CEO Library

More than 70 million Americans have some form of criminal record, which can limit their access to employment opportunities, eligibility for occupational licensure, and public benefits. The use of criminal background checks in the hiring process has also dramatically increased over the past decade, and there is reason to think that many criminal records are inaccurate. Prior research has not determined the extent of errors on criminal records.

To evaluate the impacts of Seattle’s Secure Scheduling legislation on the work schedule experiences of Seattle workers, the researchers who developed this paper surveyed a set of workers paid by the hour and employed at businesses covered by the Secure Scheduling Ordinance. The researchers collected pre-implementation, baseline survey data from Seattle workers in the Spring of 2017. The researchers then collected follow-up survey data from Seattle workers between Fall of 2017 and Spring of 2018, after the law had gone into effect.

Paper that presents results of a randomized controlled trial with 3,136 salaried factory workers in Bangladesh employed at two large garment factories which, at the beginning of the study, paid all wages in cash. The researchers randomly and individually assign workers within the same factory to either continue receiving their wages in cash or receive electronic wage payments through either a bank or mobile account.

Paper that presents a study of consumer learning in the context of payroll accounts, a simple financial technology that is currently being rolled out to millions of workers worldwide in response to demands for increased supply chain transparency and as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The researchers conducted a field experiment with a population of salaried factory workers in Bangladesh who, prior to the study, received their wages entirely in cash.

Paper that directly addresses the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) topic areas of “Improving Equal Employment Opportunities for Targeted Populations” and “Innovative Approaches to Evaluating the Impact of Department of Labor Worker Protection Programs and Policies Using Existing Administrative or Other Data” through each of its three main objectives. Multiple meetings with Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) staff helped to shape and refine the components of this study to best address the current needs of OFCCP, employers, and individuals with disabilities.

The literature review updates and expands the findings of the Career Pathways Design Study that included the Career Pathways Research and Evaluation Synthesis, an analysis of career pathways research as of February 2017, that found a substantial amount of research and evaluation studies would be published in the near future. The findings from the updated scan will inform the project’s planned meta-analysis, which will examine the extent to which different career pathways program components drive impacts found in this body of evidence.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been unprecedented changes in employment for America’s workforce. Many businesses ceased or scaled back operations and many state governments issued stay-at-home orders. Using key labor force statistics from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS), researchers with the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) sought to provide insight into the recent changes.

In 2017, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) to fund contractor Mathematica to conduct the Wage and Hour Division’s Compliance Strategies Evaluation. The impact design and outcomes evaluation aim to build evidence on how to assess effective compliance strategies and compliance assistance within WHD, including exploring ways WHD may use external data for ongoing monitoring and evaluation.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) developed a Technical Assistance (TA) Center Program comprising five TA Centers which seek to promote successful employment policy and practices for people with disabilities. Each center had a unique focus, including assisting customers with workforce accommodations, systems-level changes, and accessible technology, as well as finding ways to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been unprecedented changes in employment for America’s workforce. Many businesses ceased or scaled back operations and many state governments issued stay-at-home orders. Using key labor force statistics from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) researchers with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) sought to provide insight into the recent changes.

The report supplements the Wage and Hour Division’s (WHD) Compliance Strategies Evaluation by exploring whether and how data that are housed outside of WHD could be integrated with WHD’s administrative data. The researchers explored how external data can be integrated with WHD’s case management system, the Wage and Hour Investigative Support and Reporting Database (WHISARD), and the limitations of doing so.

The report examines information from a literature and database review that identified knowledge gaps, discussions with Wage and Hour Division (WHD) about compliance strategies, and discussions with a panel of experts about compliance strategies. The researchers then developed a framework for WHD and other agencies to consider when designing processes for monitoring and evaluating strategies and outcomes.

The report provides intervention and evaluation designs for two behavioral intervention (BI) trials that, if implemented, would test whether webinar registrations increase when behavioral strategies are applied to emails targeting a given industry. To design the study, researchers followed a six-step process developed by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for designing and conducting BI studies that has resulted in trials that produce meaningful evidence.

The brief presents findings on how customers of the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) and the Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion (EARN) used the Centers.

The brief presents findings on customer perceptions of services received from two Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) Technical Assistance (TA) Centers: the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) and the Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion (EARN).

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) has a mission to develop and influence policies and practices to increase the number and quality of employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)’s Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), in partnership with the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) contracted with Mathematica Policy Research to synthesize existing literature and data related to WHD compliance strategies.

In 2012 and 2014, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractors Urban Institute and Abt Associates to conduct the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Initiative National Evaluation. The implementation and outcomes evaluation, as well as a synthesis of third-party grantee evaluations, aims to document promising practices to deliver workforce education and training programs. 

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation describes the activities among all 263 of the Round 4 TAACCCT colleges based on a survey conducted in the fourth and final year of their grants. The findings support a growing body of evidence—from the national evaluation and third-party evaluations across all rounds—on the colleges’ partnerships, participant recruitment activities, and the strategies that encourage accelerated and enhanced learning, college persistence and completion, and connections to employment.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation describes the strategies implemented by the Rounds 1 and 2 TAACCCT colleges. The introduction provides an overview of the grant program, the national evaluation, and the implementation study.

Developed under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation, the brief highlights employers’ perspectives on community college relationships and offers insights for leaders and practitioners that can help them tailor their own approaches to helping colleges and employers in their local communities develop and maintain strong and productive relationships.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation synthesizes implementation findings from the Round 3 third-party evaluations, for which grantees procured third-party evaluators as part of their grant-funded projects. This report focuses on the capacity-building activities the Round 3 grantees implemented to support “systems reform innovations” or “systems changes” within and across institutions to provide education and training to adult learners leading to high-demand jobs.

The brief describes evidence-to-date on career pathways generally, the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) grantmaking approach, and the extent to which grant-funded colleges implemented key elements of career pathways (defined for purposes of this brief as those in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)). It also examines additional ways colleges used the grants to build career pathways systems.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation presents survey results across all four rounds of TAACCCT grants to describe how the implementation of grant activities differed for three subgroups of colleges: rural colleges, colleges whose grant activities focused on their local economy’s recovery and expansion, and colleges that implemented work-based learning activities.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation synthesizes impact findings from 23 Round 3 third party evaluations that used quasi-experimental methods to estimate the impact of the TAACCCT projects on participants’ education and employment outcomes. Evaluators used statistical strategies to draw comparison groups that were similar on observable characteristics to the TAACCCT participant groups.