PUTTING FAMILIES FIRST: GOOD JOBS FOR ALL

Report Summary
Today, millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet. Trapped in low-wage
jobs with barebones benefits, they simply do not have enough to meet their needs pay
the bills, put food on the table, take care of children and aging parents. Their struggles
are not the result of anything they did or didnt do, but of an economy and a labor
market that continue to reward the wealthiest 1 percent at the expense of everyone else.
The good news is that the nation has awoken to the twin problems of economic
inequality and poverty and is seeking answers. The bold agenda presented in Putting
Families First: Good Jobs for All details actions that government can take to address
these problems in five key areas: guaranteeing good wages and benefits; valuing
families; building a clean energy economy; unlocking opportunity in the poorest
communities; and taxing concentrated wealth.
It is a bold and achievable agenda that will result in millions of good, new jobs, a
stronger economy, and a fairer, more equal America.
Restoring the American Dream
Mya Hill works at the Checkers in Lincoln Park, Michigan. Even after four years on the job, she
still makes just $8.15 per hour, the state minimum wage. Her fianc, Jonathan, is paid the same
amount at a nearby McDonalds. On their fast food incomes, the couple cant come close to
affording full-time care for their two-year-old son, Jonathan, Jr., so they scramble to find family
and friends who can help. And finding steady, quality child care is just one of many of the
familys unmet needs. Even with food stamps and Medicaid, they struggle to pay the bills and
stay afloat.

The story of Mya and Jonathan is the story of millions of families across the United States.
Today, one in three U.S. households are living paycheck to paycheck, continuously on the brink
of financial disaster. Its no wonder a solid majority say they dont believe in the American
dream that if you work hard you can get ahead. Because its just not true for most people
today.
Restoring that dream requires moving past the dated thinking and tired arguments that
continue to drive the social policy debate in America. Conservatives and mainstream liberals
both get it wrong. More massive tax cuts for the wealthy and a further unweaving of the social
safety net the conservative solution will only make things worse. And the mainstream
liberal focus on education and training, while undeniably important, is no match for the problem
of structural inequality. Neither is tinkering at the margins through modest increases in tax
credits or a meager rise in the minimum wage.
No, the time is ripe for a bigger, bolder response to the crisis facing so many American families
like Mya, Jonathan and their son. It is time to advance a comprehensive national agenda that
responds to the widely shared belief among Americans of all political stripes that the nation has
strayed from its egalitarian ideals. It is time to embrace a simple but achievable idea: that
government should take action to create millions of good, new jobs in emerging sectors and
ensure these jobs are open and accessible to all, guarantee decent wages and benefits for all
who want to work, and ensure equity in the labor market for women and people of color.
The Roots of the Current Crisis
Addressing inequality and poverty in a serious way means embracing solutions that match the
scale of the problems. It also means addressing root causes, chiefly the dramatic and damaging
changes that have transformed the U.S. economy and labor market since the 1970s, creating
dire consequences for most Americans, particularly women and people of color. These changes
are:

A chronic lack of demand for labor and unequal access to jobs. More than 17 million
people who want to work are currently unemployed, underemployed or have stopped
looking for work altogether, with communities of color significantly overrepresented
among this population.
Growth of the low-wage economy. While the wages of the top 1 percent surged by 138
percent since 1979, the bottom 90 percent saw their wages stagnate. Today, roughly
four in 10 Americans earn less than $15 an hour.
Underemployment, part-time and contingent work. The rise of contingent work and
fissured employment relationships increasingly defines the U.S. labor market,
resulting in underemployment and unpredictable scheduling, especially in fast-growing
service sectors of the economy.
Erosion of labor market standards and the bargaining power of workers. Lower union
membership has led to a steep decline in the capacity of workers to speak out for better
conditions and pay, and to counter the growing power of organized business. The latest
affront to workers is wage theft, when employers do not compensate people for all
hours worked.
Occupational segregation by race and gender. Nationally, 40 percent of workers in the
fast-growing home care sector an overwhelming portion of whom are women earn

less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level, the threshold for Medicaid eligibility.
The same patterns are found in occupations segregated by race and immigration status.
Each of these five trends is the result of deliberate rules and policies adopted over time to
undermine the role of government in creating jobs and setting standards, erode the voice of
workers, make tax policy dramatically less progressive, and privatize public institutions that had
previously supported mobility and opportunity. Putting things right means reclaiming an active
role for government in creating a new and different kind of economy one that responds to
unmet needs while creating good jobs for all.
A Jobs Agenda for the 21st Century
Putting Families First: Good Jobs for All is a new campaign that seeks to bring the issues of jobs,
poverty and inequality to the center of the national debate. The campaign is focused on five
major goals:
1) Guaranteeing Good Wages and Benefits
Why this is important: Thirty years of stagnant wages, combined with eroding labor standards
and an ever-growing imbalance in power between workers and corporations, have locked
millions of workers and their families in lives of poverty and need because their jobs pay poverty
wages, are deeply unstable and make it very difficult for them to balance work and family
responsibilities.
Key campaign goals: The campaign seeks to make every job in the United States meet a
minimum standard of quality in wages, benefits and working conditions. Every job also should
offer unhindered access to collective representation and a real voice for workers, and be
accessible to all people regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, immigration status, or an
individuals record of incarceration.
Core policy solutions: Minimum wage improvements guaranteeing workers a family-supporting
wage of at least $15 per hour and $30,000 per year; government action to ensure equal pay for
equal work; new rules to empower peoples efforts to join unions and engage in collective
bargaining; fair work week standards assuring workers of adequate hours and predictable,
family-friendly schedules; paid sick time and family leave for all families; and robust
enforcement of labor standards.
Results: Together, these policies would raise wages for at least 55 million workers in the United
States while bringing added fairness, decency and justice to the U.S. labor market.
2) Valuing Families
Why this is important: Caregiving is key to a healthy society, yet throughout our history, the
hard work of care, both paid and unpaid, has been deeply undervalued, largely because it has
predominantly been womens work. As a result, families struggle to meet their caregiving needs
with little support from the government. Too many families struggle to find affordable, highquality care for children, aging parents and family members with disabilities; and chronic
underinvestment in care work not only limits the availability of care but also traps caregivers,
mostly women, in low-wage jobs.

Key campaign goals: The campaign seeks to end the systematic devaluation of care work and
unleash more public support for families struggling to meet caregiving needs. The focus: making
high-quality childcare available to working parents, raising the quality of jobs in the early
education and care fields, transforming homecare, and providing financial support for family
members providing unpaid care to loved ones.
Core policy solutions: Guaranteed access to federal childcare subsidies for all eligible children
(currently, only 17 percent of eligible children receive subsidies); a minimum wage of $15 an
hour for care workers; new investments to expand availability of high-quality long-term services
and support for seniors and people with disabilities; improved training and expanded organizing
and collective bargaining rights for care workers; and added support for unpaid caregivers,
families, and parents who care for children and seniors and people with disabilities through new
and expanded tax credits, paid family leave, a caregiver credit within Social Security, and
financial support for low-income families in which parents want to stay home to care for
children under 3 years old.
Results: Together, these policies would result in 12 million additional children gaining access to
child care subsidies; a significant expansion of the child care workforce; higher wages for 5.5
million care workers; an escape from poverty for nearly 10 million people through expansion of
the Child Tax Credit; and additional freedom and choice for families who need to take time out
of the paid workforce to care for loved ones.
3) Unlocking Opportunity in the Poorest Communities
Why this is important: Poverty has become increasingly concentrated in America over the last
several decades. Today, high-poverty neighborhoods (those where 20 percent or more of
residents have incomes below the federal poverty level) are home to more than half of all
people living in poverty.
Key campaign goals: The campaign seeks to restart the economy in places where racial bias,
exclusion, and sustained disinvestment have produced communities of concentrated poverty.
This goal is to channel significant federal investments to communities with high unemployment
and low wages so they can rebuild their local economies and expand residents access to jobs
and wealth-building opportunities.
Core policy solutions: $200 billion annually in federal funding to rebuild local economies through
expanded support for small businesses and worker and community cooperatives; governmentfunded development projects and job creation programs designed to meet community needs;
partnerships with businesses and nonprofits to create jobs; expanded access to education, job
training and child care; expanded transit services to improve access to jobs; and increased
access to affordable housing.
Results: Together, these policies would create 2 million new jobs in high-poverty communities
around the nation, reducing unemployment among residents living in poverty in these
communities by over 60 percent.
4) Building a Clean Energy Economy

Why this is important: Climate change is perhaps the single greatest challenge facing humanity
in this century. It is also an opportunity to ensure that investments in clean energy and energy
efficiency and infrastructure bring jobs and economic opportunity to people in disadvantaged
communities.
Key campaign goals: The campaign seeks to address the climate crisis by reducing carbon
emissions on the scale necessary to avoid its adverse effects, while building a clean energy
economy marked by millions of good jobs that are accessible to workers of color, women and
economically distressed communities. The campaign also seeks to address our crumbling
infrastructure which would also generate millions of new jobs.
Core policy solutions: Federal adoption of a strong Clean Power Plan, carbon taxes or other
policies that will reduce carbon dioxide pollution and spur investment in energy efficiency,
renewable energy and resilient infrastructure; investments in jobs and economic diversification
in communities negatively impacted by the transition to a clean energy economy; and new
spending to restore critical infrastructure, such as water and environmental systems,
transportation and public facilities.
Results: Together, these policies have the potential to create 6.3 million new jobs while reducing
U.S. carbon emissions, limiting the potential impact of climate change and improving air quality
for people living near coal-fired power plants, many of whom are people of color and who suffer
from air pollution-related illnesses.
5) Taxing concentrated wealth
Why this is important: Wealthy corporations, individuals and families simply are not paying their
fair share of the cost of government. Regressive changes in tax policy in the last 30 years are
fueling inequality while robbing the government of its ability to invest in good jobs for all.
Key campaign goals: The campaign seeks to reform tax policy to promote added fairness and
reduce inequality while helping to fund government actions that put families first.
Core policy solutions: Taxation of investment income at the same level as earned income;
changes to the eviscerated estate tax that restore it to the level of the Bill Clinton years;
additional tax brackets that would affect the wealthiest Americans; a financial transaction tax
primarily affecting frequent, high-volume stock, futures and options trades; an end to allowing
companies to defer taxes on overseas profits; an end to tax breaks for excessive executive pay;
and a new tax to discourage yawning pay gaps between executives and average workers.
Results: Together, these policies would raise hundreds of billions of dollars that the government
would be able to invest in activities designed to bring added opportunity to people and
communities that have been left behind as the wealthiest 1 percent have only gotten wealthier.
An Achievable Vision
Some may say it is unrealistic and even quixotic to try to advance such an ambitious agenda at a
time when Congress is gridlocked and when many national leaders are touting proposals that

would increase poverty and inequality. But the signs are all around that the nation is ready for a
serious debate about addressing these problems:

Polls show increased concern among Americans about poverty and inequality and a
steady erosion of confidence in the capacity of large corporations to deliver shared
prosperity.
Workers and communities are rising up and speaking out about pay and job quality
through successful campaigns like the Fight for 15 and Our Walmart.
Ban the box campaigns around the nation are opening up employment opportunities
for the formerly incarcerated, and the #BlackLivesMatter and immigrant rights
movements are lending their muscle to addressing the struggles of low-wage workers.
Elite opinion increasingly is focused on the social and economic costs of inequality, as
well as the importance of moving past half steps and advancing wholesale changes in
the structure of labor markets.
New ideas and paradigms are emerging about the benefits of investing in the caring
economy and the clean energy economy, as well as in communities that have faced
generations of disinvestment and discrimination.
States and localities, even in very red areas, are embracing progressive solutions from
higher minimum wages to major expansions of early childhood education.
The 2016 elections are shaping up as a referendum on economic inequality, with
candidates of both parties talking about the problem and possible solutions.

Powerful currents are moving the country toward a new consensus for change. It is time to rally
support for concrete action to restore the American dream for all people.