The Worker Institute brings together researchers, educators and students with practitioners in labor, business and policymaking to address issues related to confronting systemic inequality and building a fair economy, robust democracy and just society. We will share opinion, analysis, research, data, insights and training from our faculty and staff.
Equity at Work
Lively Panel Launches Worker Institute’s New Prevailing Wage Report
Prevailing wage laws protect New Yorkers from a race to the bottom, panelists said during the launch of the new report by Cornell ILR’s The Worker Institute on Sept. 12.
Labor Day 2023: ILR’s Worker Institute Reflects and Recommits
We at the Worker Institute are proud of our continued work to support union and worker justice leaders with research, training, and education. We seek to equip change-makers with the skills to challenge the increasing levels of income inequality and worker precarity.
For more than 300 days, Amazon workers talked with their peers to build relationships, trust and, ultimately, a union that many thought would never be possible, Amazon Labor Union leaders said at ILR during Union Days.
This report explores these themes and discusses how policymakers, practitioners, and advocates are addressing the inequities in three sectors: the child care economy, the clean energy economy, and the construction trades, as presented in the Equity in focus—Job Creation for a Just Society series.
Expanding Essential Unemployment Coverage in NYS Webinar
As our labor market changes, as our needs change and as new social risks arise, we need an unemployment compensation program to work in tandem with these changes
In-person NYC Workshop: Gender Based Violence and Harassment: The Union’s Role in Prevention, Intervention and Cultural Change
Join us in NYC on June 15 and 21, 2022. The resurgence of the #MeToo movement, resurgence in anti-transgender legislation across the country, and the continued impacts of the pandemic have challenged unions to take on issues of gender-based violence.
Book Launch: The Future We Need: Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century
Join us on May 2nd at 11 AM EST for an in-person and virtual book launch of The Future We Need: Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century, written by Erica Smiley and Sarita Gupta that will be livestreamed.
New study documents low wages and precarity of nail salon workers in New York State despite recent legislation
“Unvarnished: Precarity and Poor Working Conditions for Nail Salon Workers in New York State,” highlights the challenges of raising standards in the nail salon industry and also calls attention to the role of worker organizing and advocacy in driving industry change.
New study documents workplace sexual harassment and violence in California janitorial industry
Today, the Worker Institute at Cornell ILR released a new report that documents experiences of workplace sexual harassment in the California janitorial industry, as well as the conditions that hinder reporting and impose silence.
Sweeping Change: Report Launch, November 9th, 2021
"Sweeping Change” is a new report that documents the prevalence and experiences of workplace sexual harassment in the California janitorial industry. Join us virtually on November 9th, 2021 (6-8 pm EST I 3-5 pm PST) for a report launch featuring a conversation with janitor peer educators leading change in their workplaces.
Basic training isn’t enough to stem sexual harassment in the workplace, cultural audits are needed to measure the “pulse” of organizations, according to KC Wagner.
New Report: A ride-service program for homecare workers in Upstate New York provided substantial financial benefits
A new study released today from Cornell’s ILR Worker Institute, “A High Road for Home Care: Program Assessment of the Healthcare Workers Rising Transportation Pilot,” examines a ride-service program for homecare workers in the upstate New York region that was launched during the height of the pandemic last year.
A ride-service program for homecare workers in Upstate New York during the pandemic provided substantial financial benefits and improved their quality of life, says a new report from the Worker Institute's Equity at Work Initiative.
New Report: New Yorkers Indicate That Retaliation Prevents Them From Exposing Workplace Dangers
Workers in NY are more likely than those in the rest of the country to feel pressure to refrain from reporting workplace problems such as sexual harassment and health and safety violations to avoid employer retaliation, according to analysis from the National Employment Law Project and the Worker Institute.
Sexual harassment at work can cost survivors up to $1.3 million over a lifetime
Market watch
New report from Worker Institute partner , Times Up! identifies the financial and economic tolls that workplace sexual harassment takes on survivors themselves
In collaboration with the Gender Policy Report, researchers at the The Worker Institute co-authored a new report that provides guidance on several measures and principles they say should be built into any new child care, long-term care and health care investments in order to drive greater equity.
Quid Pro Quo Workplace Sexual Harassment Widespread Across New York State
Results from Cornell Survey Research Institute’s annual Empire State Poll find 1 in 10 adult New Yorkers report experiencing “someone in a position of authority at their workplace trying to trade job benefits for sexual favors.”
– A new report released today by researchers from the Worker Institute at Cornell University’s ILR School found that 10.9 percent of New York residents—12.2 percent of women and 9.5 percent of men—report having experienced quid pro quo workplace sexual harassment at some point in their careers.
Worker Institute Unveils Report on Engaging Men as Allies at Vera House, Inc.
The report analyzes Vera House Inc.’s 12 Men Model, a program designed to engage men as allies in preventing domestic and sexual violence in their networks and communities.
TS Bambii, a sex worker representative from VOCAL-NY and DecrimNY, spoke about the economic necessity of sex work, and its inherent devaluation and criminalization at the panel “Labor Rights for Marginalized Workers,” hosted by the Worker Institute for Union Days.
Wagner’s work was part of a report to the United Nations Commission on Women meetings in March in New York City. The report is titled “Ending Gender-Based Violence in the World of Work in the United States”.
Union leaders, activists, policymakers, academics, and arts and entertainment workers discussed changes in the industry and the challenges of representing its workers.
