Ejo Heza saving scheme primed to secure future of informal workers

Americans don’t save enough - in 2005, Americans’ personal savings rate was negative for the first time since the Great Depression ─ instead of piling up savings, we are piling up debt. Two behavioral economics columns on how switching signup for a 401K plan from opt-in (say yes to be enrolled) to opt-out (say no to be un-enrolled) dramatically raises enrollment rates.

Companies who outsource often fuel the race to the bottom for global workers' standards. Two companies, Digital Divide Data and Samasource, offer a model for outsourcing which is profitable and also prioritizes social impact.

After years of banning labor unions in Bangladesh, garment workers unionized to fight for higher wages and safer working conditions. For women, this isn't traditionally a space they were welcomed in, but now they’re holding their own meetings to ensure women’s safety is ensured on the job.

Juvenile offenders can feel as though they have no chances for a good future. Volunteers of America’s Face Forward 2 program helps young people in Cleveland to complete their education and to find employment. With this program, juvenile offenders believe they can succeed.

Part 3 of the "Equity or Bust: Are Ontario's Public Schools a Model for Pennsylvania" Series: Ontario is widely lauded for its education system, celebrated for both high performance and relatively smaller achievement gaps between wealthy and poor students. One of the key factors to their success is rigorous preparation of and support for their teachers. Pennsylvania, meanwhile, struggles to find and retain educators.

Low wage workers are very likely to have their rights violated. To support them in an accessible and efficient way WorkersReport was created as an app to help workers report and track violations as well as get in touch with the right support.

More than half of Americans struggle - especially in recent years with considerable economic and political changes to systems like Social Security - to save for retirement, and it costs states millions in public assistance programs. Oregon is piloting a new solution where the government helps private companies facilitate a small, automatic deduction from employees paychecks and sets it aside into savings, which is proving especially helpful for small businesses in helping their workers plan for retirement.

For many parents childcare can be very expensive, however, recently employers have started helping employees overcome this barrier. Little Apron Academy is a childcare center that Home Depot is partnered with and allows their employees to have an onsite care center that is also more affordable.

For publishing companies located in major metropolises, housing costs can present a significant challenge to successfully recruiting and retaining staff. To address this issue, the Hachette and Penguin Random House publishing groups have created initiatives to provide interns with subsidized housing. Working with the Book Trade Charity—which has traditionally provided subsidized housing for retirees from the publishing industry—these publishing groups have invested in the refurbishment of apartments and are offering them at below market rate to applicants selected for internship programs.

America’s system of health care is based on an old industrial-era model, without taking into account a decentralized, mobile, independent workforce that remains largely unprotected without health and unemployment insurance. The Freelancers Insurance Company, based in New York State, offers competitive premiums by having their executives receive salaries at low wages. The model keeps costs under control, which in turn makes health care more accessible to independent workers.