What Worker Issues Does NELP Focus On?

Updated

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) focuses on ten issue areas: worker power, corporate accountability, anti-discrimination, health and safety, enforcing labor laws, climate justice, contracted workers, workers with records, unemployment insurance, and minimum and living wage. NELP frames all of these around a single goal — building a "good-jobs economy" where every job pays a living wage and includes robust benefits. This overview is for anyone who wants to understand NELP's policy agenda, whether for research, advocacy, or deciding whether to engage with the organization.

The Ten Issue Areas

NELP groups its work into the following areas, each listed on its site as a distinct focus:

Issue area What it covers
Worker power Strengthening workers' ability to organize and exercise their rights
Corporate accountability Holding employers responsible for how they treat workers
Anti-discrimination Addressing racial segregation in occupations and bias in hiring and pay
Health and safety Protecting workers from unsafe conditions
Enforcing labor laws Making sure existing protections are actually applied
Climate justice Connecting environmental policy to job quality
Contracted workers Addressing conditions for workers placed through staffing and contract arrangements
Workers with records Expanding opportunity for people with criminal records
Unemployment insurance Strengthening the unemployment safety net
Minimum and living wage Raising pay floors and promoting living wages

How NELP Frames These Issues

The site ties each area to a broader vision rather than treating them as separate campaigns. Its stated goal is "an economy that works for every worker," with explicit attention to women, Black people, immigrants, and workers with records and their families.

NELP supports this framing with statistics it publishes on its homepage:

  • $7.25 is the federal minimum wage — about $15,000 annually, which the site says is "not nearly enough to support a family."
  • 1 in 5 workers have no paid sick time, and many who do are disciplined for using it.
  • 87% of U.S. occupations are racially segregated, with workers of color overrepresented in the lowest-paid, least stable, and most dangerous jobs.

These figures explain why the issue list spans wages, benefits, discrimination, and enforcement at once: NELP presents them as connected symptoms of the same problem.

What NELP Says It Has Achieved

NELP describes more than 55 years of work on these issues. Specific claims on its site include:

  • $150 billion in raises secured for 26 million workers since the Fight for $15 launched in 2012.
  • Victories over the last decade that it says improved the lives of an estimated 100 million workers and their families.

Where to Go for More Detail

  • Issue pages: The "Explore the issues" section of nelp.org links to each of the ten areas above.
  • Policy agenda: NELP publishes a 2026 Policy and Advocacy Agenda describing its affirmative vision for a good-jobs economy.
  • Research and toolkits: The "Insights & Research" section includes materials such as a guide on writing and submitting federal comments and a fact sheet on the Empowering App-Based Workers Act.

If your question is which specific issue NELP works on, the table above is the direct answer. If you need the current details or position on any single issue, the corresponding issue page on nelp.org is the authoritative source.