Developing Case Studies to Seriously Engage Business Leaders to Improve the Conditions Faced by Low-wage Workers and their Families It has long been the case in the United States that the majority of low-income parents worked. These numbers were further increased with the 1996 welfare reform law. As a consequence, improving the conditions parents face at work is central to our ability to improve the lives of low-income parents and their children. Research shows that the conditions parents face at work can dramatically influence their children’s health, education and development as well as low-income families’ ability to exit from poverty. Research demonstrates that parents play a critical role in caring for children’s health, education and development. For example, children recover more rapidly from illnesses and injuries when parents provide care, and extensive research findings document the fact that a key factor affecting how children fare in school is parental involvement. Yet, it is parental working conditions that determine whether parents are available to care for their children when they are sick and whether they can be involved in their children’s education. For example, when parents have paid leave from work, they are more than five times as likely to be able to care for children when they are sick. Beyond the potential impact that inadequate parental working conditions have on children’s health and development, they can limit, if not extinguish entirely, the ability of low-income families to exit poverty. Many parents in the United States have few job benefits and work under conditions costly to their children. Moreover, parents living in poverty face the worst working conditions – often lacking any leave and flexibility. Our research has found that trying to address family needs with inadequate working conditions is a leading cause of job loss. Though the government plays a role in protecting the rights of low-wage workers through labor codes, mandates of working conditions, work support services, and providing financial incentives to do the ‘right’ thing, these interventions alone are not sufficient. Businesses themselves – the direct employers of low-wage workers – must also be engaged. The purpose of this new initiative, sponsored by the Annie Casey and Ford Foundations, is to describe how feasible it is for businesses to improve working conditions for their low-wage and low-skilled workers – and in turn improve the health, development and education of their families – while simultaneously being successful in the competitive global market. We are conducting a series of in-depth case studies of businesses that have succeeded in improving the working conditions low-income workers face—particularly in ways that improve the conditions of their children and families. In conjunction with the new trend in business schools to address the changing attitudes toward social responsibility, the case studies will be designed to be integrated directly in business school curricula. Case studies will be written to be used in mid-career programs that business schools target at senior business leaders, and in standard M.B.A. programs. Businesses now face serious dilemmas regarding how to compete with low-wage workers in other parts of the world. The goal of this project is to increase our ability to address the questions business leaders have so we can better guide them in the challenging task of providing adequate work supports for all their employees while simultaneously succeeding economically. Back to Global Initiatives
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