Corporate Voices supports EITC legislation

Corporate Voices for Working Families attended a press conference on Capitol Hill yesterday June 25, which announced the introduction of the Earned Income Credit Information Act of 2008. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) spoke at the Press Conference, as did Wal-Mart and SEIU.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is the largest Federal effort to relieve poverty in the United States, yet countless Americans are not aware of their eligibility to benefit from this program. This piece of legislation will require that employees be notified about their eligibility for the EITC. Employers will be required to notify their employees who meet the earning eligibility, either by supplying the Internal Revenues Service Notice 797 or a different written document explaining the bill. This information must be provided at the same time that the W-2 form is provided. Small businesses with less than 25 employees will not be required to notify their employees. Just as there is a penalty for not providing the W- 2 forms, there will is also be a fine for not providing proper notice of the EITC.

Along with our partners TJX and Marriott, Corporate Voices for Working Families supports this piece of proposed legislation and has released the following statement,

“Corporate Voices for Working Families has launched an aggressive campaign to assist companies in educating working families about Earned Income Tax Credits and we welcome this legislation as an important step in increasing awareness about EITC,” –Donna Klein, President and CEO

Over the past five years, Corporate Voices for Working Families has worked to help educate employers about their employees’ benefits. By printing and distributing the Employer Guide: Educate Your Employees About the Benefits They’ve Earned, Corporate Voices has made it a priority to ensure that employers have the necessary information about the EITC, Child Tax Credit, SCHIP and other forms of support.

Corporate Voices for Working Families is happy to support this piece of proposed legislation and will work to make this a bipartisan effort.

By Allison Keyser

Work/life programs, not just for mommies

The Worcester Business Journal, has recently profiled Corporate Voices and one of our partner companies, Abbott Bioresearch Center, in an article about flexible work schedules.

“Not Just for Mommies” looks at solutions to the concept of managing work and family and, contrary to popular belief, it is not only women who reap the benefits. The article emphasizes how advantageous it is for companies to have flexible work schedules because it “boosts productivity” and leads to better employee retention.

Another party who profits equally from the work/life programs are the dads. According to the article, 90% of Abbott’s 340 employees have incorporated the flexible working options into their lives. This overwhelming participation in the alternative working schedules illustrates the need for such polices.

However, citing a study by Corporate Voices, the article also notes that it is much more common for higher wage jobs to have flexible schedules.

According to a 2006 study by the policy group Corporate Voices For Working Families, 40 percent of workers making $100,000 a year or more have flexible schedules, compared to 22 percent of those making $25,000 to $50,000 and 10 percent of those who make less than that.

It makes sense that companies who spend a good deal of time and money training their workers would be vested in having their workers stay at the company, essentially getting the return on their investment. However, as our study shows, that still leaves low wage workers with less time to spend with their children. I don’t think many people would disagree that, whether you make $100,000 or $20,000, if you have children they are your number one priority. Therefore, why should higher paid workers be able to spend time with their children, when lower wage workers cannot?

This article, while beautifully highlighting the positive steps that some companies, like Abbott, are taking, made me wonder a few things.

For instance, how should a lower wage worker, or even a higher wage worker that does not have the option of a flexible work schedule, interpret these findings? If having flexible work/life policies indicates that the companies value their workers, are workers who do not have flexible policies not valued?

And, as the article points out, when workers feel valued they perform better. So, if workers will perform at a higher level, and there is a high demand for family-friendly policies, why is every company not on board with this concept, following in Abbott’s footsteps?

By Allison Keyser

Bob Herbert: Our nation’s at-risk youth

There are a group of hopeless and uneducated young adults in our nation who are struggling to find even minimum wage jobs.

Working ‘just to get by’ isn’t as possible as it used to be. In fact, for 4 million young adults, a job at all is extremely questionable.

After reading an Op-Ed article — “Out of Sight” — by Bob Herbert in the The New York Times last Tuesday about our nation’s at-risk youth, I found some breathtaking statistics about the lack of job opportunities.

According to Herbert, a disastrous unemployment number was released last Friday, claiming, “The official jobless rate had jumped one-half a percentage point in May to 5.5 percent – the sharpest spike in 22 years.”

The problem is that there is a vast group of young-adults and teenagers, between the ages of 16 to 24 years old, who are not in school and face tough odds in the job market.

According to Herbert, these “youngsters” are trying, but they are losing hope. After searching and searching for a job it is easy to get discouraged.

The summer job market, which has long been an important first step in preparing teenagers for the world of work, is shaping up this year as the weakest in more than half a century, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.

My first question is what can we do to open up job opportunities?

And next, are there no second chances for the underprivileged? A basic education is a first step in the right direction, which should be easy for each and every person in our democratic nation.

Everyone has something to offer in this country and it is a shame to see such bright young individuals not given a chance. Job opportunity is just the very first step to making an individual make a difference in this world.

And David Jones, president of the Community Services Society of New York, a Corporate Voices strategic partner, provides some key insight in the context of Herbert’s column.

“These kids are being challenged in ways that my generation was not,” said David Jones, the president of the Community Service Society of New York, which tries to develop ways to connect these young men and women with employment opportunities, or get them back into school.

It is extremely difficult because, for the most part, the jobs are not there and the educational establishment is having a hard enough time teaching the kids who are still in school.

“Schools have not made much of an effort to bring this population back in,” said Mr. Jones. “Once you fall out of the system, you’re basically on no one’s programmatic radar screen.”

By: Amy Simon

Amy is a journalism major at Penn State who is interning this summer with Corporate Voices for Working Families.

Meet our new bloggers

This summer Corporate Voices will have two summer interns who during their time with us will contribute to our blog.

Meet Amy Simon and Allison Keyser:

Amy Simon

Amy is a Senior majoring in Journalism with minors in International Studies and Spanish at Penn State University. She is an identical twin and a competitive cheerleader at Penn State. After undergrad Amy plans to attend law school.

Allison Keyser

Allison is a Senior majoring in Psychology and Women’s Studies at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. While not in class Allison is the Vice President of her sorority PI Beta Phi, works as a tour guide and tutors in the Writing Center at Dickinson.

By Susan Holbrook

Karen Pittman: “Bringing precision to our passion”

Karen Pittman, a member of the Corporate Voices Advisory Board and president of the Forum for Youth Investment, has an extremely interesting and provocative column in the May 2008 Youth Today. Here’s the opening paragraph from the column, titled “Precision Engineering.”

Creating sound bites that are not only memorable but communicate a message is a passion of mine. Every now and then I hit one out of the park. “Problem-free isn’t fully prepared” is still in use after more than 15 years. I think “bringing precision to our passion” may be the next one to stick.

Karen says that passion and precision are sometimes seen as opposites. “The call for passion and precision is a call for us to blend them. Think head/heart. Capacity/motivation. Our actions improve when they are informed by both.”

Then she talks about how this helps to change the odds for young people.

Changing the odds for young people requires us to not only be passionate in our commitment to providing high-quality supports and opportunities to all youth, but precise in measuring how well we and they are doing, so that we can make real-time system adjustments. It’s not enough to care. We have to calculate, compare and count.

But, she says, developing metrics for our programs is not enough.

It is also not enough to simply develop metrics for our own programs. Young people don’t grow up in programs; they grow up in communities. We must develop community-level dashboards whose clear measurements compel community leaders to think differently, so that together they can act differently.

Karen then provides several examples and best-practice success stories. If you would like a copy of the entire column, leave us a comment on this blog (go to the link at the end of the post that says no comments/or comment) with your e-mail address. I’ll be delighted to e-mail you a copy of this informative column by Karen Pittman.

by Rob Jewell

Father’s Day and workplace flexibility

As we celebrate Father’s Day, it’s important to consider a story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer earlier this week: “Working Dad: Hit-or-miss times for striking a balance.” And Ellen Galinsky, a Corporate Voices board member and president of Families and Work Institute makes a key point in the article about how organizations are beginning to view workplace flexibility as not a women-only issue.

Here’s the first few paragraphs from the article:

By PAUL NYHAN
P-I REPORTER

THE MEDIA ARE filled with stories of moms struggling to balance work and family.

What about dad?

In this era of increased co-parenting, dads are more consumed by the search for an ever-elusive balance of work and family. Yet, as Father’s Day approaches and dads look around their offices, factories and stores, they may not find too much help.

There are changes. Work-life benefits are popping up at some local offices: a kid room, a handbook on building flexible work weeks, even a toy-train table.

“We realize it’s really important to being competitive. More than that we want to have people not feel like work is a sterile environment completely separate from the rest of their lives,” said Richard Law, chief executive of Kirkland-based Allyis, which offers paid paternity leave and other family-friendly benefits.

In developing family-friendly benefits and policies, Allyis doesn’t distinguish between men and women. Why? Partly it’s good business.

The benefits represent as much a business decision as a lifestyle, company CEO Richard Law says, because the perks reduce stress on his staff, limit turnover and help attract top talent.

“We don’t really look at it as fathers separate from mothers,” Law said.

Which gets us to Ellen’s point:

“I think that the real change is among employers who used to think of flexibility for women only. That is just not true any more,” said Ellen Galinsky, president of the institute. “There is a real understanding that fathers want to be more involved.”

There are broader dad-centric changes. Over the past decade, men reported getting more time off to spend with their new children, and Galinsky says younger dads are more aggressively pushing for personal time. But, too often dads and moms don’t use those benefits, and there is still a long way to go, Galinsky suggests. In the future, she sees a greater reliance on telecommuting and flex time that works for both employee and employer.

And while the trends are positive, more still needs to be done. As the subhead to the article says: “Despite being more involved with raising kids, dads have a tough time finding family-friendly workplaces.”

by Rob Jewell

Today spotlights flexibility successes

The NBC Today show featured a segment Thursday morning that looked at the importance and successes of flexible work strategies. Called “The Four-Day Workweek,” the segment with host Matt Lauer contains an excellent interview with John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray and Christmas.

Take a look. The video should start after a short commercial.

by Rob Jewell

Corporate Voices: Annual Meeting, Sept. 8-9

Save the date for our 7th annual partnership meeting, Sept. 8-9, at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington — Mapping New Avenues for 21st Century Working Families.

Our annual meeting brings together policymakers and the private sector to navigate issues facing working families. Highlights will include keynote addresses by Tony Wagner of Harvard and Beth Brooke of Ernst & Young.

The meeting will begin at noon on Sept. 8 and conclude with the Best of Congress Awards Breakfast Sept. 10.

For more information and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Susan Holbrook at sholbrook@cvworkingfamilies.org or 212-333-8922.

by Rob Jewell

The Coming Job Surplus

I’ll admit it. It’s hard for me to grasp that we are heading for time in this country when there are more jobs than available workers. But from a number of projections and estimates — many included in our Corporate Voices research and studies — it’s a fact. And something that we need to start dealing with. It has important implications for education, business, young and mature workers and our country as a whole.

Yet I live in Ohio. We’ve lost thousands of high-paying management and manufacturing jobs in the last decade. And typical is the situation facing thousands of graduates of our colleges and universities here who have education degrees. Highly trained and highly qualified. But few teaching jobs in Ohio. So they are enthusiastically recruited by school systems out of state. At the same time, Ohio, particularly in the Northeast industrial part of the state, is attracting new jobs that require skilled workers. And as I understand it, some of these jobs even now go unfilled.

The contrast with other states, however, is jarring. Take Iowa as an example. A story printed May 31 in The New York Times — “As Job Surplus Grows in Iowa, Workers Are Calling the Shots” — provides an interesting case study of what we are likely to face throughout the country in the not-to-distant future. Here’s from the article:

As rising unemployment and layoffs beset workers around the country, Iowa faces a different problem: a surplus of jobs. Or to put it another way: a shortage of workers. A survey of companies by Iowa Workforce Development, a state agency, found as many as 48,000 job vacancies, in industries including financial services — Des Moines trails only Hartford as the nation’s insurance capital — health care and skilled manufacturing. One estimate projects the job surplus to reach 198,000 by 2014, with vacancies increasingly in professional positions. Greater Des Moines alone faces a shortfall of 60,000 workers in the next decade.

The state provides a small, advance view of what some economists predict will be a broader shortage of skilled workers in the next 20 or 30 years, as tens of millions of baby boomers retire from the workplace, and the economy produces more new jobs than workers. Potential consequences include slower economic growth and competitiveness, as well as higher wages for skilled workers and greater inequality.

Estimates of the national shortage run as high as 14 million skilled workers by 2020, according to widely cited projections by the labor economists Anthony P. Carnevale and Donna M. Desrochers.

Elyse Rosenblum, who manages workforce readiness projects for Corporate Voices, is putting the final touches on a white paper and other material that examines this important issue. We’ll distribute that information soon.

And the next time I talk to Elyse I’ll ask her what’s going to happen in Ohio. That will be interesting.

by Rob Jewell