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About the Institute

About us

The Worker Institute at Cornell engages in research and education on contemporary labor issues, to generate innovative thinking and solutions to problems related to work, economy and society. The institute brings together researchers, educators and students with practitioners in labor, business and policymaking to confront growing economic and social inequalities, in the interests of working people and their families. A core value of the Worker Institute is that collective representation and workers’ rights are vital to a fair economy, robust democracy and just society. Learn more about all of our offerings.

Worker Institute

Core Offerings

The Worker Institute serves as a hub for policy research, publication, and training for policymakers, entrepreneurs, and activists engaged in the public debate to reduce economic inequality.

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Student Engagement

Student Engagement

The Worker Institute is committed to engaging Cornell ILR undergraduate and graduate students through our courses, research fellowships, graduate programs and other professional development opportunities.

 

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Learn more about our work with students.

In the News

Media Mentions

ILR’s Worker Institute Helps Guide a Newly Energized Labor Movement

Cornellians
Led by Patricia Campos-Medina ’96, MPA ’97, it conducts research and outreach on today’s rapidly changing employment landscape
ILR’s Worker Institute Helps Guide a Newly Energized Labor Movement

When the pendulum of justice moves backward, your generation must resist it | A 2022 commencement essay

NJ.com
In an open letter to the Class of 2022, Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute, says "You must be comfortable with the tension that exists between going along to get along or challenging the status quo."
When the pendulum of justice moves backward, your generation must resist it | A 2022 commencement essay

NYC Food Delivery Workers Face a ‘Harrowing World’

Cornell Chronicle
New York City’s app-based delivery workers regularly face nonpayment or underpayment, unsanitary or unsafe working conditions and the risk of violence, according to a new ILR School report.
NYC Food Delivery Workers Face a ‘Harrowing World’

Why restaurant workers are demanding better wages and working conditions

CHRON News
Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University’s ILR School, said workers are feeling more empowered, both in the workplace and in the political arena.
Why restaurant workers are demanding better wages and working conditions

What Biden's worker organizing task force could mean for non-union employers

HR Dive
According to Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of The Worker Institute, President Biden’s worker organizing task force, on a broad level, serves as a recognition of issues raised by workers and their advocates, ranging from income inequality to the declining influence of labor unions.
What Biden's worker organizing task force could mean for non-union employers

A Just Transition? On Brooklyn's Waterfront, Oil Companies and Community Activists Join Together to Create an Offshore Wind Proj

Inside Climate News
New York requires that all major renewable energy developments meet prevailing wage agreements and local or national procurement guidelines that encourage domestic manufacturing. But Lara Skinner, director of the Labor Leading on Climate Initiative at the Worker Institute, says other states are far behind.
A Just Transition? On Brooklyn's Waterfront, Oil Companies and Community Activists Join Together to Create an Offshore Wind Proj

Blog: Latest News and Events

Read more stories from the Worker Institute Blog

Cornell’s Last Mile Delivery Study Finds Majority of Non-Union Delivery Drivers Would Unionize

Preliminary data from Cornell’s Last Mile Delivery study finds that a majority of its non-unionized package delivery driver respondents think that their interests would be better represented by a union and would support unionization at their employers.
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Cornell’s Last Mile Delivery Study Finds Majority of Non-Union Delivery Drivers Would Unionize

The Incursion of Private Equity into New York State Home Care

Findings from a two-year research project that explores private equity’s incursion into home care in New York State, its relationship to structural racism and how agency structure shapes working conditions, worker voice and what this means for quality of care.
RWJF0930
The Incursion of Private Equity into New York State Home Care

Private Equity Ownership Results in Poor Working Conditions in NYS Home Care

Cornell Chronicle
Private equity firms’ investment in home care agencies perpetuates poor working conditions for workers by continuing the exploitation that is prevalent across the industry, according to a new study from the ILR School’s Worker Institute.
A home healthcare worker helps and elderly woman
Private Equity Ownership Results in Poor Working Conditions in NYS Home Care

Lois Gray Innovation Initiative 

Lois Gray, ILR School faculty member

The Lois Gray Innovation Initiative was founded by labor pioneer Lois Gray to generate innovative thinking and solutions to problems related to work, economy, and society.

The Lois Gray Innovation Fund provide financial incentives for collaboration between resident and extension faculty in relation to priority programs of The Worker Institute.

It ensures faculty, researchers and students have the opportunity to fulfill the institute’s mission of advancing worker rights and collective representation.

Explore the initiative