coalitions to develop citywide minimum wage laws by providing legal support and technical assistance. Our policy brief, Citywide Minimum Wage Laws: A New Policy Tool for Local Governments, provides more background on these new laws, comparing them to other wage legislation and summarizing emerging research findings on their economic impact.

Economic Impact

Researchers have studied the effects of citywide minimum wages on local economies. The findings have been largely promising for both low-wage workers and the business climate:

University of California researchers studied San Francisco's restaurant industry in 2007 and found that the city's minimum wage improved low-wage workers' earnings without slowing employment growth.
University of New Mexico researchers found in 2006 that even after Santa Fe's citywide minimum wage increase, the city sustained relatively strong growth in sectors that employ predominantly low-wage workers, including accommodations and food services.

Past Projects

Santa Fe enacted one of the nation's first citywide minimum wage laws in 2003 with legal assistance from NELP staff. We then defended the law against a legal challenge and won a landmark ruling confirming that municipalities have the authority to establish minimum wages that are higher than the federal and state levels. The Santa Fe Minimum Wage, now $9.50 an hour, was expanded in 2007 to cover most of the city's businesses.
NELP staff also supported similar campaigns in San Francisco, California, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Paul Sonn, psonn@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Darin L. Dalmat, Bringing Economic Justice Closer to Home: The Legal Viability of Local Minimum Wage Laws Under Home Rule, 39 Columbia Journal of Law & Social Problems 93 (2005).
Economic Policy Institute: Minimum Wage Issue Guide
Raise the Wage Kansas
Santa Fe Living Wage Network
University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute
UC Berkeley Labor Center

State Minimum Wage

As the value of the federal minimum wage has steeply eroded, many states have taken the important step of establishing a higher state minimum wage. In the process, states not only boost wages for working families who are struggling to get by, but they also play a key role in building momentum to increase the federal minimum wage. States that have a higher cost of living will continue to have a role in establishing higher state minimum wages than the federal floor, too.

NELP has a long history of supporting grassroots campaigns to raise state minimum wages. We work with coalitions of community organizations, worker centers, advocacy organizations, and labor unions to raise the minimum wage in states across the country - either through legislative campaigns or by putting the issue to voters through statewide ballot initiatives.

In each state, NELP helps design policies that not only raise the minimum wage, but that also provide other key reforms to protect workers in low-wage industries: closing loopholes that exclude companion care workers and some farmworkers from minimum wage protections; raising the minimum wage that employers must pay tipped workers, regardless of how much they earn in tips; and providing automatic annual cost-of-living increases to protect the minimum wage from erosion in the future. Each state that adopts these reforms helps to set precedent for these innovations at the federal level.

Past Projects

NELP staff supported successful ballot initiative campaigns in 2004 and 2006 that gave voters the opportunity to raise the minimum wage, raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, and enact automatic annual cost-of-living increases in eight states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio. In all, 62% of voters in these states supported the minimum wage initiatives, including 76% and 73% in Missouri and Montana, respectively. More than 1.5 million workers got a raise due to the 2006 ballot initiatives alone. NELP staff also worked to defend these victories when they were challenged.

NELP has also supported numerous successful legislative campaigns to raise the minimum wage in states ranging from New York and Michigan to Arkansas and New Mexico.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Paul Sonn, psonn@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Federal Minimum Wage

In 2007, Congress finally raised the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade, legislating three increases from 2007-2009. Despite this modest increase, workers who earn the minimum wage continue to struggle to make ends meet, especially given skyrocketing food and energy prices. In fact, the real purchasing power of the federal minimum wage has eroded by nearly a third over the past 40 years.

Worse, some workers cannot even count on this minimal protection. Federal law allows employers to pay tipped workers - including restaurant servers, car wash workers, and nail salon technicians among others - a lower minimum wage that has been frozen at just $2.13 for over 19 years (since 1991). Other workers are excluded entirely from federal minimum wage protections, including some farm workers and workers who provide home-based companionship care to the elderly and infirm.

NELP is a leader in the national movement to restore the federal minimum wage and ensure that it applies to all workers. By supporting numerous successful state minimum wage campaigns, NELP helped build momentum for the last federal minimum wage increase, which was an important first step for working families. NELP continues to work with networks of community organizations, worker centers, labor unions, and policy allies to strengthen the national wage floor.

Specifically, NELP advocates for federal minimum wage reform featuring four key elements:

Restoring the Historic Value of the Federal Minimum Wage: The federal minimum should be restored to its historic purchasing power. As a benchmark, the minimum wage from 1968 would be worth over $10 per hour in today's dollars.
Providing Annual Cost-of-Living Increases: To protect its real value from eroding in the future, the minimum wage should automatically increase each year to keep up with the rising cost of living. Ten states have already adopted this key reform.
Raising the Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers: The minimum wage for tipped workers should be restored to at least its historic level, which was 60% of the full minimum wage. Nearly half of all states have already raised their minimum wages for tipped workers substantially above the federal level.
Closing Archaic Loopholes: Workers in low-wage industries should not be exempt from minimum wage and overtime protections due to archaic loopholes, many of which disproportionately impact women, immigrant workers, and people of color. States are increasingly taking action to close loopholes and protect these workers, many of whom are performing physically and emotionally exhausting jobs, for example, companion care workers.

Economic Impact

The long-standing decline of the minimum wage has contributed to the growth of income inequality over the past three decades. In 2006, a group of 650 economists (including five Nobel laureates) released a letter making a case for minimum wage increases, explaining that the falling value of the minimum wage "is causing hardship for low-wage workers and their families." In addition, over the past decade, empirical economic research has found that increases in the minimum wage have not resulted in discernible job losses. As the President's Council of Economic Advisors found in 1999, "[T]he weight of the evidence suggests that modest increases in the minimum wage have had very little or no effect on employment." Higher wages also create incentives for employers to invest in job training and promote a more stable workforce.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Paul Sonn, psonn@nelp.org.

Other key resources:

Economic and Workforce Development

Good jobs sustain our communities, strengthen our economy, and stand at the heart of America's vision of opportunity. But the past three decades have seen continued erosion of the manufacturing jobs that used to support our middle class - while growing numbers of Americans spend their careers stuck in low-wage, dead-end service jobs.

Rebuilding opportunity for working families will mean engaging the core problems of our economy: how to support competitive industries, how to train workers in the skills required, and how to ensure the creation of sufficient numbers of good jobs. Communities across the country are therefore exploring a range of new policy tools to ensure that economic and workforce development delivers living wage jobs, quality training, and the supports that workers need to weather change.

NELP supports this movement by partnering with community groups, employers, unions and policymakers on the following strategies to create and sustain good jobs:

Job Standards for Economic Development

Millions of Americans today spend their careers in low-wage service industries and other growth sectors that cannot be outsourced. NELP is developing new strategies for shifting these industries towards a higher wage, higher productivity model by attaching job standards to economic development programs.
One City/One Future: Redefining Economic Development in New York City

Cities like New York have enjoyed strong growth for more than a decade. Yet working families are increasingly squeezed by eroding wages and spiraling housing costs. In response, NELP is collaborating on a new economic development agenda that harnesses the city's growth to create good jobs, affordable housing and sustainable neighborhoods.
Good Food and Good Jobs for Underserved Communities

Low-income neighborhoods across the country face a chronic shortage of stores selling healthy, affordable food - as well as a chronic shortage of good jobs. NELP is partnering on a pilot program in New York City that will bring quality supermarkets with living wage jobs to underserved communities.
Trade Adjustment Assistance

The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program is a critical source of income support and retraining for workers who have lost their jobs because of globalization. NELP helps workers gain access to TAA and advocates for reforms so that the program can fulfill its promise to workers, communities and companies in the 21^st century.
Midwest Economic Adjustment Initiative

Midwestern states face significant ongoing job loss as automotive and other manufacturing industries restructure. NELP is responding with model rapid response policies to help avert layoffs and support dislocated workers with employment services. NELP is also exploring new strategies for revitalizing the heartland and supporting the renewal of manufacturing.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Paul Sonn, psonn@nelp.org (for our jobs standards initiatives) or Rick McHugh, rmchugh@nelp.org (for our economic adjustment initiatives).

Criminal Records and Employment

Millions of Americans - one in five adults - have arrest or conviction records that often follow them throughout their lives. Most employers now conduct criminal background checks, potentially derailing qualified workers who are rebuilding their lives or who have inaccurate records or minor offenses. As a result, many employers are losing out on qualified workers in industries as diverse as trucking, health care and private security, where there are serious labor shortages.

NELP has been a leader in the movement to restore fairness to the process of criminal background checks and remove unnecessary or badly-designed barriers to the employment of people with criminal records. We promote model employment policies and basic protections that allow qualified workers with records to attain and retain quality jobs, in the following areas:

Federal and State Policy Reforms

Especially since September 11^th, more federal and state laws have imposed broad new mandates denying employment to large numbers of workers who have a criminal record. Working with allied organizations, NELP has used its expertise in occupational licensing laws to develop model reforms that improve the reliability of criminal background checks and reward rehabilitation.
City Hiring Initiatives

Every year more than 700,000 people are released from U.S. prisons looking for work and a new way of life, many of them in cities. Working in partnership with advocates and city officials, NELP has played a key role promoting city hiring policies that reduce unfair barriers to employment by restricting consideration of an individual's criminal history until the final stages of the hiring process. NELP also maintains a comprehensive inventory of model city and county hiring reforms.
Employment Rights of Workers with Criminal Records

Anti-discrimination and consumer laws provide critical protections for workers with criminal records. But too often these laws are not enforced. NELP is working to enforce Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Credit Reporting Act to expand job opportunities for people with criminal records.
Transportation Worker Background Checks

Over 1.5 million port workers nationwide are required by federal law to pass a new FBI criminal background check in order to continue working in the ports. NELP joined with unions and port security officials to help these and other transportation workers navigate new background checks and keep their jobs.

See also our work in the area of Economic and Workforce Development, which can often be leveraged to increase employment opportunities for workers with criminal records.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Maurice Emsellem, emsellem@nelp.org.

Immigrants and Work

About 22 million immigrants currently work in the United States, including more than six million who are undocumented and 240,000 temporary guest workers in low-wage industries. Many are paid low wages and work in unsafe workplaces, and those without documents are often excluded from the protection of core labor laws. This structural exclusion, coupled with anemic labor law enforcement and erosion of statutory rights, undermines the economic security of immigrants and non-immigrants alike.

NELP responds by promoting policies that build equality, fairness and inclusion for all those at work in America, in the following areas:

State and Local Anti-Immigrant Legislation

With anxiety about jobs and the economy at peak levels, anti-immigrant legislation has been proposed as a "solution" in states and cities across the country. NELP works with our allies to vigorously fight these measures, and instead promote the real solution of strong labor standards that are enforced for all workers.
Worksite Immigration Enforcement and No-Match

Federal policies requiring employers to respond to Social Security no-match letters or to use electronic verification of immigration status are badly designed and only drive more workers underground. We work with advocates to defend against misguided worker-focused immigration enforcement.
Immigrant Workers' Rights and Remedies

Laws that relegate immigrants to second-class status in terms of labor rights only open the door to exploitative business practices, which inevitably spill over to hurt all of us. NELP promotes laws and policies that afford immigrants full rights and remedies on the job.
Human Rights Campaigns

Using a human rights lens to identify and fight discrimination against immigrant workers has become an increasingly viable strategy. Via the United Nations and other international bodies, NELP is working with affected communities of workers to bring global and domestic attention to discrimination against immigrant workers in the U.S.
Health and Safety for Immigrant Workers

Fatal occupational injuries - on the decline for U.S.-born workers - are increasing dramatically for foreign-born workers. We support community responses and strategic litigation to improve health and safety, as well as access to workers' compensation for immigrant workers.

See also our work in the areas of Enforcement of Workplace Rights, which describes additional strategies for strengthening and enforcing wage standards.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Rebecca Smith, rsmith@nelp.org.

Unemployment Insurance

In an increasingly volatile economy, working families need a strong unemployment insurance program - one that is there in hard times to help them pay the bills and find new jobs that meet their needs and aspirations. However, the unemployment insurance safety net has failed to keep pace with the changing labor force, especially the growth in women, part-time and low-wage workers.

In response, policymakers in over half the states have adopted significant reforms in recent years to modernize their unemployment insurance (UI) programs. NELP has been a national leader in providing assistance to these efforts, by evaluating state laws, designing model policies, and generating the empirical research needed to best document the case for reforming the UI system. At the same time, NELP is active in promoting a strong federal role in unemployment insurance, especially during recessions when federal benefits are needed to stimulate the economy and relieve hardship.

NEW: Resources from NELP's UI Reform Conference

Visit this page for informative background material, video, and presentations from a crucial gathering to spur UI reform.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

The recovery act provides federal resources to states to modernize their unemployment safety nets to meet the unprecedented demands on the recession and the needs of a changing workforce. Visit this page for helpful resources for your state.
Federal Policy Initiatives

Although the states set most of the basic UI rules, key decisions are made at the federal level as well, such as funding disaster unemployment assistance and extended benefits for the long-term unemployed. NELP monitors federal policy developments and brings together state and national partners in coordinated federal advocacy.
Filling the Gaps in the Unemployment Safety Net

We promote state policy reforms to fill the gaps in the safety net that limit coverage for low-wage, part-time and women workers, and for other growing parts of the workforce such as immigrants, older workers and temporary workers. New state policies can also address long-term joblessness and help workers access training.
State Reports and Statistics

NELP produces comprehensive reports evaluating state UI programs, including measures of the latest UI trends at the state level.
Unemployment Insurance Financing

Unemployment Insurance is a self-financing system, with dedicated taxes covering the costs of benefits in each state. We help state advocates and policy makers evaluate their UI funding system, including UI payroll taxes and the stability of a state's UI trust fund.

See also our research on unemployment, and our Economic and Workforce Development work that can help the unemployed find good jobs. NELP also runs www.unemployedworkers.org, a website giving voice to unemployed workers advocating for federal extended benefits.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Andrew Stettner, astettner@nelp.org (for state initiatives) or Maurice Emsellem, emsellem@nelp.org (for federal initiatives).

Enforcement of Workplace Standards

Across the country, growing numbers of employers routinely violate our nation's core workplace standards by not paying the minimum wage or overtime, calling workers "independent contractors" to deny them basic protections, and providing unsafe working conditions. These practices are driving down standards throughout the labor market, putting employers who play by the rules at an unfair disadvantage. At the same time, workers' ability to respond is often constrained - by outdated government enforcement systems, fear of retaliation for speaking up, and lack of immigration status.

NELP works with immigrant worker centers, unions, policy advocates and government agencies to modernize systems for enforcing employment and labor laws. We develop best practices for state and federal agencies, conduct strategic litigation, and support campaigns by organizing groups. Our newly-launched National Wage and Hour Clearinghouse (www.just-pay.org) highlights these initiatives around the country.

Our enforcement work consists of five integrated programs:

Strengthening Government Enforcement of Wage Laws

Our nation's government enforcement agencies are the frontline in guaranteeing workplace protections. NELP works with state and federal labor departments and attorneys general to modernize these systems to ensure that all workers receive basic protections.
Support for Wage Campaigns by Worker Centers and Unions

Across the country, campaigns to combat wage theft are a growing focus of immigrant worker centers and unions. For more than a decade, we have supported this dynamic movement by providing technical assistance, legislative and policy models, and litigation support.
Independent Contractor Misclassification and Subcontracting

Growing numbers of employers are trying to avoid paying fair wages and benefits by redefining their relationships with their employees, improperly calling them "independent contractors" or subcontracting key functions of their business to other companies. NELP works with allies to close these loopholes, which harm workers and responsible employers alike.
Industry Strategies

The problem of workplace violations is especially serious in fast-growing service industries such as health care, child care, food services, and day labor. We partner with immigrant worker centers and unions to develop new industry-targeted solutions to help bring these important jobs out of the underground economy.
Litigation

Because government enforcement resources are limited, lawsuits brought by workers and advocates are a key component of our workplace enforcement system. NELP supports strategic wage and hour litigation involving key legal issues and industries.

See also our work in the areas of Immigrants and Work and Living Wage and Minimum Wage.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Cathy Ruckelshaus, cruckelshaus@nelp.org.

Living Wage and Minimum Wage

The ranks of the working poor now exceed 47 million, driven in part by the steep erosion of wage standards throughout our economy. Over the last forty years, the real value of the federal minimum wage has fallen by close to 30%. Even after the 2007-2009 federal increases, the minimum wage remains far too low to sustain working families.

For the past decade, the national living wage movement has been leading the way in reversing this trend. By winning increases in the minimum wage in dozens of states and more than 130 cities, grassroots groups have begun to restore a strong wage floor for low-income workers and their families across the country.

NELP is a key partner to this national movement, helping community coalitions and policymakers develop new ways to raise wage standards at the federal, state and local levels. We help design new policies, prepare economic and legal analyses, educate the public, and provide legal defense when needed.

We are currently supporting four major strategies for raising the wage floor:

Federal Minimum Wage

The American economy needs a strong national wage floor to protect working families in all regions of the country. NELP is working with allies to restore the federal minimum wage to its historical level and ensure that it does not erode again.
State Minimum Wage

Increases in state minimum wage laws are building momentum for a strong wage floor and establishing other key reforms. We work across the country to strengthen state minimum wages.
Citywide Minimum Wage

A number of cities across the country have recently enacted their own "citywide" minimum wages that are higher than the state and federal minimum wages. NELP staff helped design and defend these innovative local measures, which are demonstrating the economic feasibility of a substantially higher minimum wage.
Living Wage Laws

Many more cities have enacted "living wage laws" in recent years, establishing a higher minimum wage for employers that receive contracts or subsidies from the local government. NELP has supported these campaigns in dozens of cities.

See also our work in the areas of Job Standards for Economic Development and Enforcement of Workplace Standards.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Paul Sonn, psonn@nelp.org.

Labor Market Research

A core principle guiding our work is that research plays a distinct and vital role in public policy: it helps to document structural failures in our economy, and points the way toward coherent policy solutions.

On individual campaigns, we work closely with community groups, academics and policymakers to conduct the economic research needed to make the case for - and understand the impact of - proposed policies. We also conduct basic research to analyze core problems in our labor market, as a first step towards designing public policies to address them.

Our current research projects include:

Research on the Growth of Unregulated Work

In close collaboration with immigrant advocates, community groups and other applied researchers, we are conducting several major research projects on the growing violation of employment and labor laws in a wide range of industries spanning our economy.
Research on Unemployment

NELP researches the latest trends in unemployment, especially the growth in long-term unemployment in the U.S. workforce.
Industry Studies and Other Labor Market Research

We also conduct a wide range of industry and labor market research projects to better understand long-term trends in wages and working conditions, with a particular focus on the low-wage service sector.

For more information on our work in this area, please contact Annette Bernhardt, abernhardt@nelp.org (for labor market research) or Andrew Stettner, astettner@nelp.org (for unemployment research).

Contact Us

National Office 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 601 New York, NY 10038 Tel. (212) 285-3025 Fax (212) 285-3044	Washington, DC Office 1620 Eye Street, NW Suite 210 Washington, DC 20006 Tel. (202) 887-8202 Fax (202) 785-8949
Midwest Office 900 Victors Way, Suite 350 Ann Arbor, MI 48108 Tel. (734) 369-5616 Fax (866) 373-8994	California Office 405 14th Street, Suite 1400 Oakland, CA 94612 Tel. (510) 663-5700 Fax (510) 663-2028
West Coast Office 1225 S. Weller, Suite 205 Seattle, WA 98144 Tel. (206) 324-4000 Fax (866) 882-5467

For more information, contact NELP's staff, or e-mail nelp@nelp.org for general inquiries.

Background

A fundamental promise of America is that work will be a ladder to economic opportunity and an anchor of economic security for working families. But that promise has unraveled over the past three decades. Globalization has combined with domestic policy choices to yield an economy that creates too many low-wage jobs and not nearly enough good ones. Lax enforcement of workers' rights, increased subcontracting and misclassification of employees as independent contractors, and failed immigration policies have heightened insecurity for all workers. Inequality has grown to historic levels, the middle class is imperiled, and many fear our best days are behind us.

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) responds by working to restore the promise of economic opportunity in the 21^st century economy. In partnership with national, state and local allies, we promote policies and programs that create good jobs, strengthen upward mobility, enforce hard-won worker rights, and help unemployed workers regain their economic footing through improved benefits and services.

NELP works from the ground up to build change. Our model is to develop and test new policies at the state and local level, then scale them up to spur change at the national level. We partner with strong advocacy networks, grounded in the full range of stakeholders - grassroots groups and national organizations, worker centers and unions, policymakers and think tanks. With our staff of lawyers, policy experts and researchers, we provide the following:

In-depth legal and policy analysis, developing innovative strategies to create good jobs, improve working conditions and bolster economic security;
Rigorous empirical research, documenting key trends in the economy and spelling out effective solutions;
Expert legal advice and technical assistance, helping advocates craft viable policies in light of legal restrictions;
Strategic leadership in coalitions, bringing together diverse constituencies to pursue common goals;
Communications, public education and messaging, shining a spotlight on the struggles of today's working families and helping to increase understanding of key economic problems and viable policy solutions; and
Capacity building through dissemination of policy and research reports, hosting conferences, and student training.

NELP has offices around the country and programs that touch the lives of workers across the economic spectrum. We welcome your inquiries and participation.

Resources

Where the Jobs Are: A First Look at Private Industry Job Growth and Wages in 2010 (August 31, 2010)
New Haven Living Wage Testimony (August 31, 2010)
New York Trust Fund Report (August 09, 2010)
Letter Brief in Opposition to Defendant Signal’s Motion to Compel (August 06, 2010)
NELP Update on July Employment Report (August 06, 2010)
32 States Expand Jobless Benefits to Access Stimulus Funds (August 04, 2010)
From Anti-Immigrant to Pro-Worker: What States Can Do About Immigration & Workers’ Rights [Updated] (July 26, 2010)
Read More »

Finance & Administration Assistant

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NELP 2009 Unemployment Insurance Reform Conference

Thea Lee, AFL-CIO on the need for Job Creation for the Unemployed

Moving UI Modernization in the States:

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Chapter 1 - Low-wage Worker Access

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Unregulated Work in the Global City

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NELP’s 2008 Great Lakes Economic Revitalization Summit

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Industry Studies and Other Labor Market Research

Research on Unemployment

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A Landmark Survey of Workplace Violations in America’s Largest Cities

The Gloves-Off Economy: Workplace Standards at the Bottom of America’s Labor Market

Unregulated Work in the Global City: A Profile of 13 Industries

Other key resources:

Transportation Worker Background Checks

Employment Rights of Workers with Criminal Records

City Hiring Initiatives

Federal and State Policy Reforms