Employer Strategies

BENEFITS &
COMPENSATION

SCHEDULING &
FLEXIBILITY

PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT

WORK SUPPORT
& RESOURCES

FINANCIAL
WELLNESS

Understand ALICE In Your Workplace

A web of interconnected challenges keep ALICE workers from achieving their potential. This is where you, the employer, come in. When you take the time to understand the inequities that keep ALICE struggling and develop strategies to support them, you will not only be helping stabilize your workforce, your business will benefit as well. Educate yourself on the barriers your workers are facing.

Most ALICE workers…

are essential workers. They perform the lower-paid jobs that keep our communities running—as home health aides, day care workers, supermarket cashiers, and office clerks. Though some ALICE workers earn a higher hourly wage, they are underemployed and struggling.
can't cover an emergency expense. Earning too little to afford essential needs, ALICE workers have nothing left for an unexpected car repair or medical expense.
lack pathways to career advancement. Due to insufficient financial and support resources to learn the skills that would lead to a better job, ALICE workers generally stay in place in their entry-level jobs.
have difficulty accessing child care. The high cost of child care means ALICE workers need to rely on their family or friends to take care of their children, which can be less reliable than daycare.
can’t access employer-sponsored health insurance and savings plans. ALICE workers are unable to contribute toward high-premium, employer-sponsored health insurance plans or pay into retirement savings plans, such as a 401k.
have few job safeguards. ALICE workers are often paid hourly and do not get sick days, so missing work due to illness means missing a day’s pay.

Learn from others

Explore the sections below to find out how area companies are creatively addressing the needs of their workforce. Learn about initiatives that employers have established to increase wages or decrease expenses, such as: training and development, decreasing the cost of health insurance, establishing employer-sponsored savings plans, or financial assistance to address an unexpected expense. You’ll also read about initiatives that provide critical services that help keep workers focused and productive, such as: reliable scheduling, flexible shifts, emergency child care services, and transportation assistance. Discover resources that help your business help ALICE – let’s get started!

From a business perspective, we found that we spend a lot of time onboarding and training staff. The work we do is very specific, and turnover is very costly. A Chamber of Commerce report talks about that it costs 20% of a starting salary to onboard a new employee, and that's not including the loss in productivity. We see that firsthand. So we look at, ‘How do we retain employees, and how do we attract employees?’

– Executive Director, Nonprofit

Each organization is different. The make-up, the needs, the type of employees… To make the case for business, strategies should be like a menu: Here are some strategies to consider, and how each could impact your workers. Because maybe time off just doesn’t work for that business, but other practices that don’t impact their bottom line so much would still help their workers.

– Human Resources Executive