Economic Opportunity
Public policy should make it easier, not harder, for folks to get ahead. But Alabama’s long-standing failure to invest adequately in education, job training and other services has limited wage growth for everyday workers and has fueled a growing income gap between our richest and poorest residents. And our state’s tragic, painful history on race relations means those structural barriers often place an even greater burden on black and Hispanic residents. Arise researches the hurdles that stand in the way of shared prosperity and advocates for proven policy solutions to expand economic opportunity for everyone.
Featured Resources
Member Resources
Alabama Arise + Organized Labor = People Power!
Workers’ rights are human rights. Labor unions uplift workers and our communities. When we work together, we can have a louder voice in Montgomery for working-class Alabamians. Working together, we can fight for an Alabama where all people have resources and opportunities to reach their potential to live happy, productive lives! Click here to download [...]
Fact Sheet
Summer EBT for 2025
A $15 million appropriation for Summer EBT would reduce hunger by providing eligible Alabama children $40 per summer month for food. 1 in 4 Alabama children are food insecure. Hundreds of thousands of Alabama children don’t know where their next meal will come from. And a disproportionate amount of food insecure children come from communities [...]
Fact Sheet
How can Alabama ensure Summer EBT for 2025?
Inspired by Pandemic EBT (P-EBT), Summer EBT provides $120 in SNAP benefits per categorically eligible child throughout the summer months.
Report
The State of Working Alabama 2023
Since the 1990s, Alabama has bet big on the auto industry. It has been a high-stakes effort to rebuild the state’s economy around high-wage manufacturing, raise the wages of Alabama’s workers and reduce the economic distress so prevalent across the state. A quarter-century after the first M-Class rolled off the Mercedes-Benz assembly line in Vance, [...]
Report
The State of Working Alabama 2023 – Section 1: Introduction
Since the 1990s, Alabama has bet big on the auto industry. It has been a high-stakes effort to rebuild the state’s economy around high-wage manufacturing, raise the wages of Alabama’s workers and reduce the economic distress so prevalent across the state. A quarter-century after the first M-Class rolled off the Mercedes-Benz assembly line in Vance, subsidized by [...]
Report
The State of Working Alabama 2023 – Section 2: The high stakes and big bet on Alabama’s auto industry
Since the early 1990s, Alabama has bet big on the auto industry, and the stakes have always been high. At the time the state succeeded in recruiting Mercedes in 1993, Alabama’s economy was headed in the wrong direction. Alabama was lagging because policymakers failed to modernize state laws by shifting away from centuries of persistently anti-worker [...]
Report
The State of Working Alabama 2023 – Section 3: The ways the bet on auto benefited Alabama
The auto industry plays a crucial role in Alabama’s economy. In many stakeholders’ views, the industry has benefited the state in the 30 years since Mercedes moved to town. State media outlets routinely report glowing headlines like: “Alabama's modern auto industry becomes state’s top export 25 years after its birth.”[51] “Alabama’s auto industry looks to add more than [...]
Report
The State of Working Alabama 2023 – Section 4: A wheel in the ditch — Autoworkers see falling pay
Auto plants in Alabama have made a significant contribution to the state’s economy. But the big bet and significant investment in the form of corporate subsidies has only partly paid off. This is in part because the state’s weak worker protections have not mandated employment standards that would ensure better work conditions and equitable pay for workers despite [...]
Report
The State of Working Alabama 2023 – Section 5: A wheel in the ditch — Pay gaps and occupational segregation
Alongside the 20-year decline in earnings paid to workers, Alabama’s auto companies also are falling short by paying staggeringly unequal wages across race and gender lines. Men earn significantly more than women, and white workers earn significantly more than Black and Hispanic workers. These pay gaps are driven largely by occupational segregation: the fact that Black, Hispanic and female workers are disproportionately employed [...]
Report
The State of Working Alabama 2023 – Section 6: A wheel in the ditch — Economic impact of falling wages and the pay gap
Alabama’s autoworkers are living through a 20-year story of wage loss and unequal pay. This trend doesn’t harm only the individual auto employee who earned less this year than last. It also impacts employees across the entire industry and holds back Alabama’s overall economy. Unequal pay and declining wages take money out of autoworkers’ pockets that they otherwise would spend [...]
