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Email As the ranks of the working poor rise, CSS’s Workforce and Economic Security unit focuses on developing policies to help working New Yorkers build their economic security and provide opportunities for advancement. Millions of New Yorkers are working hard in service occupations but can’t make ends meet because of low wages, insufficient benefits, and few prospects for career advancement. CSS’s policy research, analysis, and political mobilization seek to promote workforce and economic security policies to ensure that work provides a route out of poverty.
Current areas of focus include:
- Developing actionable policy solutions to increase employment opportunities in low- income communities, such as: paid transitional employment opportunities for the formerly incarcerated and public assistance recipients; career pathway programs to increase access to education and job training services to promote upward mobility; and linking infrastructure investments to the creation of employment pipelines such as supportive work programs.
- Advocating for improved wages and access to employer sponsored benefits for low-wage workers in New York City.
- Advocating for policies to increase access to financial development and asset-building strategies for low-wage working people.
- Staff also provide research, policy, and advocacy assistance to strengthen the capacity of nonprofit organizations and their constituents to address these and related workforce and economic security issues.
Closing the Skills Gap