Opportunity in America - Events by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program

This conversation took place during our March 24 event, “Advancing Innovation and Fairness in Small Business Finance,” hosted by the Responsible Business Lending Coalition and the Aspen Institute’s Business Ownership Initiative. It features a panel discussion with Mickey Konson (Quantum Financial), Phil Goldfeder (American Fintech Council), Luz Urrutia (Accion Opportunity Fund), and moderator Jacob Haar (Community Investment Manage...

This conversation took place during our March 24 event, “Advancing Innovation and Fairness in Small Business Finance,” hosted by the Responsible Business Lending Coalition and the Aspen Institute’s Business Ownership Initiative. It features opening remarks from Joyce Klein (The Aspen Institute) and Louis Caditz-Peck (Responsible Business Lending Coalition), followed by a conversation with Michael Barr (Federal Reserve Board of Gove...

Asutosh Padhi is McKinsey & Company's Global Leader of Firm Strategy, responsible for shaping the strategic vision, accelerating the firm's pace of innovation, and evolving the partnership model as McKinsey turns 100 in 2026. He's currently an active board member of the Aspen Institute, the Brookings Institution, and the Field Museum. We had the pleasure of speaking with him as part of our series, “Back to the Future of Work: R...

A career in trucking was once considered a pathway to the middle class. Yet the quality of jobs in the industry has steeply declined in recent decades. Long-haul truckers, who might spend days or weeks away from home, have seen their salaries fall by as much as half since the deregulation of the industry a half century ago, and annual turnover hovers near 100%. Short-haul truckers are frequently misclassified as independent contrac...

Today approximately 77 million Americans, or 1 in 3 adults have a criminal record. While not everyone represented in this statistic has experienced incarceration, it serves to highlight that the barriers formerly incarcerated people face finding quality jobs are far more commonplace than we might think. Many returning citizens, who worked for little or no pay while incarcerated, will struggle to find quality jobs after release. Dis...

Ai-jen Poo is the president of theNational Domestic Workers Alliance, director ofCaring Across Generations, and a leading voice for worker rights and dignity. And we had the pleasure of speaking with her as part of our series, “Back to the Future of Work: Revisiting the Past and Shaping the Future.”

In this conversation with Economic Opportunities Program Senior FellowNatalie Foster, Ai-jen paints the picture of an economy that dome...

A key piece of the American dream is that hard work leads to economic success. Yet in recent years, many people seem to be working harder while reaping fewer rewards. Moreover, even people who are successful in economic terms often feel compelled to participate in overwork. In her new book “Over Work: Transforming the Daily Grind in the Quest for a Better Life,” author Brigid Schulte dismantles the pervasive idea that overwork guar...

Democracy may be top of mind for many Americans this election season, but it’s easy to forget that the ideal of democracy has always been about more than filling out one ballot every couple of years. Democratic and participatory principles and practices can strengthen our public spaces, community organizations, social media platforms, and even our workplaces.  

Workers are closest to many of the problems and potential solutions mo...

Announcements of a big employer moving to town, or a large infrastructure project, can often spark excitement. Local communities see the potential for big benefits, including new and better jobs and other investment in community needs. Too often, however, these benefits do not materialize. Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs), binding agreements created between community groups and organizations like real estate developers or large...

The passage of the 13th Amendment following the American Civil War abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, but it included a crucial exception: “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” This exception allowed southern governments to institute an early version of prison labor called convict leasing. Black Americans arrested for minor offenses, once imprisoned, were effectively purchase...

Today’s politicized environment poses unique challenges for worker rights advocates. With Congress often divided, and many state and local governments as well, the path to improving worker rights through legislation is narrow. Nonetheless, we have seen some remarkable progress on worker rights over the last few years through executive action. Leveraging executive action, however, is not a straightforward and easily discernible path...

Workforce intermediaries are uniquely positioned to help workers and businesses achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. Employers desire a workforce development approach that will address their most critical pain points, whereas workers seek opportunities to advance their economic security. In recent years, a wave of organizations has worked to take a “both-and” approach. These pioneers have recognized that job retention and recruitm...

Meat and poultry processing are core to our food supply chain. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the average American consumes about 68 pounds of chicken, 48 pounds of pork, and 56 pounds of beef per year. Meanwhile, health and safety hazards are pervasive, and workers in these sectors face some of the harshest conditions in the US. They endure long hours on their feet, with few breaks, working with sharp tools at fast...

People in the US spend more than 10% of their disposable income on food each year. About a trillion dollars of this spending goes toward purchasing food to eat at home, much of it spent at grocery stores and supermarkets. Yet, very few people understand or know about how food makes it to this last step of the food supply chain and ends up on the shelves of their local store. 

In this book talk, Benjamin Lorr, author of “The Secret ...

For almost twenty years, the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program has convened local and national academies that bring together senior leaders from across the workforce ecosystem to learn together about increasing economic opportunity for all.

In this conversation facilitated by EOP Senior Fellow Dee Wallace, we hear from Clair Minson, the founder and principal consultant at Sandra Grace LLC, co-director of Workforce Mat...

The myth that hard work pays off in the US, and always leads to a better and more economically prosperous life, has come unraveled in recent years. Many jobs simply do not pay enough for workers to meet their basic needs, much less do things such as save for retirement, fund their kids’ education, or allow for leisure.

In her first book, “The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy,” Natalie Foster asks us to imagine...

In this clip, Gwyneth Galbraith, vice president for global small business philanthropy at JPMorgan Chase, offers closing remarks for the 2024 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum.

The Forum is hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing. Our 2024 Forum, “Employee Ownership on the Ground,” brought innovative employee share ownership initiativ...

In this video, we hear from five leaders representing a variety of sectors about their “big idea” for advancing employee ownership. Speakers include:

• Christine Curella, Economic Development Consultant; Former Senior Policy Adviser to Deputy Mayor of New York City
• Evan Edwards, Chief Executive Officer, Project Equity
• Chris Griswold, Policy Director, American Compass
• Wilma Liebman, Former Chair, National Labor Relations Boar...

Equity compensation is a standard practice across the corporate world. But very often, it’s just the C-suite and upper level management who are allowed to participate and capture the gains. Frontline workers, particularly women and people of color, are often excluded from this wealth-building opportunity. This panel will highlight examples and practices that reverse this trend so that equity compensation is equitable and so that th...