Improving Access to Good Jobs

A new issue brief from the Brooking Institution suggests how states can improve the earnings of low-wage workers by increasing access to relatively good-paying jobs.

Contact: Neil Ridley
Social, Economic and Workforce Programs Division NGA Center for Best Practices

Key findings were:

* Workers who changed jobs were more likely to escape low earnings than those who stayed at the same job.

* Low-wage workers who worked for temporary agencies achieved higher earnings, largely because the agencies provided direct access to medium and high-wage firms.

* Workers with low earnings face geographic barriers to securing high-wage jobs in industries that tend to be located outside metropolitan centers.

The report recommends that states expand the role of for-profit and non-profit agencies that help place low-wage workers into good jobs and that address many of the transportation and other barriers that impede labor market success.

Related Links:

* Worker Advancement in the Low-Wage Labor Market http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/publications/200310_holzer.htm