EARN consists of more than 60 state and local research, policy, and public engagement organizations that advance policies to raise working Americans’ living standards. Together with its collaborating scholars and allied national organizations, EARN constitutes the core progressive research and policy infrastructure for shaping and promoting state and local policies to raise wages, boost availability of and access to jobs, enhance job quality and stability, improve retirement security, and reduce income inequality.

EARN facilitates collaboration, peer learning, and the dissemination of analyses, research, and advocacy tools through an annual conference for network members and allies, regular webinars and conference calls, as well as a vibrant online community where members pose questions, share resources, and engage in lively policy discussions.

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has coordinated and supported EARN since its inception in 1998. Over the course of the next year, EPI is committed to working with organizational and philanthropic partners to help make EARN even stronger, broadening the network and increasing its effectiveness, while highlighting and promoting members’ essential roles in promoting good jobs and an economy that works for all. EPI’s EARN staff will facilitate new joint research and policy initiatives among state partners, continue to provide data and analysis to support state and local minimum wage efforts and other job quality campaigns, provide messaging and communications resources, help build members’ organizational capacity, and link EPI national research to state and local member efforts across the country.