Giving Compass' Take:

• The Workers Lab (via Neighborhood Funders Group) discusses how partnerships can help change the lives of working people in America, specifically in increasing wages and improving access to paid leave.

• What can other funders do to advocate for better labor policies? Let's take some of the suggestions here — such as incentivizing more worker-focused initiatives — as a call to action.

• Here's more about the role foundations can play in the fight for livable wages.

We are living at a time when newspaper headlines are describing a booming economy. But, the truth is that four in ten workers is leaving retirement and to returning to work to cover health care, housing, and living expenses. The vast majority of working people earn less than $15 an hour. Only 15 percent of workers have access to paid leave. And half of the people in the U.S. do not have $400 to address a financial emergency. This means that when a child unexpectedly breaks an arm or a car breaks down it can throw the lives of working people into disarray.

There simply isn’t a fair return on work right now. No one who works full (or more than full) time should be living in poverty. And this shouldn’t be the reality in the richest country in the world.

Philanthropy can play a critical role in calling out this absurdity and supporting organizations that are organizing, building, and delivering a better future for working people in our country.

At The Workers Lab, we’ve been thinking about how to partner with our funders and donors to do the work necessary to truly change the lives of working people. The three things that we are encouraging them to do and consider are:

  • Recognize the difference between branding the change and being the change
  • Provide a greater set of incentives that treat people as whole
  • Fighting for what we deserve, not what we can win

Read the full article about reimagining how we fund and what we fund by Shannon Lin at Neighborhood Funders Group.