EARN in Kentucky

Kentucky Network publications

• Op-Ed: The Problem is Bad Jobs, Not Bad Workers

  • September 21, 2018
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Ashley Spalding

  A full 30 percent of Kentuckians are working jobs that pay less than $12.50 an hour; fewer than half working in the private sector have an employer-sponsored retirement plan and just 44 percent have employer-sponsored health insurance. In economically distressed regions, even bad jobs are scarce. Yet we often hear that the problem facing Kentucky […]

  Jobs Wages

• State of Working Kentucky 2018

  • August 28, 2018
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Jason Bailey

  In this report, we provide a snapshot of the economy today by looking at the conditions facing Kentucky workers. What matters for them is not how much wealth is being created or how well the stock market is performing. Front of mind for workers is the availability of quality jobs in their community. On that […]

  EARN in the South Jobs State of Rural XX State of Working X

• Economic Agenda for a Thriving Commonwealth: Improve Job Quality

  • August 22, 2018
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Anna Baumann

  Improving job quality and economic security is one of the five key strategies in KCEP’s “Economic Agenda for a Thriving Commonwealth.” Kentucky can make real progress in these areas by updating existing and enacting new commonsense job quality standards. The successful experience of states that raise standards shows businesses benefit through increased productivity, reduced turnover […]

  Fair workweek Gender Wage Gap Jobs Minimum Wage Paid Leave Paid Sick Days Racial Wage Gap Wages

• Jobs Myth at Root of Policies Harming the Unemployed

  • March 5, 2018
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Jason Bailey

  Op-Ed from KCEP Executive Director Jason Bailey identifies the myth underlying a number of policies moving through the 2018 Kentucky General Assembly and the new Medicaid work requirements: that good-quality jobs are available for those who want them.

  Healthcare Jobs

• Workforce Development in Kentucky Should Encourage High-Road Jobs

  • February 12, 2018
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Ashley Spalding

  Kentucky’s workforce development conversations focus almost exclusively on employers’ needs and perspectives and ask how public dollars can improve perceived deficiencies in the workforce. Such an approach ignores the increasingly difficult conditions employees face in the labor market, and the responsibilities employers should have to provide jobs that meet acceptable community standards.

  Economic Development Job Training & Apprenticeships Jobs Wages

• Bill Would Limit Unemployment Insurance Benefits and Cut them Off Much Sooner

  • February 3, 2018
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Dustin Pugel

  Unemployment Insurance (UI) is a form of income-replacement coverage that keeps workers who lose their jobs out of poverty, boosts the economy in communities that experience downturns and helps to shorten recessions. Yet House Bill 252 would cut workers off UI much sooner, erode the maximum benefit compared to actual Kentucky wages and make fewer […]

  Jobs State of Rural XX

• High Road WIOA: Building Higher Job Quality into Workforce Development

  • December 17, 2015
  • Keystone Research Center
  • Stephen Herzenberg

  In response to the federal Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA), most states are now in the latter stages of developing federally required plans and policies for operating their systems of workforce development under WIOA. This process creates an unprecedented opportunity to build into each state’s plan concrete ideas for using state and local workforce […]

  Job Training & Apprenticeships Jobs