There’s no denying that service businesses like retail and fast-food chains have been engines of job growth. But, these industries typically offer bad jobs—low wages, scant benefits, and erratic work schedules. And not just low wages, but poverty-level wages. Nearly one in four working adults in America cannot support a family. Why such bad jobs? Many companies—especially those offering low prices—believe it’s the only way to keep costs low and profits high. Even advocates for higher wages believe they will come at a cost—either higher prices for customers or lower profits for companies.
In MIT Sloan professor Zeynep Ton’s game-changing book, The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs & Boost Profits, she proves that it is possible to offer good jobs to workers, low prices and excellent service to customers, and great returns to shareholders all at the same time. What makes good jobs not only possible but very profitable—even in low-cost service businesses—is a set of counterintuitive choices that transforms the company’s investment in workers into high performance. What are these choices? Offer less, combine standardization with empowerment, cross-train, and operate with slack. It’s a combination that lowers operating costs, increases worker productivity, and, as The Good Jobs Strategy shows over and over, puts workers—yes, even cashiers and stockroom workers—at the center of a company’s success.
This event features Zeynep Ton (Adjunct Associate Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management) and moderator Maureen Conway (Executive Director, Economic Opportunities Program, The Aspen Institute).
This event is part of the Working in America series, an ongoing discussion series hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program that highlights an array of critical issues affecting low- and moderate-income workers in the United States and ideas for improving and expanding economic opportunities for working people. For more information, visit as.pn/workinginamerica.
The Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy. We recognize that race, gender, and place intersect with and intensify the challenge of economic inequality and we address these dynamics by advancing an inclusive vision of economic justice. For over 25 years, EOP has focused on expanding individuals’ opportunities to connect to quality work, start businesses, and build economic stability that provides the freedom to pursue opportunity. Learn more at as.pn/eop.