Working in America, and event series hosted by the Economic Opportunities Program, highlights an array of critical employment and job quality issues affecting low- and moderate-income American workers.

From 2012 to 2019, this series featured a diverse set of voices and perspectives, including those of high-profile worker advocates, philanthropists, labor leaders, academics, business leaders, and policymakers. Through these conversations, we sought to advance innovative ideas, in policy and practice, to improve economic opportunity and the future of work in America. These discussions helped to build momentum in the national discourse around various critical employment issues facing low- and moderate-income workers.

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Event Archive

Past Events in the Working in America Series

The Low Cost of Good Jobs
Event

The Low Cost of Good Jobs

What makes good jobs not only possible but very profitable—even in low-cost service businesses—is a set of counterintuitive choices that transforms the company’s investment in workers into high performance.

Building Opportunities for Young Adults: A Discussion on Strategies to Support the Newest Generation of Workers
Event

Building Opportunities for Young Adults: A Discussion on Strategies to Support the Newest Generation of Workers

What challenges do young workers face in today’s economy and how can we help our newest generation of workers gain the experiences and skills they need to be successful in the labor market?

Time to Care: A Discussion on Improving Paid Leave Policies for Workers, Businesses, and Our Economy
Event

Time to Care: A Discussion on Improving Paid Leave Policies for Workers, Businesses, and Our Economy

Many working Americans must regularly choose between earning a paycheck or caring for themselves and their loved ones. What challenges do workers, parents and employers face and how can we better support them?

Book Talk on The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs & Boost Profits
Event

Book Talk on The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs & Boost Profits

What makes good jobs not only possible but very profitable—even in low-cost service businesses—is a set of counterintuitive choices that transforms the company’s investment in workers into high performance.

Creating Good Jobs: Lessons Learned from Worker Cooperatives, ESOPs and B Corporations
Event

Creating Good Jobs: Lessons Learned from Worker Cooperatives, ESOPs and B Corporations

Worker-owned cooperatives, B Corps companies, and businesses with employee stock ownership programs may offer ideas about ways to improve the returns to work.

Experiences of Immigrant Workers: Challenges, Opportunities and the Future of our Economy
Event

Experiences of Immigrant Workers: Challenges, Opportunities and the Future of our Economy

While some immigrant workers and business owners achieve great economic success, others operate marginal businesses or are employed in jobs where wages are low, working conditions are poor, and safety standards are disregarded.

Leaning in with Child Care: A Discussion on Childcare Jobs and the Need for Quality, Affordable Care
Event

Leaning in with Child Care: A Discussion on Childcare Jobs and the Need for Quality, Affordable Care

In this event, speakers discuss how we can have both an early care and education system that provides good jobs and quality, affordable care.

Raising the Minimum Wage: A Different Approach to the Jobs Problem
Event

Raising the Minimum Wage: A Different Approach to the Jobs Problem

Given that the wage floor has far-reaching effects on the economy, meaningful consideration of its impact on workers, consumer spending, income inequality and other issues is vital.

About the Economic Opportunities Program

The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.

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More from the Economic Opportunities Program

Room for Growth: A Survey of Upskilling Approaches — 2026 Analysis
Publications

Room for Growth: A Survey of Upskilling Approaches — 2026 Analysis

This publication examines how fragmented skills, credentialing, and workforce data systems limit the potential of skills-based hiring and advancement, and outlines a shared vision for building the interoperable infrastructure needed to create a connected skills ecosystem that benefits workers, employers, educators, and governments.

Building Economic Security: A Book Talk with Arindrajit Dube and Carrie Joy Grimes
Podcasts Videos

Building Economic Security: A Book Talk with Arindrajit Dube and Carrie Joy Grimes

Economic security shouldn’t be a lottery. Yet for millions of working families, stagnant wages and precarious jobs collide with the daily grind of managing money on shaky ground — leaving stability feeling less like a plan and more like a gamble. Fixing that takes more than one lever. It takes structural reform and the tools people need to take control of their financial lives, working together.

What Employee Ownership Means to Workers
Publications

What Employee Ownership Means to Workers

Firms differ in how equity or profit is allocated, how long the ownership structure is intended to last, and how workers participate in governance and the workplace, all of which affect how workers experience ownership.

Employer-Friendly Practices: A Guide for Higher Education
Publications

Employer-Friendly Practices: A Guide for Higher Education

This resource is designed to help colleges and universities become more employer-friendly and build the kind of institutional capacity that sustains and grows partnerships while simultaneously better serving working learners. It offers role-specific guidance for leaders across the institution, a self-assessment spanning five domains of practice, and a process for turning results into action, grounded in the conviction that institution/employer partnerships can become easier without compromising academic missions.

MillerKnoll: Developing Operations Leaders from Within and Beyond — A Case Study in Structured Talent Development
Publications

MillerKnoll: Developing Operations Leaders from Within and Beyond — A Case Study in Structured Talent Development

Bridge, Propel, and Career Academy are built on a practical philosophy: that MillerKnoll has great talent already inside the organization. Finding that talent, developing it, and aligning it to the right opportunities is key to its success. T

A Typology of State-Supported Work-Connected Learning Programs
Publications

A Typology of State-Supported Work-Connected Learning Programs

States invest in work-connected learning through dozens of distinct funding streams, grant programs, and agency initiatives, often developed independently over time by different administrations and agencies pursuing different goals.

Resource Roundup: Data Centers and the Workforce
Blog Posts