Looking back fuels our commitment to what lies ahead.

While viewing our timeline, you can listen to a selection of movement music specially curated by NELP staff to celebrate our 55th anniversary.

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Since 1969, NELP has been a leading voice in the workers’ rights movement, committed to transformative legal and policy solutions, research, and advocacy that has impacted millions of workers and their families across the country.

NELP will continue to lead the movement for a good-jobs economy—an economic future where every job is a good job, everyone who wants a job can get one, and everyone has economic security between jobs.

View our interactive timeline and explore NELP’s long commitment to racial and economic justice.

1969

NELP is Founded

NELP is founded by students who create a law clinic for workers at Columbia Law School in New York City. Later, as a legal services backup center, NELP provides litigation assistance, employment law training, written reports, and expert testimony to legal aid attorneys throughout the United States.

Photo credit: Columbia University Archives

1970s

1970

Assuring Safe and Healthy Workplaces

Congress enacts the Occupational Safety and Health Act, establishing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to ensure workers’ right to a safe and healthful workplace. Today, NELP is fighting for stronger occupational safety standards and better working conditions in some of the nation’s harshest workplaces, including poultry and meat processing plants.

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Photo credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture

1973

NELP Argues Before Supreme Court

NELP argues a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, and federal employees win the due process right to a full evidentiary hearing on their unemployment insurance eligibility.

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Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

1974

Protecting Pensions and Benefits

Signed into law on Labor Day 1974, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, sets the minimum standards for retirement, health, and other benefits. NELP defended federal rules protecting retirement savers from investment advice that cost them billions annually, and continues to fight for state-level reforms after the Trump Administration abandoned its defense of the federal rules.

Photo credit: Colorado State University Archives, Everett Collection

1974

Equal Access to Justice for All

Congress establishes the Legal Services Corporation, a publicly funded nonprofit, to finance civil legal aid for low-income Americans. Founded five years earlier as a Columbia Law School clinic, NELP becomes an LSC “back-up center” in the 1970s and 80s, offering technical support to legal services attorneys and taking on workers’ rights class-action litigation.

Photo credit: Legal Services NYC

1979

NELP Employees Form a Union

NELP employees vote to join UAW, District 65 (formerly the United Wholesale and Warehouse Workers Union, Local 65). Today, NELP continues to be unionized, and its staff belong to UAW Local 2320 National Organization of Legal Service Workers.

1980s

1982

Employee Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit Victory in Mississippi

NELP filed a lawsuit in 1973 (Walls v. Mississippi State Dept. of Public Welfare) for Black workers who were being discriminated against due to hiring practices that violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. After nine years of complex litigation, the court ruled in favor of the workers in 1982.

Photo credit: Associated Press

1990s

1992

NELP Convenes Employment Task Force

NELP hosts the first Employment Task Force, a Capitol Hill convening of 70 of the nation’s leading employment specialists from legal services, industrial and service unions, and community-based groups organizing low-wage and unemployed workers.

1993

The Family and Medical Leave Act

Congress enacts the Family and Medical Leave Act, providing 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for new parents, caretakers of injured or ill relatives, and workers with personal health problems. NELP remains staunchly committed to extending these rights into paid family and medical leave and paid sick leave.

1994

The Living Wage Movement

After the City of Baltimore adopts an influential 1994 living wage ordinance, the movement to raise wage standards through city and county contracts gains nationwide momentum. Current and former NELP staffers play key roles as community organizers, lawyers, and researchers providing rapid response legal, policy, and communications support for campaigns.

1994

Congress Defunds Legal Services Corporation

NELP loses all its federal funding when Congress eliminates funding for Legal Services Corporation backup centers.

1996

Federal Minimum Wage Increases

NELP was among the many organizations and individuals who worked long and hard to increase the federal minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15 an hour. Working with grassroots partners, NELP was able to bring affected workers directly into the campaign.

Photo credit: Walter P. Reuther Library

1997

Workfare Workers Win Federal Employment Law Protections

NELP provides years of legal advocacy and research to support the national welfare rights campaign, culminating in a landmark guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor and the EEOC concluding that most people in workfare jobs are due labor protections just as any other workers would be.

2000s

2001

NELP Responds to 9-11

NELP responds to the 9/11 attacks in New York City with an initiative to help the clean-up workers protect their health and safety rights, and to advocate for broad access to Disaster Unemployment Assistance for workers employed in the disaster area but who were denied because their jobs also involved work outside the disaster area.

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Photo credit: U.S. Navy

2005

NELP Fights for All Workers After Katrina Disaster

NELP takes action in response to the tragedies, working with unions and Louisiana’s unemployment agency to advocate for federal extensions of the disaster unemployment program. NELP also testifies at a U.S. Senate committee hearing on responses to Hurricane Katrina. This organized response births the New Orleans Worker Center.

Photo credit: New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice

A group of NELP staff pose for the 2008 portrait

2008

NELP Welcomes Brennan Center’s Economic Justice Project

NELP joins forces with a team of attorneys, policy advocates, and researchers from the Economic Justice Project of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. The newly expanded NELP launches a minimum wage advocacy program and significantly deepens its policy research and design capacity.

2008

Expanding Access to Unemployment Insurance

NELP works with lawmakers to develop the Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act, which provides $7 billion in incentive funds for states to adopt underpaid worker, part-time, and women worker reforms. It is enacted in February 2009 as part of the Recovery Act, along with the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program.

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Photo credit: Mon Valley Unemployed Committee

A group of advocates hold up a sign in front of the Governor's Office that reads: "Pay Benefits Now, 315,000+ Still Waiting". photo credit: Mon Valley Unemployed Committee

2010s

2011

Combating Wage Theft

NELP wraps up an 11-year lawsuit filed on behalf of 1,000 delivery workers from West Africa who worked for major grocery and pharmacy chains in Manhattan. Partnering with law firm Outten & Golden to represent the class, NELP recovers more than $6 million in back wages and fees, and the bonds forged between workers in the case, Ansoumana v. Gristedes, leads to unionized delivery positions at the stores sued.

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2012

NELP Helps Fair Chance Hiring Movement with “Ban the Box” Advocacy

Thanks to strong organizing led by NELP in partnership with allies, the EEOC issues an “arrest and conviction” guidance for employers, reinforcing the employment rights of people with records and leading to the adoption of fair-chance hiring policies by President Obama’s Reentry Council and by numerous states and localities.

2012

The Fight for $15 Begins

Launched in New York City in 2012, when fast-food workers walked off their jobs demanding $15 an hour and union rights, the Fight for $15 movement has spurred minimum wage increases around the country—and placed the need for higher pay atop the national agenda. Today, NELP provides key support to numerous Fight for $15 efforts and is a proud partner and leader in the fight to #RaiseTheWage and win union rights for underpaid workers.

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2015

Home Care Workers Win Minimum Wage and Overtime Rights

NELP helps lead a multi-year campaign that culminates in a historic victory for home care workers when the Labor Department issues a long-awaited rule extending federal minimum wage and overtime protections to more than two million workers.

2016

Fighting to Expand Overtime Pay Eligibility

Persistent advocacy by NELP, EPI, and allies results in the Obama DOL issuing its 2016 overtime final rule, which strengthens overtime protections for more than 12 million middle-class workers. Right-wing opponents blocked the 2016 rule through litigation, but our fight to strengthen overtime protections carries on.

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A young Black man writes on a clipboard with coworkers in a kitchen setting

2018

Restaurant Workers Win Ownership of Their Tips

NELP, along with a strong coalition of civil and labor rights groups, wins legislative protections ensuring tips belong to workers after a Trump Labor Department proposal tried to take ownership of tips away from workers.

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Photo credit: Restaurant Opportunities Center

2019

The Growing Movement for $15

NELP continues to promote efforts to pass $15 minimum wages around the nation. In 2019, Illinois, New Jersey, and Maryland joined California, New York, and Massachusetts in adopting $15. NELP also fights right-wing efforts to preempt localities from raising wages, helping to win a state appellate court decision upholding Minneapolis’s $15 city wage.

2019

NELP Holds a National Conference: We’re All In!

NELP convened 186 organizations composed of 300 worker leaders and advocates at our We’re All In! National Conference in Las Vegas.

2020s

A group of fifty NELP Staff pose for a group portrait in 2023.

2020

Rebecca Dixon Becomes NELP’s President and CEO

NELP welcomes new President and CEO, Rebecca Dixon—and her vision for economic, racial, and gender justice.

2020

Holding Corporations Responsible During the COVID-19 Pandemic

NELP’s President and CEO, Rebecca Dixon, testifies at a U.S. Senate hearing urging Congress to ensure corporations are held responsible for the health and safety of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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2021

The American Rescue Plan

During the COVID-19 pandemic, NELP advocated for reauthorization of federal unemployment insurance supplemental payments and expansion of benefits through the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan Act, which resulted in sending more than $666 billion in funds to workers and families experiencing unemployment.

A group of unemployed workers hold signs at an action.

2021

NYC Fast Food Workers Win Just Cause Protections

NELP supported partner campaigns to rein in at-will firings by helping win a precedent-setting just cause law protecting 70,000 fast food workers in NYC.

SEIU members attend a rally holding a sign that reads "Reasons we were fired - Nails too long, Created bad vibes, did not smile, clocked out for a coworker, took drink of water"

2021

Winning Safer Line Speeds

NELP successfully pushed for the USDA to withdraw a proposed Trump-era rule to speed up poultry lines impacting 250,000 workers—the majority of whom are Black, Latinx, and immigrant workers.

2022

NELP Exposes the Truth About the Coalition for Workforce Innovation (CWI)

NELP launched The Truth About the CWI, a website dedicated to exposing the Coalition for Workforce Innovation, a corporate lobby group trying to pass laws that lock workers into “independent contractor” status. The website uncovers the truth about the CWI. NELP leveraged the website to further worker-led efforts that advance employer accountability and universal access to good quality jobs.

2022

NELP’s UI Policy Hub Launches

NELP’s UI Policy hub is a collection of resources for state UI policy advocates to support their efforts to strengthen the economic security of workers and their families and create a just economy.

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Photo credit: Mon Valley Unemployed Committee

A portrait of a Black woman holding a pandemic unemployment assistance overpayment notice.

2023

Immigrant Workers Win Protections When Reporting Workplace Abuses

Following many years of workers’ demands and advocacy by NELP and our partners, the Department of Homeland Security created new guidance on the agency’s procedures for granting temporary work authorization to immigrant workers who experience or witness violations of workers’ rights.

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2023

Temp Workers in New Jersey Win New Protections

NELP worked in coalition in New Jersey to help pass the strongest temp worker legislation in the country, which impacted 127,000 workers.

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2023

Project Hustle Launches

NELP teamed up with Project Hustle to document the working lives of Black women and femmes in New Orleans, focusing on the impacts of criminalization, care work, and occupational segregation.

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Source: Peg Hunter, flickr Youth lead a Climate march strike

2023

NELP Launches Climate Justice for Workers Program

Understanding that climate change is shifting what a good job looks like, NELP is helping workers fight for increased rights in an era of climate change, including a right to refuse dangerous work, better safety measures, and strong anti-retaliation protections.

2024

Department of Labor Makes it Harder for Employers to Misclassify Workers as Independent Contractors

NELP and our partners advocated for stronger protections for misclassified workers who were subject to a Trump-era rule that made it easier for employers to misclassify employees as independent contractors. The new rule helps ensure all people who work for someone else have access to foundational labor protections.

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Photo credit: Gig Workers Rising

Ridehail driver sits in his car holding a sign that says "Fair Pay and Safe Jobs".

2024

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Bans Non-Compete Agreements

NELP’s testimonies, research, and advocacy highlight the harm of non-compete agreements, which impact 30 million workers . Anti-competitive non-compete agreements are used to depress worker wages on state and regional levels. NELP contributes to a national conversation and the FTC ban in 2024.

2024

NELP Gets a New Look

We updated our logo and launched a new website that reflects our growth, our commitment, and our bold vision for the future.

2024

Working Towards an End to Occupational Segregation

NELP releases a groundbreaking report, Desegregating Opportunity: Why Uprooting Occupational Segregation is Critical to Building a Good-Jobs Economy. The report highlights the need to eliminate occupational segregation to build a good-jobs economy.

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Photo credit: Sarahbeth Maney, Detroit Free Press

Erika Mitchell, 36, of Toledo, Ohio, center, stands with skilled trades workers outside Stellantis' Toledo Assembly Complex in Toledo, Ohio, on Tuesday during the UAW strike against Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis. photo credit: Sarahbeth Maney, Detroit Free Press
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