Giving Compass' Take:

• Brookings discusses the ways we can address low wages among the working class and non-college graduates, including reducing barriers to employment and creating more incentives.

• Those in education-based nonprofits should pay particular attention to the section that talks about improving the skills programs at community colleges. What are we doing to support those who are pursuing vocational training?

• Here's why the U.S. is still behind when it comes to preparing people for the future of work.

Donald Trump’s election as U.S. President in 2016, and the ongoing surge of populism here and abroad, bring much-needed attention to the plight of workers without college degrees — otherwise known as the “working class." Our focus here is on how to help them improve their employment and earnings.

As is well known, the employment and earnings of these workers have stagnated and fallen far behind those of college-educated workers in recent decades; and, among non-college educated men, both employment and earnings have fallen substantially. Economists have widely attributed these trends to ongoing automation and globalization in labor markets, weakening institutional supports for workers (like collective bargaining and minimum wages), and also weakening work incentives — the latter created by a combination of falling wages and available public benefit programs like Social Security Disability Insurance, or SSDI. Furthermore, the spread of the opioid crisis, and the large numbers of American men with criminal records, are likely results of the weakening job market and serve as further barriers to finding work. At the same time, few economists and policy analysts have generated compelling policy agendas to improve the working class’ employment opportunities.

I argue that a sensible policy agenda should: 1) Improve education and skills among non-college educated workers but also create better jobs that reward their skills; 2) Improve job availability in depressed geographic regions; 3) Reduce barriers to work associated with opioids and criminal records; and 4) Strengthen work incentives, by “making work pay“ and reforming some income support programs to encourage more employment and training among recipients.

Read the full article about raising earnings for the working class by Harry J. Holzer at Brookings.