Mayoral Strategies and Priorities for the Future of Work
Adopted at the 87th Annual Meeting in 2019
WHEREAS, one recent study found that by the year 2030, up to one-third of American workers will need to retrain or change jobs to keep up with disruptions due to automation and a changing economy; and
WHEREAS, the consequences have been felt disproportionately in cities with manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution industries in which jobs have been replaced by robots, and the impact of artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and other rapid technological change is also being felt by workers and communities in occupations as diverse as truck drivers, real estate and insurance agents, paralegal assistants, and toll and parking lot attendants; and
WHEREAS, as much as a third of the U.S. workforce is currently engaged in temporary, contract or on-demand work, but those who earn all or some of their income as independent contractors, part-time workers, temporary workers or contingent workers find it difficult and expensive to access benefits and protections that are commonly provided to full-time employees, such as paid leave, workers' compensation, skills training, unemployment insurance, tax withholding and tax-advantaged retirement savings; and
WHEREAS, mayors are leading the way across the nation in confronting challenges and innovating new opportunities, such as a universal basic income experiment in Stockton, retraining and rehiring garbage crew workers in South Bend, a universal cradle-to-career system in West Sacramento, deploying digital badges and credentials in a dozen innovating cities, expanding the scope and reach of apprenticeships to include working adults and new occupations, and, in dozens of cities, guaranteeing tuition-free community college education and training; and
WHEREAS, a modern workforce development system capable of meeting the challenge of rapid market and technological change must be significantly more flexible and adaptive than the traditional peer-accreditation system at the core of federal postsecondary education policy, and it must be funded at a level that allows for serving all adults and not merely those who are already unemployed or dislocated; and
WHEREAS, the best long-term strategy for equipping Americans to take advantage of technological and market change is increasing the general education, adaptability, and learning capacity of city residents from infancy, which is why mayors have led the nation in early learning and preschool, high-quality afterschool partnerships, America's college promise, expansion of apprenticeships, and other evidence-based solutions; and
WHEREAS, the disruption and dislocation caused by the elimination of jobs and sectors is not only economic, but also affects the fabric and spirit of local communities as the identity and dignity afforded by work now require other foundations,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors commends mayors for leading the way with innovative solutions and initiatives to address the economic insecurity and community challenges associated with rapid changes to work, and encourages mayors to:
- Adopt skills-based hiring that makes eligible potential municipal employees who may not have traditional degrees but can demonstrate requisite skills and competencies.
- Develop apprenticeship options specifically for working and displaced adults.
- Provide municipal workers with reskilling training on an ongoing basis, and intensively when automation or other forces lead to the elimination or transformation of traditional municipal job classifications.
- Support, evaluate, and learn from pilot programs like universal basic income in Stockton.
- Innovate with strategies that move beyond jobs and income to account from the role of work as a source of dignity, identity, meaning, and community, and consider ways in which automation and related forces could increase community service, volunteerism, and civic engagement; and
- Expand apprenticeship opportunities and on-ramps to serve adults, in addition to young people.
- Offer recognition and incentives for skills gains, including nationally-recognized occupation credentials and transferable, stackable competencies.
- Systematically authorize the delivery of skills, training, and learning with support of federal Pell Grants, Perkins funds and other resources by providers beyond the limited scope of accreditation by traditional institutions, including credentials, badges, certificates, and other non-degree validated indicators of aptitude, knowledge, and skills.
- Substantially broaden the governance of accreditation to include mayors and other public representatives in addition to existing representation of postsecondary institutions, in order to assure that the public interest in quality, equity, innovation, and workforce development is served.
- Create lifelong learning savings accounts for adults to invest in their own ongoing training and upskilling, using education savings accounts as a tax-favored model.
- Establish a national or state-based system to provide or broker portable benefits, funded by employers and contracting entities like rideshare companies, but outside of the traditional one-to-one employment relationship.
- Allow independent contractors with steady earnings to opt-in to state unemployment insurance plans.
- Reform state-defined eligibility calculations that penalize nontraditional work.
- Require employers and contracting entities to provide a fully portable retirement savings option or facilitate enrollment in a state tax-deferred plan, and to enroll employees and independent contractors automatically with an opt-out options.
- Expand the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit at the state level to target relief for working families.
- Repeal outdated licensing requirements and streamline occupational and professional licensing to make it easier for affected workers to reskill as adults and secure expedited licensure.
- Consider a levy on companies that replace workers with robots or another form of tax on automation to replace federal, state, and local revenue from employment losses and make investments in retraining, reskilling, and employment and entrepreneurship.