Protecting worker well-being

Strategy overview

  • Striking a balance between employment, family, and health: Worker protection and well-being policies and interventions seek to help residents — primarily workers earning an hourly wage — maintain a reasonable balance between earning a sustainable income, remaining healthy and recovering from illness, and taking care of family members. Such interventions can help reduce the burdens placed on workers, who, without protections, often have to choose between going to work or forgoing that income (and often risking being fired) to care for a loved one or stay home with illness.
  • Improving scheduling practices: Some interventions zero in on how workers are scheduled for their shifts. For instance, flexible scheduling policies allow workers to determine their shift schedules in accordance with their needs, such as when a child has a half day at school. Meanwhile, predictable scheduling policies ensure that workers know their shift schedules at least two weeks in advance, which enables them to attend to non-work obligations (such as coursework, childcare, or medical appointments) much more easily.
  • Prioritizing worker health: Another goal of some worker protection interventions is to maintain and improve worker health. Paid sick leave laws, for instance, provide workers with up to 40 hours of paid time off if they or a loved one are ill. Similarly, flexible scheduling policies can allow for workers to attend a doctor’s appointment — many of which are only available during common working hours.
  • Extending protections to family members: Many worker protection and well-being interventions include explicit supports for a worker’s family members. For instance, paid sick leave laws often include a provision allowing workers to use the time to care for a loved one, while flexible scheduling laws help working parents more easily attend to their children’s needs.

Policies that promote and protect worker well-being have generated positive results in multiple meta-analyses and rigorous studies; however, further research is necessary to confirm the magnitude and duration of effects.

  • A 2021 meta-analysis of paid sick leave policies concluded that it can be associated with increased use of health care and preventative medicine, like vaccinations and cancer screenings. 

  • A second 2021 meta-analysis found that flexible scheduling arrangements are associated with better physical health and reduced absenteeism.

  • A rigorous evaluation of fair workweek legislation in Seattle found that the law increased schedule predictability and improved subjective well-being measures, sleep quality, and economic security.

Before making investments in this strategy, city and county leaders should ensure it addresses local needs.

The Urban Institute and Mathematica have developed indicator frameworks to help local leaders assess conditions related to upward mobility, identify barriers, and guide investments to address these challenges. These indicator frameworks can serve as a starting point for self-assessment, not as a comprehensive evaluation, and should be complemented by other forms of local knowledge.

The Urban Institute's Upward Mobility Framework identifies a set of key local conditions that shape communities’ ability to advance upward mobility and racial equity. Local leaders can use the Upward Mobility Framework to better understand the factors that improve upward mobility and prioritize areas of focus. Data reports for cities and counties can be created here.

Several indicators in the Upward Mobility Framework may be improved with investments in high-quality interventions. To measure these indicators and determine if investments in this strategy could help, examine the following:

Mathematica's Education-to-Workforce (E-W) Indicator Framework helps local leaders identify the data that matter most in helping students and young adults succeed. Local leaders can use the E-W framework to better understand education and workforce conditions in their communities and to identify strategies that can improve outcomes in these areas.

Several indicators in the E-W Framework may be improved with investments in high-quality programs. To measure these indicators and determine if investments in this strategy could help, examine the following:

  • Access to health, mental health and social supports: Ratio of number workers or students to number of health, mental health, and social services FTE staff (for example, school nurses, psychologists, and social workers).

  • Access to jobs paying a living wage: Percentage of jobs in a county or metropolitan statistical area (MSA) for which the ratio of average pay to the location-adjusted cost of living is greater than one.

  • Employment in a quality job: Percentage of individuals employed in a quality job, as defined by scores on an indexed measure, such as the Good Jobs Scorecard, which assesses pay and benefits, scheduling, potential career paths, safety, and security.

  • Mental and emotional well-being: Percentage of youth with mental or emotional health needs as identified by a universal screening tool.

  • Physical development and well-being: Percentage of students meeting benchmarks on self-rated surveys of physical health, such as the California Healthy Kids Survey Physical Health & Nutrition module.

  • Securing vocal champions among government leaders: Vocal champions at the highest levels of local government, such as executives and legislators, are instrumental in enacting new protections for workers. Champions can help promote stronger, more robust legislation, increase budget allocations for enforcement, build awareness of new laws among workers, and increase compliance among businesses.
  • Conduct direct outreach to raise awareness among workers: Many worker protection laws are complaint-driven rather than actively enforced. Therefore, it is crucial to engage with as many workers as possible to inform them of their rights and what to do if an employer violates them. Outreach should be conducted in multiple languages and can include public information sessions, visits to businesses, advertising and social media campaigns, and more.
  • Invest in enforcement capacity: Even with the complaint-driven nature of most interventions, adequate enforcement capacity to respond to worker complaints is a crucial component of implementation. Formal investigations require significant resources, especially staff time. Funding multiple positions — including investigating attorneys and even data scientists — can help increase the likelihood that workers receive restitution and incentivize compliance among employers.
  • Engage with businesses during policy design period: To maximize compliance, solicit input prior to implementation from business owners. Doing so can help policymakers identify allies in the business community, who can be powerful messengers in building public support, and eliminate unnecessary pain points, costs, or administrative burdens associated with compliance (i.e. ensuring that rules are compatible with common scheduling software).

Evidence-based examples

Child care subsidies
Financial assistance for child care to working parents
Stable and healthy families High-quality employment
Proven
Paid sick leave laws
Requires all or most employers operating within a jurisdiction to provide workers with paid time off to care for themselves or a loved one when sick
Stable and healthy families High-quality employment
Strong
Predictable scheduling laws
Requires businesses to provide hourly workers (primarily in fast food restaurants and retail chains) with schedules at least 14 days in advance
Stable and healthy families High-quality employment
Strong
Learn more:
A Better Balance: State and City Laws and Regulations on Fair and Flexible Scheduling Harvard Shift Project NYC Workers Rights Poster San Francisco Retail Employee Rights Ordinance San Francisco Paid Sick Leave Investigation Interview Form