Inclusive Growth

Inclusive Economy

We are focused on building an inclusive economy by expanding worker power, investing in families, and advancing a social compact that encourages sustainable and equitable growth.

A subway train pulls into the Flushing Avenue station in Brooklyn.
A subway train pulls into the Flushing Avenue station in Brooklyn on February 2, 2019, in New York City. (Getty/Gary Hershorn)

What We're Doing

Investing in people

We seek to eliminate poverty and ensure every American, regardless of their ZIP code, can live a life of dignity by developing, protecting, and expanding vital economic security policies and safety net programs.

Achieving sustainable growth

We work to address structural issues in the economy by promoting bold public investments, progressive tax reforms that require the wealthy to pay their fair share, and sound fiscal policies to support broad-based economic growth.

Expanding worker power

We work to ensure executive actions and legislation, promote high-quality jobs, increase worker power, and raise standards for government contract workers. As part of this effort, we are pushing for a federal $15 minimum wage and strengthening workers’ voices in their workplace.

Championing a new social compact

We need a new social compact with business that reimagines their obligations to society on issues such as environmental and climate matters, economic opportunity for workers, paying their fair share in taxes, and racial equality in the pursuit of more sustainable, innovative growth.

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Any Budget Deal Should Preserve Parity Article
The U.S. Capitol

Any Budget Deal Should Preserve Parity

As Congress renegotiates the budget levels for fiscal year 2025, it should match every additional dollar of defense investment with an equal amount of nondefense spending.

Bobby Kogan, Jessica Vela

CAP Responds to Request for Information on Consolidation in Health Care Markets Article

CAP Responds to Request for Information on Consolidation in Health Care Markets

The Center for American Progress submitted a response to the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ request for information on consolidation in health care markets.

Project 2025 Would Undo the NLRB’s Progress on Protecting Workers’ Right To Organize Article
Union hall interior

Project 2025 Would Undo the NLRB’s Progress on Protecting Workers’ Right To Organize

Workers are winning a greater percentage of NLRB-overseen union elections than at any point in the past 15 years as Biden administration appointees help protect workers' right to organize—but a conservative policy plan offers a blueprint for eroding the NLRB's ability to protect organizing workers.

Aurelia Glass

Increasing Competition and Fairness in Food and Agricultural Markets Past Event

Increasing Competition and Fairness in Food and Agricultural Markets

Please join the Center for American Progress for an event that will highlight important actions the U.S. departments of Justice and Agriculture have taken to make the country's agricultural markets both more fair and more competitive.

IPEF Starts To Demonstrate Results Article
President Joe Biden speaks from behind a podium next to other IPEF leaders with country flags in the background.

IPEF Starts To Demonstrate Results

The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity remains an important geostrategic and geo-economic initiative in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ryan Mulholland

What Would It Take To Stabilize the Debt-to-GDP Ratio? Report
Top of the Capitol building

What Would It Take To Stabilize the Debt-to-GDP Ratio?

Because most of the Bush-era tax cuts were permanently extended, the United States is projected to have the debt ratio rise indefinitely. Closing this fiscal gap would require decreasing primary deficits by 2.1 percentage points of GDP, on average.

Bobby Kogan, Jessica Vela

The Lawsuit Against a New SEC Rule Could Harm Investor Protections Report

The Lawsuit Against a New SEC Rule Could Harm Investor Protections

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit’s decision on the legal petition against the SEC’s private fund advisers rule could open the door to broad attacks on the regulatory framework that Congress authorized the SEC to develop and enforce for capital markets.

Alexandra Thornton

Unions Give Workers a Voice Over How AI Affects Their Jobs Report
Photo shows a view of an open office with mostly empty desk setups, and a large window in the back of the room

Unions Give Workers a Voice Over How AI Affects Their Jobs

Collective bargaining is a powerful tool workers can use to ensure artificial intelligence and algorithmic technology improve their jobs instead of make working conditions worse, and workers have won several recent contracts that give them power over how AI will affect their working lives.

Aurelia Glass

A Conversation With Dr. Lael Brainard Past Event

A Conversation With Dr. Lael Brainard

Please join the Center for American Progress for a conversation with National Economic Adviser Lael Brainard on the Biden administration’s investment agenda and China’s overcapacity.

Center for American Progress

2024 Affordable Care Act Marketplace Plan Selections by Congressional District Interactive
A staff nurse checks a patient at a hospital.

2024 Affordable Care Act Marketplace Plan Selections by Congressional District

A new CAP interactive explores the proportion of nonelderly people who made federally facilitated marketplace plan selections during the 2024 open enrollment period by congressional district. Without congressional action, consumers will lose the enhanced financial assistance that supported record levels of enrollment.

Nicole Rapfogel

It’s time for local policymakers to cement the Biden administration’s workforce gains In the News

It’s time for local policymakers to cement the Biden administration’s workforce gains

Karla Walter writes in Route Fifty about the need for policymakers to build on the Biden administration’s historic federal infrastructure investments, arguing that one of the best ways to cement these workforce gains is for local jurisdictions to strengthen their job quality standards.

Route Fifty

Karla Walter

Hearing on SEC Overreach: Examining the Need for Reform In the News

Hearing on SEC Overreach: Examining the Need for Reform

Alexandra Thornton testified before the the U.S. House Financial Services Committee Subcommittee on Capital Markets to discuss institutional reforms of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

the U.S. House Financial Services Committee Subcommittee on Capital Markets.

Alexandra Thornton

Fact Sheet: Building an Economy That Delivers for Women Fact Sheet
A woman pushing a stroller walks through an atrium with light pouring in and a small pool reflecting plant life

Fact Sheet: Building an Economy That Delivers for Women

This fact sheet offers a brief summary of CAP’s “Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy,” which provides federal and state policymakers with the tools they need to center women in their economic plans and grow the economy.

Rose Khattar

Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy Report

Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy

This collection of policy recommendations reveals how policymakers can grow the economy by centering the changes that women need in their economic platforms.

Rose Khattar, Sara Estep

What California Can Teach America About How To Increase Housing Production Article
Construction of apartment complex with palm trees in background

What California Can Teach America About How To Increase Housing Production

Recent legislation in California has reduced the legal barriers to producing new housing units—everything from accessory dwelling units to large, multifamily buildings—when local governments fail to zone their communities for adequate housing.

Kevin DeGood

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