Publications
- Farmworker Overtime
In 2022, the Oregon state legislature passed HB 4002 which mandates overtime pay for farmworkers. In this policy brief, LERC Research Associate Mary Follo assesses the primary research cited by Oregon growers in opposition to the legislation. She finds a number of methodological problems with this research that cast doubt on their conclusions…. - Child Care Workforce in Crisis
This report documents how home-based child care providers and their families pay the price for both poor wages and working conditions in the rest of the economy, and for our stingy public child care programs. Families can’t afford the true cost of care and our severely underfunded public child care programs are too small and weak to make up the difference…. - A State of Immigrants
LERC announces the release of a new report: “A State of Immigrants: A New Look at the Immigrant Experience in Oregon.” The book was edited by LERC Director, Bob Bussel and produced by LERC Staff, with contributions from scholars across the state…. - Examining the Auto Industry’s Future
In this report, LERC professor Gordon Lafer finds that one of the most critical factors that will determine the quality of EV manufacturing jobs is whether employees will have the right to organize labor unions without fear or intimidation…. - Assessing Oregon Apprenticeships
This report examines the progress women and workers of color have made entering the Oregon construction industry. We find that pre-apprenticeship programs and targeted recruitment efforts over the last decade have had a significant impact creating a more diverse construction workforce…. - Detailed Estimates of Oregon Share of American Rescue Plan Act
The American Rescue Plan was signed into law on March 11th and will send close to $6 billion to cities, counties, universities, school districts, and state agencies across Oregon. While the Department of Education and the U.S. Treasury are still developing the detailed spending criteria, funds are expected to be dispersed starting in mid-May. This… - Essential Work, Disposable Workers
This report highlights the growing visibility and vulnerability of food processing workers in rural Washington—primarily immigrants and people of color—who faced severe COVID-19 outbreaks due to crowded, high-risk working conditions. Workers also struggled to access public relief due to bureaucratic hurdles, misinformation and language barriers. … - Essential Yet Invisible
Essential Yet Invisible explores how COVID-19 has intensified the risks and complexities of one of Oregon’s fastest growing occupations, homecare work. Workers are often left to independently adjust care routines and adopt additional health and safety measures. These heightened challenges disproportionately impact women—especially women of color…. - Homecare Work in Oregon
This report covers the union and nonunion homecare industry and workforce in Oregon, with a particular focus on nonunion private agency homecare work…. - Online Charter Schools
Online charter schools have grown especially rapidly since the COVID-19 pandemic. While online options are important for some students, online charter schools provide an inferior quality of education. Yet despite having much lower costs, such schools generally receive the same dollars per student in public funding – or nearly the same – as do traditional schools. All told, the report estimates that Californians waste $600 million per year by overpaying for the costs of online charter education…. - Prevailing Wage Report
This study by the Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) and the Illinois Economic Policy Institute highlights the positive effects of Oregon’s Prevailing Wage Rate law. The research shows that the law does not raise construction project costs, but it does enhance bid competition, increase the number of contracts awarded to local firms, and improve both wages and access to health insurance for workers… - Climate Action and Union Jobs
States are tackling climate change through diverse strategies like renewable energy goals and climate action plans, emphasizing the need for collaboration among environmental advocates, policymakers, and labor groups. Organizations such as the BlueGreen Alliance are fostering connections between labor unions and climate initiatives to ensure support for policies that include job creation, worker organizing, and transition assistance…. - Persistent Unpredictability
In 2017, Oregon passed the first statewide legislation (SB 828) to regulate unpredictable scheduling practices in retail, food service, and hospitality. This study reveals persistent scheduling instability among these workers, as employers continue to make last-minute changes and circumvent predictability pay requirements…. - Fear at work: How employers threaten, intimidate, and harass
Although most American workers want unions, fewer than 1% achieve this due to weak federal labor laws. These laws permit employer intimidation tactics—like threats of job loss and forced anti-union messaging—that would be illegal in political elections. A $340 million “union avoidance” industry helps employers exploit these loopholes. The report highlights unionization efforts at a Georgia tire plant and a Texas streaming company, showing how coercion undermines workers’ rights to collective bargaining…. - Federal Labor Law and Union Elections
This report provides a comprehensive analysis of employer conduct in union representation elections supervised by the NLRB. Using data obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, we find that unfair labor practice (ULP) charges were filed against employers in four out of ten union representation elections that took place in 2016 and 2017. In addition to the analysis of employer conduct in union representation elections, the report provides information on the “union avoidance” industry…. - The Union Advantage
This report finds that unions in Oregon raise wages, improve health and pension benefits, reduce overall income inequality, and significantly decrease racial and gender inequalities. Oregon unions also make it much less likely that workers will need to rely on public benefits such as food stamps or welfare…. - The Care Revolution
The Care Revolution tells the inspiring story of the first wave of organizing by Oregon’s home care workers. Grounded in extensive interviews with workers, the film explains how union representation has transformed the lives of caregivers and improved the quality of care for the people they serve…. - The Cost of Charter Schools
This analysis reveals that charter school expansion caused major fiscal shortfalls in three California districts in 2016–17. When students transfer to charter schools, funding follows them, but districts retain fixed costs, forcing cuts to vital services. The California Charter School Act prevents school boards from considering financial impact when approving new charters. This report urges empowering officials to factor in fiscal and educational consequences before authorizing charter schools…. - Spending Blind
California’s charter school sector has grown over 600% in two decades, fueled by $2.5 billion in public funding for facilities. Despite ambitious goals, this report finds that funding decisions lack alignment with educational priorities. Schools are often built in areas that don’t need them and without regard for innovation or performance. The analysis urges policymakers to reconsider how facility funds are allocated to ensure they support high-quality, needed, and strategically placed educational options…. - Rise of Irregular Scheduling
Nearly one in six of the nation’s workforce is employed in a job with hours that fluctuate from week to week and incomes that vary paycheck to paycheck. People are confronting tremendous uncertainty about the size of their paycheck, and lack the ability to plan their lives, including childcare, further schooling, medical care and other essential life activities. In this report, we call attention to these issues and offer policy solutions to mitigate the impacts of irregular scheduling…. - Right to Work is the Wrong Answer
In 2015, Wisconsin debated a “right to work” law aimed at weakening private sector unions and lowering wages, in the hopes of luring outside manufacturers to move into the state. This report provides a detailed analysis both of the national data showing that “right to work” laws fail to spur employment growth and examining the particular economic bases of the Wisconsin state economy to show that these would not be positively affected by such a law…. - Do Poor Kids Deserve Lower-quality Education
Numerous states have debated or adopted laws that create special school districts, where low-performing public schools are taken over by the state and converted into privately-run charter schools. This report provides a comprehensive assessment of school takeover strategies that end up forcing a dumbed-down version of education on poor families instead of providing the funding that could guarantee them the same quality education that suburban parents insist on for their own children…. - Oregon Workforce Report
Many Oregonians are working hard but not getting ahead, and families across Oregon are struggling to make ends meet. At the same time, the country’s largest corporations are reporting record profits. In the “High Cost of Low Wages,” we share new research about Oregon ‘s low-wage workers and document the impact their low-wage jobs have on their lives…. - Bullying in the Workplace
This paper explores the growing recognition of workplace bullying and mobbing in the U.S. and Canada, highlighting the challenges of translating consensus into effective policies that balance the interests of employees, employers, and unions. It offers guidance for advocates and arbitrators by reviewing definitions, impacts, policy language, and arbitration cases, with a primary focus on U.S. examples and limited Canadian applicability due to structural differences…. - Legislative Attack on American Wages
This report examines how state legislatures nationwide have advanced efforts to weaken wages, labor standards, and workplace protections, particularly for non-union workers. It highlights how these initiatives align with broader attacks on unionized employees’ rights. By tracing the spread of similar bills across states, the report reveals that these efforts often stem not from local economic needs, but from a coordinated national agenda driven by corporate interests seeking to reduce labor costs and erode worker protections…. - Paycheck Protection Racket
In many states, legislators have been encouraged to support so-called “Paycheck Protection” legislation. Such bills prohibit unions from deducting members’ dues without annual written authorization from each member – on the basis that unions may be engaged in political activity and workers should not be forced to contribute to those activities without their individual approval. This report is the definitive study showing what’s wrong with such laws…. - All Costs Considered
This study is an extension of two previous studies conducted by the Labor Education and Research Center that examined the transfer of school support services to private operation in the state of Oregon. The focus of this study is on student transportation services, which has perhaps become the most active arena for contracting out within school districts…. - Does ‘Right to Work’ create jobs?
Unfortunately for Oklahomans, so-called “right-to-work” never delivered on its promise. The law was promoted as a strategy for boosting manufacturing employment by convincing out-of-state production facilities to relocate to Oklahoma. Yet the facts show the exact opposite of what right-to-work supporters predicted. Not only has manufacturing employment failed to rise in Oklahoma, but, after increasing steadily the previous ten years, it has fallen steadily since….