Welcome back to the CSLI Weekly Roundup, our weekly collection of what we’re reading and thinking about on worker power, labor standards, economic security, and new approaches to strengthening the middle class.
This week, we’re looking at how states can prevent competition based on low labor standards, connect more workers with organizations that can represent them, regulate AI bosses, increase job mobility, and respond when wages fall behind prices.
What We’re Listening To
Dolly Parton passed away this week at the age of 80. Across a career spanning seven decades, Dolly gave voice to the overlooked and unappreciated through song, screen, and philanthropy. We’re spinning “9 to 5” on repeat today at CSLI. If you’ve got some time this weekend, maybe give the 1980 film a rewatch as well.
What We’re Reading
Building worker power through state policy. Francisco Diez examines how state and local governments can help build worker power while federal labor law remains stalled. Diez discusses a favorite topic of CSLI's: industry standards boards that bring workers, employers, and government together to establish wages, hours, and health and safety rules across an industry. Diez also highlights Maine’s community navigator program, which enlisted worker organizations to help people access unemploymentbenefits. Such partnerships can improve the delivery of public programs while creating new points of contact between workers and organizations capable ofrepresenting them.
Read “6 Ways to Rebuild Unions at the State and Local Levels Now” at ZNetwork.
When the boss is an algorithm. An experimental San Francisco store recently drew attention after its AI manager recommended firing an employee. The episode comes as California lawmakers consider legislation requiring employers to disclose the use of automated decision-making systems, provide human review of AI-driven disciplinary decisions, and give workers access to the data used against them. The debate is an early test of whether states can establish meaningful worker protections before algorithmic management becomes commonplace.
Read more in the San Francisco Chronicle.
States take the lead on noncompetes. With no nationwide prohibition in effect, states are developing sharply different rules governing agreements that restrict workers from taking new jobs. The Economic Innovation Group’s interactive tracker follows state proposals ranging from near-total bans to income thresholds and restrictions covering particular industries. The growing patchwork shows both the possibilities and limitations of relying on state policy to protect job mobility and workers’ ability to seek better pay and conditions.
Explore EIG’s State Noncompete Law Tracker.
Wages are falling behind prices again. Indeed’s latest labor-market snapshot finds that advertised wages grew 2.5% over the year ending in July, slower than inflation. Real wages and salaries for private-sector workers declined 0.4% over the past year, their first annual drop since 2022. The labor market remains in a low-hire, low-fire pattern, offering workers limited opportunity to improve their pay by changing jobs.
Read the August 2026 U.S. Labor Market Snapshot from Indeed Hiring Lab.
Throwback Thursday
What makes a standards board work? In this 2024 report, CSLI advisory board member David Madland and Sachin Shiva examined industry standards boards operating across six states and three cities. They found that the boards had raised wages and other standards, created forums for worker voice, and helped workers and employers address industry-wide challenges such as staffing shortages and high turnover. Their review also identified three ingredients that separated the strongest boards from weaker ones: dedicated staff, a clear path for recommendations to become law, and mechanisms that involve worker organizations in education and enforcement.
We’ll be back next week with more of what we’re reading about worker voice, labor standards, state experimentation, and labor-market power.
