Corporate Voices' Webinar  

The New Face of Flexibility: Innovations Across Industries

Date: Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Time: 3 - 4 p.m. EST

Registration: Seating is extremely limited! Register for this free webinar today! 

Amidst stubbornly high levels of unemployment and sluggish levels of economic growth, how can the business community use workplace flexibility to maintain a competitive advantage? Best-practice businesses have long known the business case for workplace flexibility and have adopted flexibility practices to build more effective, modern workplaces. What are the new trends in flexibility across industries and countries, and how are businesses using it as a key way to facilitate other best-practice employee support and talent development programs?

Please join Corporate Voices for Working Families on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 3 p.m. for a webinar where researchers, practitioners and business leaders will discuss these pressing issues. Amy Richman of WFD Consulting will discuss findings from a recently updated Corporate Voices report, "Business Impacts of Flexibility: An Imperative for Expansion." Richman will shed new light on how flexibility has taken on an ever-growing role as a strategic business imperative for domestic and global enterprises, and how it is being used across different industries. Kathie Lingle of WorldatWork's Alliance for Work-Life Progress will present findings from a new global study on men and work-life integration. Olivia Lang of CVS Caremark will illustrate how the company is using workplace flexibility as a key component in its "Pathways to Pharmacy" talent development program, and Richard Crespin of Corporate Responsibility Officers Association will present innovative ways organizations can use flexibility in corporate reporting initiatives.

To view the full webinar description and speaker line-up, and to register, visit Corporate Voices' website.

Learn and Earn Programs Will Help Make Jobs of the Future a Reality for Many Workers

Recently, the Economics and Statistics Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing that science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs grew at a faster rate than non-STEM jobs over the last decade. Importantly, growth in STEM jobs is also projected to grow at a faster rate (17 percent) than growth in non-STEM jobs (9.8 percent) between 2008 and 2018. The report, "STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future," also finds that STEM workers earn about 25 percent more and are less likely to experience joblessness than their non-STEM counterparts.

This rosy outlook in STEM employment, however, calls into question our ability as a nation to match that future job growth with qualified workers. These optimistic projections are occurring at a time when employers report difficulty being able to find appropriately-skilled workers, highlighting a skills gap in our labor force.  They are occurring at a time when tuition burdens have increased dramatically for middle-class families, and at a time when median incomes have stagnated. And, they are occurring at a time when 75 percent of Americans think that college is too expensive for most to afford, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center this spring.

Given these challenges, how can the business community play a key role in helping to strengthen our nation's workforce so that workers can be eligible for the jobs of the future, and help drive innovation and economic competitiveness? Read about how Peggy Walton, Corporate Voices' Senior Director for Workforce Readiness, addressed this issue at a recent Pacific NorthWest Economic Region Summit on Corporate Voices' blog.

A Growing Wealth Gap: The Haves and Have-Nots

The persistence of income inequality in the United States is a familiar refrain. A related story earns less notice but should prompt equal concern-and that is the unprecedented gap in household wealth among groups of Americans. A new study this week from the Pew Research Center reveals that the median wealth of the average white family was 20 times greater than that of the average black family, and 18 times greater than the typical Hispanic family, in 2009. That's the largest gap since the government began collecting the data a quarter of a century ago, and twice what it was before the start of the recent recession.

Wealth is defined as the difference between household assets (houses, cars, bank and retirement accounts, and such) and debts (mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards, for example). By that measure, the picture is bleak indeed. The average white family had $113,149 in net worth, compared to $6,325 for Hispanics and $5,677 for blacks.

The recession took a toll on families across the board, of course, but whites lost comparatively least. Between 2005 and 2009, Hispanic household wealth dropped a stunning 66 percent; African Americans lost 53 percent; and white families lost 16 percent. Mainly to blame: The meltdown in the housing market, where minority families tended to have more of their net worth invested.

Corporate Voices' active body of work on family economic stability aims to help create working conditions that empower lower-wage families and promote their economic self-sufficiency. For more on our initiatives and how they can assist your lower-wage employees, please contact us today.

First Focus Releases 2011 Children's Budget and Honors Sen. Patty Murray as Champion for Children

Last week, First Focus, a bipartisan advocacy group and close ally of Corporate Voices in its Ready by 21 initiative, held the annual Children's Budget Summit. Released at the summit: The 2011 Children's Budget, which documents how the federal government has funded 180 different children's programs-everything from child health and education investments to prevention of child abuse and juvenile crime. Overall, national investments for children and youth dropped nearly 10 percent in the 2011 federal budget. And as of this writing, the looming debt ceiling crisis may result in even more cuts in funding to services that directly benefit children. Said Bruce Lesley, First Focus' president: "There is no question that tough times call for tough measures, but reducing spending on children's programs and jeopardizing the future of America's next generation is not the way to solve our budget and deficit problems."

Congratulations to U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a close Corporate Voices ally, for being recognized as a "Champion for Children" at last week's event.

Also released at the Children's Budget Summit was Kids' Share 2011, an Urban Institute-Brookings Institution report. The report shows that while there was a temporary rise in spending for children and youth in the 2010 federal budget, the share of total spending devoted to the nation's children will fall to just 8 percent by the end of the next decade. Before long, Washington will be paying more in interest on our federal debt than on programs that benefit America's children, it concludes.

Corporate Voices' Legislative Update

The Fair Labor Standards Act, well known to employers, sets forth rules and regulations concerning minimum wage, working hours, and overtime pay-ensuring fair conditions for more than 130 million workers in America today. But the statute, enacted in 1938 during the Great Depression, has created unintended challenges for employers as the workplace has evolved over time. On July 14, the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections convened a hearing on "The Fair Labor Standards Act: Is It Meeting the Needs of the 21st Century Workplace?"

Employers shared a range of concerns about current interpretations of the Act. Top among them: Ambiguity as to how workers should be classified under FLSA has led to a proliferation of lawsuits against businesses, and has had a chilling effect on workplace flexibility and even job creation. J. Randall MacDonald, Senior Vice President for Human Resources at IBM, testifying on behalf of the HR Policy Association, explained that "there are major areas of disconnect between this 70-year-old labor law and today's rapidly changing workplace environment." The law "must be modernized, clarified, and made relevant for our 21st-century business environment and workforce if U.S. companies are to thrive."

Corporate Voices will follow developments in Congress on the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the prospects for bipartisan legislation to address employers' concerns.

What We're Reading

A Vision for Economic Renewal, New America Foundation, July 26, 2011.  

Education For Business' Sake, Chief Learning Officer, July 26, 2011.   

The Benefits of Flextime (to Employers), BNET.com, July 22, 2011.

Corporate Voices' Blog Posts