The Center for WorkLife Law is an advocacy and research organization at UC Hastings Law that seeks to advance racial, gender, and class equity. At WorkLife Law, we address inequality at a structural level by developing and implementing concrete, evidence-based interventions in schools and workplaces and changing public policy at the state and national levels. We are extremely strategic in how we approach each structural intervention, forging partnerships with grassroots groups and field experts to identify the best change levers to tackle the problem at hand. With our interventions, we aim to produce dramatic changes within a two to five year timeframe. Our main areas of impact are economic security, maternal & child health, education equity, and racial and gender justice in the workplace. Throughout the pandemic, our team has also mobilized a COVID-19 emergency response, applying our legal expertise to help protect workers’ rights during the crisis.
These are just some of the problems that U.S. workers currently face. At the Center for WorkLife Law, we intervene on these problems through both systems-level change and individual interventions.
Our latest report, “Compliance or Complaints? The Impact of Private Enforceability of Lactation Break Time and Space Laws” investigates whether the federal PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, if passed, would lead to a landslide of litigation against employers. Our new research shows it would not.
Read our latest op-ed in the Los Angeles Times on why California Assembly Bill AB1119 is imperative for workers with family responsibilities.
In her TED talk Why Corporate Diversity Programs Fail & How Small Tweaks Can Have a Big Impact, the Center for WorkLife Law’s Founding Director Joan C. Williams explains why the basic tools of the diversity-industrial complex don’t work, and provides a straightforward approach for CEOs and business leaders seeking to address structural racism within their organizations.
