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The Precarious Work Initiative focuses on the labor rights and socioeconomic conditions of low-wage and contingent workers, who receive little or no benefits and have largely no institutional or legal protection.

These workers constitute the most vulnerable segment of the workforce. Their ranks include, but are not limited to, day laborers, immigrants, domestic workers, young workers, the unemployed and the formerly incarcerated.

The challenges facing them have become increasingly prevalent in the labor market and the economy as a whole, to the point that core industries such as construction, health care, manufacturing, media and entertainment include growing numbers of workers employed under precarious conditions.

The Precarious Workforce Initiative draws on the research and expertise of the ILR School faculty and associates in the areas of labor rights, collective representation, leadership and strategy development. We conduct research and advance the debate about policies and strategies that would improve working conditions and enforcement of labor rights for workers facing precarious employment.

Additionally, this initiative offers programs that provide technical assistance, as well as leadership and organizational development opportunities for non-traditional organizations representing low-wage and marginalized workers.

Events

ILR Hosts 2025 UALE Northeast Summer School for Women+ in Unions and Worker Organizations

This summer, the reach of labor education in Ithaca expanded as more than 150 workers united as a network of leaders grounded in history and ready to drive meaningful change in their own communities.
Group shot of UALE Summer School participants
ILR Hosts 2025 UALE Northeast Summer School for Women+ in Unions and Worker Organizations

‘Pause is the Pathway to Choice’: WI Event Explores Regenerative Organizing for the Labor Movement

On Feb. 27, Cornell ILR’s Worker Institute (WI) hosted “Regenerative Organizing for the Labor Movement: Focus on Care.” The event introduced the Regenerative Organizing model, a pilot program that helped unions and worker organizations address the mounting stress and trauma workers face.
Group of people on stage holding up signs
‘Pause is the Pathway to Choice’: WI Event Explores Regenerative Organizing for the Labor Movement

WI Launches We Rise Nanny Training Report

“We Rise shifted people’s mindset from ‘I’m just a nanny’ to ‘I do some of the most important work in society, work that raises children and without which nothing else could function. My compensation should reflect my importance to your family and the world,’” said Ketchel Carey ‘23.
We Rise group shot
WI Launches We Rise Nanny Training Report

Fashion’s Data Doubles: How AI is Reshaping Modeling Work

Generative AI technologies are shifting conditions of work across different creative fields. In a new research brief, the Worker Institute and Data & Society share findings from their research exploring how new applications of generative AI are affecting fashion models.
Photo by Briana Elledge and Jaka Vinsek
Fashion’s Data Doubles: How AI is Reshaping Modeling Work

Bargaining in Times of Crisis

Labor has always stood up for all workers in times of crisis. At this moment in our country’s history, our labor movement faces an unprecedented assault on its very foundation; the ability to represent and organize workers, defend workers’ rights, citizens and non-citizens, in a free and independent society.
Classroom with students and teachers facilitating at the front
Bargaining in Times of Crisis

Unpaid Caregiving and Its Impact on New Yorkers' Paid Employment

The findings affirm that caregiving—both unpaid caregiving and access to paid care support—remains a pressing concern for the substantial number of New Yorkers who are providing care for children and/or adults.
A home healthcare worker takes a man's blood pressure.
Unpaid Caregiving and Its Impact on New Yorkers' Paid Employment