CEO Library

The issue brief provides a step-by-step guide to using the Worker Paid Leave Usage Simulation (Worker PLUS) Model to perform an example policy simulation of the recently proposed parental leave program for federal workers. The model uses as its intakes the 2018 U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Family and Medical Leave Act Employee Survey and the sample of civilian employees at the federal government from the 2014–2018 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample and applies program parameters that best reflect the proposed leave program.

In the issue brief, researchers report findings from testing and validating the Worker Paid Leave Usage Simulation (Worker PLUS) using data from the 2018 U.S. Department of Labor Family and Medical Leave Act Employee Survey; the 2014–2018 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample; and benefit outlay data published by state paid leave programs in California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. The brief also discusses the implication of the model testing results on choice of simulation methods, assessment of program take-up rates, and estimation of program benefit outlays.

In the issue brief, researchers provide a benchmarking study of the Worker Paid Leave Usage Simulation (Worker PLUS) Model simulation results. The results from the Worker PLUS model are compared to those from an existing paid leave simulation model developed by Albelda and Clayton-Matthews (2017, the ACM model) and actual program administrative data. Simulation results compared include program benefit outlays and program participation for three state paid leave programs in California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

The issue brief provides a benchmarking study of the Worker Paid Leave Usage Simulation (Worker PLUS) Model’s Benefit Financing module. Researchers compare payroll tax revenue estimates from Worker PLUS to actual program administrative data for three state paid leave programs (California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island). The study shows that the Benefit Financing module produces conservative revenue estimates in these cases, by underestimating the payroll tax revenue by about 10% to 15%.

In 2018, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractor The Urban Institute to design and conduct an evaluation that examines critical policy issues, lessons learned, and challenges states faced administering Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs during the Great Recession that began in 2007 and the economic recovery that followed.

In 2018, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractor The Urban Institute to design and conduct an evaluation that examines critical policy issues, lessons learned, and challenges states faced administering Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs during the Great Recession that began in 2007 and the economic recovery that followed. Additionally, the opportunity to study these topics as they relate to the COVID-19 pandemic was incorporated into the study.

In 2021, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and commissioned contractor Summit Consulting, LLC (Summit) to explore issues related to future research on application or user fees in programs administered by ETA based on a review of regulations, guidance, and selected research concerning such fees under the Administrative Data Research and Analysis portfolio of studies.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 included multiple provisions to strengthen service quality, access, accountability, and coordination across many programs. The report focuses on implementation of WIOA’s changes to various aspects of the WIOA Title I Youth program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. The report covers changes regarding funding, service delivery approaches, performance accountability, and program elements.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 included multiple provisions to strengthen service quality, access, accountability, and coordination across many programs. The report focuses on implementation of key changes to the Title I Adult and Dislocated Worker programs under WIOA. Discussed are the successes and challenges, promising practices, and possible areas for further technical assistance related to WIOA for these two programs.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation, describes early outcomes of Round 4 TAACCCT colleges, describes education, earnings, and self-sufficiency outcomes of participants about 15 months after entry into 34 programs at nine selected Round 4 grantees. It also describes the implementation of those grantees’ programs.

Appendices to the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program - Round 4 Early Outcomes Study Final Report that include Baseline Data, Follow-up Survey Data, Unemployment Insurance Wage Data, Service Impacts, Methodology for Estimating Outcomes by Program, Implementation Data Collection, and Expanded Results.

Profiles of nine Round 4 Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant grantees—four single-institution and five consortia—whose grant-supported programs were included in the outcomes Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program - Round 4 Early Outcomes Study. The profiles use data collected during site visits conducted in April and May 2017.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation synthesizes findings implementation and impact findings from 71 Round 4 third-party evaluations. It summarizes what has been learned from the fourth and final round of the grant program to support a growing body of evidence on strategies that encourage accelerated learning, college persistence and completion, and connections to employment. The synthesis provides implications for future community college and workforce development initiatives and how to evaluate them.

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 brief provides findings from an implementation study of the Evaluation of Community College Interventions for Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). In 2014, DOL’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) awarded two community colleges with 5-year Pathways to Careers: Community Colleges for Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities (Pathways) grants to increase their capacity to provide inclusive integrated education and career development and training services to young adults with disabilities.

The report presents findings of the Pathways to Careers: Community Colleges for Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities (Pathways) evaluation consisting of an implementation study and a descriptive outcomes study. The evaluation is descriptive only, given the small numbers of participants included in the Pathways project and lack of a comparison group to measure impacts. The evaluation incorporates an overall design based on mixed data collection methods to support two interrelated and interwoven studies focused on implementation processes and programmatic outputs and outcomes.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Healthcare workers are well known to be at high risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) from patient handling. In 2011, California passed the Hospital Patient and Health Care Worker Injury Protection Act (AB 1136) that requires acute care hospitals to implement safe patient handling policies and programs to prevent patient handling injuries (PHIs). In 2014, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) established regulations to implement the safe patient handling law.

The researchers who produced this paper evaluate health outcomes for workers subject to incentivized compensation in an effort to better understand the effects and implications of modern day performance and piece rate pay in the growing gig economy sector. This paper is the first to explore the effects of pay type on worker health outcomes in a large and representative longitudinal and cross-sector panel of the U.S. workforce.

The report presents the results of an empirical study of ten years of employee misclassification summary judgment decisions by U.S. district courts, in which judges were asked to determine whether a worker was an employee or an independent contractor. Using text mining, machine learning classifiers, and regression analysis, the research reveals among 747 opinions that the judge ruled that the plaintiff was an independent contractor in thirty-eight percent of cases, and that the plaintiffs’ occupation was a strong predictor of outcomes.

The report analyzes the impact of President Obama’s 2014 executive order forbidding federal contractors to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). Researchers use data from charges of SOGI discrimination filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or a state nondiscrimination agency from 2013-2016. The charge data for private sector employers are matched to the EEOC’s EEO-1 of establishments to create a pooled cross section dataset of establishments with and without charges.